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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. Where does understanding originate, according to Locke?

2. How does Locke say an object's qualities can change?

3. Where do primary qualities originate, according to Locke?

4. What standard would an idea have to meet to be considered innate?

5. What limitation does Locke describe in human faculties?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Describe Locke's account of the primary and secondary qualities of things.

4. How does Locke define retention?

5. How does Locke define practical principles?

6. How does Locke define the faculty of perception?

7. How does Locke say ideas come to us?

8. What does Locke say about the innateness of moral principles?

9. What is the difference between natural principles and innate principles?

10. What does Locke set out to do in Book II?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

How does Locke protect his philosophy against the skepticism of Hume and Descartes? What arguments specifically does he refute, and what arguments does he leave himself open to? (Do you think the question of whether innate knowledge exists can be answered?)

Essay Topic 3

Locke says that truth is a property of propositions, which take the form of sentences. Why are sentences necessary for truth? What makes sentences different than words alone? What is it about the unique arrangement of subject, verb and object that makes truth possible?

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