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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What example does Locke use for an idea that is innate?

2. What does Locke say must be learned along with ideas?

3. How does Locke define 'idea'?

4. What does Locke use as an example of abstraction?

5. What did Locke study first?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way is knowledge limited, according to Locke?

2. How does Locke define discerning?

3. What arguments does Locke make against innate knowledge?

4. In what way is understanding limited, according to Locke?

5. How does Locke use the concept of number in his discussion of primary qualities?

6. What is the difference between sensation and reflection, in Locke's account?

7. What arguments does Locke make against Descartes' philosophy?

8. What does Locke say happens if two people have the same idea about a thing?

9. What aspect of knowledge does Locke exclude from "Essay Concerning Human Understanding"?

10. Describe the two kinds of ideas Locke describes.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In what way is Locke defining a science of knowledge, and in what way is "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" a book of philosophy? Does Locke's taxonomy of knowledge make his philosophy scientific? What would it mean if we define "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" as science, as a taxonomy of ideas, rather than as philosophy?

Essay Topic 2

Locke speculates that desire is unhappiness in the absence of previous delight--how does he handle the question of original experience, and how could his philosophy respond to the doctrine of original sin?

Essay Topic 3

How would Locke account for the philosophy of deconstruction--or the notion that language is ultimately self-referential, and that meaning is eternally deferred, never arriving at an object per se? Is Locke's theory of language predicated on an ultimate arrival, or can it handle the notion that truth is, in Nietzsche's phrase, a mobile army of metaphors?

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