Lockes primary and secondary q

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Locke's Primary and Secondary Qualities When reading Lock's Book II "Of Ideas", one comes to a state of boredom, while reading about things that should seem obvious to an adult. These ideas are mainly trying explain to the reader that a person can not think about something without experiencing it with some sort of sensation first. But then, all of the sudden, one does a double take after reading Lock's thoughts about an object's primary and secondary qualities, which he begins to discuss in chapter eight. Locke states that qualities such as color, smell, and heat do not lie within an object, but are more like powers that an object possesses. This essay will make Locke's points regarding primary and secondary qualities of objects clear, and will discuss why these qualities are important to Locke's philosophy.

Locke describes a primary (real or original) quality, as something an object has within itself.

Any other object need not sense these primary qualities in order for that object to really exist. This is because whether something else perceives that object or not, it is still an entity. This object has bulk, figure, number, and motion. Motion can be classified as movement from one location to another, or that the object is at rest. Take for example a block of ice. Thoughts probably come to mind of something very cold, smooth, and semi-transparent. Notice that these are all sense orientated, because that is what sticks out in the mind about a block of ice, our past perceptions of examining a block of ice. If one was not able to touch, sense it's coldness, or see, one would not be able to perceive these phenomenon of the objects secondary qualities. One would only be able to realize the objects relative size, shape, number, and movement...