[An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. by John Locke]@TWC D-Link bookAn Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. CHAPTER VIII 8/16
Why are whiteness and coldness in snow, and pain not, when it produces the one and the other idea in us; and can do neither, but by the bulk, figure, number, and motion of its solid parts? 17.
The ideas of the Primary alone really exist. The particular bulk, number, figure, and motion of the parts of fire or snow are really in them,--whether any one's senses perceive them or no: and therefore they may be called REAL qualities, because they really exist in those bodies.
But light, heat, whiteness, or coldness, are no more really in them than sickness or pain is in manna.
Take away the sensation of them; let not the eyes see light or colours, nor the can hear sounds; let the palate not taste, nor the nose smell, and all colours, tastes, odours, and sounds, AS THEY ARE SUCH PARTICULAR IDEAS, vanish and cease, and are reduced to their causes, i.e.bulk, figure, and motion of parts. 18.
The secondary exist in things only as modes of the primary. A piece of manna of a sensible bulk is able to produce in us the idea of a round or square figure; and by being removed from one place to another, the idea of motion.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|