Locke on Essence and Identity

Front Cover
Springer Science & Business Media, Oct 31, 2003 - Philosophy - 212 pages
I first became interested in the relationship between Locke's anti essentialism and his theory of identity in a first-year graduate course on metaphysics taught at Syracuse University by Jose Benardete. I had until then approached Locke as a "safe", commonsense philosopher, whose metaphysical agenda-constrained as it was by his concept empiricism was largely geared towards upholding a scientifically enlightened, broadly Christian worldview. I am greatly indebted to Professor Benardete for disabusing me of this understanding of Locke's work. Benardete's Locke was not the Locke that I had been exposed to as an undergraduate, not the Locke that I had found in Copleston's History of Philosophy. Rather, he was a profoundly creative and audacious metaphysician, who was justly perceived to be a tremendously dangerous philosopher by his more traditional contemporarie s. And as much I had admired Copleston's Locke, I have become positively enthralled with Benardete's. The topics of identity and essentialism have become mainstays of contemporary metaphysics, and it is no understatement to say that Locke's contribution to modem debates on these matters is enormous. My early interest in Locke's work on essentialism and identity-through-time was motivated by two factors. First, although there are a number of obvious and significant conceptual connections between these topics, Locke's own theorizing about identity seems not to have been informed by his critique of essentialism or vice versa.
 

Contents

The psychological origin of this concept
1
LOCKES CRITIQUE OF ESSENTIALISM
25
Lockes epistemological and semantic arguments against real kinds
33
Lockes appeal to monsters and changelings
44
LOCKE ON KINDS AND PARTICULARS
53
W S N L K 82
62
LOCKE ON THE PERSISTENCE OF ORGANISMS AND PERSONS
101
OBJECTIONS AND REPLIES
147
Lockes views on space and time
155
FOURDIMENSIONAL BODIES AND THE CORPUSCULARIAN HYPOTHESIS
161
RELATIVISTIC ANTIESSENTIALISM AND A FOURDIMENSIONAL
175
TWO OBJECTIONS
181
CONCLUSION
190
ix
205
53
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information