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834The taxonomy of ideas in Locke's EssayIn Lex Newman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Locke's , Cambridge University Press. 2007.
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273Substances, substrata, and names of substances in Locke's essayPhilosophical Review 85 (4): 488-513. 1976.
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179The origins of Locke's doctrine of primary and secondary qualitiesPhilosophical Quarterly 26 (105): 305-316. 1976.
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155Locke on the semantic and epistemic role of simple ideas of sensationPacific Philosophical Quarterly 85 (3). 2004.This paper argues that Locke has a representative theory of sensitive knowledge. Perceivers are immediately aware of nothing but sensory ideas in the mind; yet perceivers think of real external substances that correspond to and cause those ideas, and they are warranted in believing that those substances exist (at that time). The theory poses two questions: what warrants the truth of such beliefs? What is it in virtue of which sensory ideas represent external objects and how do they make perceive…Read more
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138Locke, Leibniz, and the logic of mechanismJournal of the History of Philosophy 36 (2): 189-213. 1998.Locke, Leibniz, and the Logic of Mechanism MARTHA BRANDT BOLTON l~ EARLY MECHANIST PHILOSOPHERS demanded a new standard of perspicuity in the natural sciences. They accused others of "explaining" phenomena in terms of obscurely defined, unconfirmed, and uninformative causes. These complaints were leveled, not just at the real qualities and forms of Scholastics, but also against the sympathetic attractions of Hermetics and the sophic prin- ciples of the Spagyrites. These competitors to mecha- nis…Read more
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98Lady Mary Shepherd and David Hume on Cause and EffectIn Eileen O’Neill & Marcy P. Lascano (eds.), Feminist History of Philosophy: The Recovery and Evaluation of Women’s Philosophical Thought, Springer. pp. 129-152. 2019.Shepherd propounds a theory of mind with a fair claim to be better than Hume’s at explaining the sources of commonly held human beliefs about causal necessity due largely to her relational theory of sense perception. In comparison with Hume’s account, it incorporates a more sophisticated treatment of mental representation, especially the role of relational structure and logical form. Most important, perhaps, Shepherd’s theory enforces the division, obscured by Hume, between the evidence of neces…Read more
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81The Nominalist Argument of the New EssaysThe Leibniz Review 6 1-24. 1996.There is in the New Essays a prominent line of argument that Leibniz took to have remarkable scope. If it works, it sweeps away most of the mainstays of Locke’s metaphysics: atoms, vacuum, real space and time, absolute rest, inactive faculties, and the tabula rasa. It alone does not suffice to undermine the possibility of thinking matter, but it contributes support to that most important of Leibniz’s claims against Locke. Because it is so central to the project of New Essays, I am going to focus…Read more
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71The Epistemological Status of Ideas: Locke Compared to ArnauldHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 9 (4). 1992.
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65Primary and secondary qualities in the phenomenalist theory of LeibnizIn Lawrence Nolan (ed.), Primary and secondary qualities: the historical and ongoing debate, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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63A Defense of Locke and The Representative Theory of PerceptionCanadian Journal of Philosophy 8 (sup1): 101-120. 1978.This paper is a defense of the “representative theory of perception” in general, and Locke's views about perception in particular. It is intended only as a limited defense, but one against those objections which recently have been taken thoroughly to discredit both the general theory and Locke's particular position. The chief of these objections is that the representative theory leads inevitably to skepticism about the existence of objective material things. George Pitcher finds this objection t…Read more
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49Leibniz and Hobbes on Arbitrary TruthPhilosophy Research Archives 3 242-273. 1977.Leibniz repeatedly daims to refute "Hobbes' doctrine of arbitrary truth". I argue against several recent expositors of Hobbes that Hobbes' view comes to nothing more scandalous than "nominalism" about kind terms. Although some have recognized that it is this thesis which Leibniz claims to refute, his argument has not been correctly understood. I maintain that the argument rests upon Leibniz' theory of signs and his account of concepts. In brief, Leibniz argues that concepts have structures which…Read more
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15Primary and Secondary Qualities in Early Modern PhilosophyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2022.
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12Locke's Science of Knowledge by Matthew PriselacJournal of the History of Philosophy 58 (2): 405-406. 2020.This interesting and challenging book addresses the apparent gap between the empiricist account of the origin of ideas and the theory of knowledge in the Essay concerning Human Understanding. Matthew Priselac makes an impressive argument that they are complementary parts of a coherent program. It consists of a naturalistic interpretation on which the Essay's main aim is to provide the kind of understanding of the mind, knowledge, and probability afforded by modern methods of natural scientific i…Read more
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8Locke on Sensory RepresentationIn Ralph Schumacher (ed.), Perception and Reality: From Descartes to the Present, Mentis. 2004.
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8Berkeley's Objection to Abstract Ideas and Unconceived ObjectsIn Ernest Sosa (ed.), Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley, D. Reidel. 1987.
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5Judgment and Proposition: From Descartes to Kant (review)Philosophical Review 95 (3): 481-483. 1986.
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416. Confused and Obscure Ideas of SenseIn Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.), Essays on Descartes’ Meditations, University of California Press. pp. 389-404. 1986.
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3Berkeley and mental representation : why not a Lockean theory of ideas?In Stephen Hartley Daniel (ed.), New Interpretations of Berkeley's Thought, Humanity Books. 2008.
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2The Relevance of Locke's Theory of Ideas to his Doctrine of Nominal Essence and Anti-Essentialist Semantic TheoryIn Vere Chappell (ed.), Locke, Oxford University Press. 1998.
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2Locke and Pyrrhonism: The Doctrine of Primary and Secondary QualitiesIn Myles Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition, University of California Press. 1983.
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1Universals, essences, and abstract entitiesIn Daniel Garber & Michael Ayers (eds.), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 1--178. 1998.
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The Real Molyneux Question and the Basis of Locke's AnswerIn G. A. J. Rogers (ed.), Locke's Philosophy: Content and Context, Clarendon Press. 1996.
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History of Western Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
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