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LOCKE's NATURALIZED EPISTEMOLOGY Matthew Dominic Priselac a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of North C LOCKE’S NATURALIZED EPISTEMOLOGY Matthew Dominic Priselac A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy. Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Alan Nelson Robert M. Adams Simon Blackburn Ram Neta Geoff Sayre-McCord © 2012 Matthew Dominic Priselac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT MATT PRISELAC: Locke’s Naturalized Epistemology (Under the direction of Alan Nelson) ! Few philosophers in the history of philosophy are thought to have offered as bad an account of our knowledge of the external world as John Locke. My dissertation redresses this nearly universal opinion. I argue that Locke's Essay is best understood as a piece of naturalized epistemology that locates knowledge within a theory of mind modeled on the corpuscularian natural science of his day. The rich structure of Locke’s Essay that I draw on to support these claims is almost universally neglected in Locke scholarship. In Locke’s naturalized epistemology, knowledge of the external world is accounted for by his theory of mind as it applies to our ideas of substance. Locke’s theory explains how our sensory experience of objects as objects is constructed from simple materials of sensation. Locke emerges from my dissertation as a strict empiricist whose comparatively richer theoretical resources afford him anticipations of Kant’s dissatisfaction with Hume’s more limited empiricist accounts of our cognition of space, self, causation, and the external world. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ! I am especially grateful to Alan Nelson. He is not only an advisor and mentor but an inspiration and sets a standard for philosophy to which I aspire. Without his encouragement, advice, and instruction, this work would not have been possible, let alone successful. I am also unendingly thankful to my wife, Caroline, and parents, Tom and Jody. Their love, support, and sacrifice carried me to the completion of this project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................viii Chapter ! 0. ! INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................1 !! !!The aim of Locke’s Essay..................................................................................1 !! !!Locke’s naturalized epistemology and theory of ideas....................................10 !!Locke’s naturalized epistemology: revising our understanding !!of the Essay......................................................................................................21 !!Applying Locke’s naturalized epistemology: knowledge of the !!external word...................................................................................................23 ! I.! KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD: SUBSTANCE !!AND SIMPLE IDEAS.....................................................................................29 !! !!Knowledge of the external world in Locke’s Essay.........................................29 !! !!Locke on complex ideas of substance..............................................................32 !!Simple ideas.....................................................................................................91 ! II.! LOCKE’S NATURALIZED SENSITIVE KNOWLEDGE..........................104 !!Locke’s definition of knowledge....................................................................107 !!Knowledge of the existence of the external world: sensitive !!knowledge of real existence...........................................................................129 !!Locke on sensory experience: simple ideas and substance ideas..................135 !! !!Sensitive knowledge: limitations...................................................................175 v ! III.! LOCKE’S NATURALIZED EPISTEMOLOGY: SIMPLE !!AND COMPLEX IDEAS..............................................................................180 !! !!The simple/complex distinction within Locke’s !!naturalized epistemology...............................................................................181 !!In favor of Locke’s commitment to the distinction between !!simple and complex ideas..............................................................................185 !!Defusing arguments against Locke’s commitment to !!Composition...................................................................................................195 ! IV.! LOCKE’S NATURALIZED EPISTEMOLOGY AS A !!THEORETICAL PROJECT..........................................................................219 ! !!Locke’s naturalized epistemology and Theoretical........................................220 !!Locke’s theoretical project: no castle in the air..............................................232 !!Reconciling Locke’s philosophy of science and Locke’s !!naturalized epistemology...............................................................................260 !!Conclusion.....................................................................................................280 ! V.! SENSITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND SKEPTICISM.......................................283 !!Reason and knowledge of the external world................................................286 !!Skepticism and Locke’s naturalized epistemology........................................289 !!Sensitive knowledge and skepticism: existing interpretations.......................300 !!Conclusion.....................................................................................................318 WORKS CONSULTED.........................................................................................................320 vi LIST OF TABLES Table ! 1.! Ambiguities in Locke’s account of which ideas agree !!in sensitive knowledge...................................................................................137 ! 2. ! The relation between composition and containment.....................................172 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure ! 1.! The exterior angle of a triangle......................................................................122 ! 2.! Euclid’s illustration of Proposition 1.16........................................................122 ! 3.! Locke’s analysis of substance in terms of qualities and support...................151 ! 4.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part A: the !!perception of a substance idea of the paper in the understanding..................156 ! 5.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part B: !!zooming in one level on the substance idea of the paper...............................157 ! 6.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part C: !!zooming in on the ideas of the paper’s qualities............................................157 ! 7.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part D: the !!current sensory appearance............................................................................158 ! 8.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part E: ideas !!of the paper’s visual appearance....................................................................159 ! 9.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part F: !!zooming in on the idea of the paper’s white color.........................................159 ! 10.! Locke’s analysis of seeing a piece of paper, Series 1, part G: !!compositional structure and sensory origin of the substance idea of !!the paper revealed.........................................................................................160 ! 11.! Locke’s analysis of our awareness of passivity, Series 2, part A: !!our experience of the paper and mind as the perception of two !!distinct substance ideas..................................................................................165 ! 12.! Locke’s analysis of our awareness of passivity, Series 2, part B: !!zooming in on the substance ideas of the paper and one’s own !!mind...............................................................................................................165 ! 13.! Locke’s analysis of our awareness of passivity, Series 2, part C: !!focusing on ideas of qualities.........................................................................166 viii ! 14.! Locke’s analysis of our awareness of passivity, Series 2, part D: !!zooming in on the ideas of qualities to highlight overlap and !!shared origins.................................................................................................166 ! ! 15.! Locke’s analysis of our awareness of passivity, Series 2, part E: !!revealing the compositional structure and overlap between !!substance ideas of mind and object of sensory experience with !!respect to simple ideas...................................................................................167 ! 16.! Contrasting Locke’s analyses of sensory experience and !!imagination, Series 3, part A: experiencing a piece of paper, !!one’s own mind, and imagining elephant tusk by perceiving three !!substance ideas...............................................................................................169 ! 17.! Contrasting Locke’s analyses of sensory experience and !!imagination, Series 3, part B: zooming in on the substance ideas.................169 ! ! 18.! Contrasting Locke’s analyses of sensory experience and !!imagination, Series 3, part
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