John Locke.
1/ Write a Discussion:According to John Locke, what is the source of all of our ideas? Are these ideas all the same or can they be divided into different kinds? He argues for two different types of qualities. What are these qualities? What does Locke say about a tree falling in the forest? Does it make a sound?
Explain the following quote from the lecture presentation as it pertains to the above questions.
Notice how completely different the impact waves out there in the world are from the sound sensation that exists in a mind. These two realities are totally different kinds of entities. Impact waves are out there moving through the air. Sound is a sensation that happens in a mind. Very different kinds of realities.
After watching the youtube links that I posted; explain the paradox of Theseus’s ship. How does this paradox relate to the concept of personal identity as explained by Locke?
Finally, what do you think of all this? How is it that you stay you over time through the numerous physical changes that you have gone and will go through?
2/ You need to reply to at least 2 postings below agree or disagree, each reply must be unique and be a minimum of 3 sentences.
Post #1:John Locke said that the two sources of all our ideas are: sensation and reflection. Sensation having to do with our experiences with the outer world and what we understand using our senses. Reflection is having to do our experiences with the inner world, such as thinking, feeling, or believing. All of our ideas can really be broken down into smaller ideas. You can create new ideas from pre-existing ideas. Locke says that ‘a quality is a power in a thing to cause an idea in the mind’ and he divides these qualities into primary and secondary qualities. Primary are things that every physical body must have such as solidity or figure, and secondary qualities are the powers in things that produce a sensation in the mind. For example, the tree falling in the forest explanation. If a tree falls down in the forest, you hear nothing, rather just the sensation that your mind has created. Locke associates identity with one’s memory; so in comparison to Theseus’s ship paradox, the ship that was built using all of the old planks and materials would be considered Theseus’s ship since it has those “memories” of before. I have honestly found this information to all be very interesting, yet a bit confusing at the same time. I will say, however, that the comparison of Locke’s idea of identity to Theseus’s ship paradox allowed me to have a better understanding of what he meant when it came to the idea of identity.
Post #2: According to John Locke, the source of all of our ideas are wither from sensation or reflection. If we are experiencing something where we are using our senses to impact and reflect our ideas we are experiencing our sensation source. On the other hand, if we are experiencing ideas based more on our minds and how we are feeling we are experiencing our reflection source. John Locke believes that if a tree falls in the forest if no human actually heard the noise it made when it fell then that means no actual sound was made at all during the fall. But this does not mean that the tree did not fall. The quote above is describing how in our minds there would be no sound if we did not connect each sound to something in the world.
The Paradox of Theseus’s ship explains how the ship that is being changed and restored is still in fact the original ship or not. The Paradox of Theseus’s ship can be compared to John Locke’s theory of personal identity because in Locke’s personal identity he states that no matter if a person changes how they look or act it does not mean that they are changing into a whole different human. I believe that John Locke’s theory is true and relatable because almost every human being that exists is more than likely to change their appearance throughout the years but no matter what they will always be the same human that they are but they just become better versions of themselves.
