Book II, Chapters 16-33 Summary and Analysis

Book II continues with a discussion of number. Basically Locke's idea is that all of our conceptions of number come from our underlying idea of unity that we find in our own body and mind. We multiply this original unity over and over to get all of our other complex ideas of number up to and including different notions of the infinite. Basically the discussion of number leads directly into Locke's discussion of other ways that we can construct simple modes including the basic modification of sound, taste and other basic simple ideas.

In Chapter 20, Locke begins a long discussion of pleasure, pain and the active and passive powers, which will take up much of Book II. Although this discussion is within the context of Locke's larger discussion of complex ideas, this should be seen...