‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition
Leibniz discusses the relationship between matter and mentality in two places in the New Essays. The first, which features his famous ‘mill argument’, is in the Preface. The second is in Book 4, where Leibniz responds to Locke on the issue of whether we could ever know “whether any material being th...
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Format: | Conference item |
Language: | English |
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Olms
2016
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_version_ | 1797066063859417088 |
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author | Lodge, P |
author2 | Li, W |
author_facet | Li, W Lodge, P |
author_sort | Lodge, P |
collection | OXFORD |
description | Leibniz discusses the relationship between matter and mentality in two places in the New Essays. The first, which features his famous ‘mill argument’, is in the Preface. The second is in Book 4, where Leibniz responds to Locke on the issue of whether we could ever know “whether any material being thinks, or no” (ECHU 4.3.6). The mill argument aims to show that matter conceived as passive extended stuff cannot think through its natural powers. This is something Locke is happy to accept, noting explicitly at ECHU 4.3.6: “matter …is evidently in its own nature void of sense and thought”. However, he considers two additional ways in which matter might be said to think via superaddition at ECHU 4.3.6. I shall be concerned with these here. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:37:01Z |
format | Conference item |
id | oxford-uuid:469b3c4a-f526-4ab8-a381-12f730417ec6 |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:37:01Z |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Olms |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:469b3c4a-f526-4ab8-a381-12f730417ec62022-03-26T15:14:41Z‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superadditionConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:469b3c4a-f526-4ab8-a381-12f730417ec6EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordOlms2016Lodge, PLi, WLeibniz discusses the relationship between matter and mentality in two places in the New Essays. The first, which features his famous ‘mill argument’, is in the Preface. The second is in Book 4, where Leibniz responds to Locke on the issue of whether we could ever know “whether any material being thinks, or no” (ECHU 4.3.6). The mill argument aims to show that matter conceived as passive extended stuff cannot think through its natural powers. This is something Locke is happy to accept, noting explicitly at ECHU 4.3.6: “matter …is evidently in its own nature void of sense and thought”. However, he considers two additional ways in which matter might be said to think via superaddition at ECHU 4.3.6. I shall be concerned with these here. |
spellingShingle | Lodge, P ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title | ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title_full | ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title_fullStr | ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title_full_unstemmed | ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title_short | ‘Whether any material being thinks, or no’: Leibniz’s critique of Locke on superaddition |
title_sort | whether any material being thinks or no leibniz s critique of locke on superaddition |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lodgep whetheranymaterialbeingthinksornoleibnizscritiqueoflockeonsuperaddition |