Lecture 27 Notes

Review: Locke's Project

1. Locke distinguishes between primary and secondary qualities.
2. Primary Qualities (e.g., motion, number, shape, size)--These are features of things that cause similar sensations in our minds--we can experience them as they really are.
   
3. Secondary Qualities (e.g., color, taste, smell, hot & cold)--These are the power of things to cause dissimilar sensations (ideas) in our minds.  In other words, these are qualities of our inner representations but not of the objects that are represented; the objects that are represented just have the power to cause these sensations.

Defending the Distinction Between Two Types of Qualities (Primary and Secondary)

1. Atomism and Newtonian Matter
1. Physical things are made out of smaller bits with only shape, size, configuration, and number.
2. Scientific Perspective: Geometrical properties are what matter for matter.  In other words, primary qualities are what matter, not secondary.
2. Continuum from Warmth to Pain
1. Extreme Warmth = Pain
2. If pain is a mental state (not a feature of the object), then so is extreme warmth.

Variance Arguments

1. Basic Strategy: Show That Certain Features Of Our Experience Of Objects Cannot Be Actual Features Of the Object
2. First Version (Color, Taste):
1. It is impossible for features of material objects to change without a corresponding change in the object.
2. Thus, aspects of our sensory experience of an object that change when there is no corresponding change in the object are not qualities inherent in the object.
• Example #1--The same paint can appear one color in natural light and another color in a red light.  So color can change without a corresponding change in the object.
• Example #2--The same glass of orange juice can taste one way before you brush your teeth and another way after you brush your teeth.  So taste can change without a corresponding change in the object.
3. Thus, aspects of our sensory experience of an an object that change when there is no corresponding change in the object are ideas.
3. Second Version (Warm and Cold):
1. It is impossible for features of material objects to be incompatible.
2. Thus, aspects of our sensory experience of an object that are incompatible are not qualities inherent in the object.
• Example--Suppose that you put one hand near a fire and the other hand in an ice bucket.  Then you put both hands in a bucket of lukewarm water.  The water will feel warm to the cold hand and cold to the warm hand.  But the water in the bucket cannot be both warm and cold; these qualities are incompatible.  So warmth and coldness must not be inherent in the object.
3. Thus, aspects of our sensory experience of an object that are incompatible are ideas.