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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 do we need to do with ideas over time, according to Locke?

2. What does Locke say retention allows us to do?

3. What idea does NOT come from sensation, according to Locke?

4. To what does Locke attribute the ability to create technology and to organize our environment?

5. How does Locke define 'idea'?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is duration developed from simple ideas, according to Locke?

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

3. How does Locke define the faculty of perception?

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

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

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

7. What does Locke mean when he says that the mind is a blank slate?

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

9. Describe the two kinds of ideas Locke describes.

10. How does Locke define retention?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Using Locke's methodology, create a definition for an abstract word like esteem, or respect, or revenge or justice. (What other methods can you use? Which method is better?--i.e. more precise, or more effective?)

Essay Topic 2

Which was more important in Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," the actual terminology Locke uses for breaking knowledge down into parts, or the concept that epistemology liberates people from the concepts of instinctual knowledge of concepts like right and wrong?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 685 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample