'Archetypes without Patterns': Locke on Relations and Mixed Modes

In: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, Band 99, Heft 3, S. 300-325

Abstract

Abstract:John Locke's claims about relations (such as cause and effect) and mixed modes (such as beauty and murder) have been controversial since the publication of theEssay. His earliest critics read him as a thoroughgoing anti-realist who denies that such things exist. More charitable readers have sought to read Locke's claims away. Against both, I argue that Locke is making ontological claims, but that his views do not have the absurd consequences his defenders fear. By examining Locke's texts, as well as the intellectual context in which they were written, I show that Locke's position is at once radical and thoroughly traditional.