Locke’s concept of abstract ideas and their characteristics

According to Locke, the mind has the ability of gathering the mixture of the ideas. The abstract ideas are about something that has not been seen yet, but it can be imagined in the mind. Qualities that are found to be in the ideas exist in group, and they are not found individually or separately. This is about the qualities, but if we talk about the mind, it has the ability to separate the qualities individually. Like it happens due to the mind that we make a distinction in the qualities of anything that we see. We say that the color of a thing is red, and its weight is hundred kilograms.

The mind further has the ability to categorize or extend the idea. It forms the ideas that are obscure, relative and the ideas of substance too; further, it has the ability to categorize the ideas and then further sorting them out by extending them, as has been mentioned earlier. According to Locke, the abstract ideas are contradictory and indeterminate. He provided the details of thought and mind. He devoted most of his time in understanding the ability of the mind. This ability according to him includes the types and the quantity of the ideas that can be thought of. Taking away more ideas into mind and concluding about them is the ability of the human mind.

He worked on abstraction and found that the abstract is the combination of different ideas and it continues to be formed till the time, they are having something in similar. The work of Locke created the epistemological bases for the new science. He took into consideration the reliability, scope, and limitations of the human knowledge. The way the mind of the human gets the knowledge was the central point of discussion by him. Everything happens in the mind, from generating new ideas to deriving conclusion regarding a certain thought. These are called the functions of human mind.

The main focus that he gave in his work was acquiring the material of which ideas are generated later on by the mind of the human being. For him, the meaning of the idea is really broad and includes the experience, the sensory information or the images, and other things that become the reason for the construction of the ideas. The mind is the combination of all these and other things, which include the experience of the events that is gained during the time period of the human person. The things we read, see, touch, observe, and all other similar things that we do become the part of our knowledge.

He was of the view that there are some of the ideas that come into the mind at a very early age. It might happen that those ideas come to the mind of an infant when he was in the womb and this process of generating ideas happened. There are certain things about which the ideas come at the very early age, like becoming aware of the color or getting known to different sorts of tastes. He explored that these are not the innate ideas that makes us aware of this, but it is due to the reason that the child are bound to taste the things in their infanthood. Moreover, he explored that there is no truth at all that is accepted by everybody in the world. This was his fundamental argument against the innate ideas.

He rejected the innate ideas that were presented by Descartes. His point of the generation of ideas was really very clear as compared to the other philosophers. He was of the view that the ideas are derived from the experience, sensations, feelings and other likewise factors. He proved that there is a being that is really powerful and all knowing. Here, it is the really obvious that he is talking about the existence of the God. He connects the words with ideas. According to him, when one learns about something, the idea of that concept come into one’s mind, and then the ideas are generated and spread through the words or in other words, the ideas are verbally transmitted through words.

How they are formed

They are formed when the features of something come into the mind of a person. One can predict about any substance according to one’s own sense, and one forms the shape of those ideas in the mind. They are formed with the passage of the time and when the human predicts about something, of which the idea is related. There are two reasons that become the cause of the creation of the formation of these ideas: mental separation and mental exclusion. In the very first way, the ideas are separated and the mind forms more than one idea by the assistance of its extending ability. The abstract general ideas are created by the nominal essence, which has been described in the paper later on and the distinction has been made between the real and the nominal essence.

One has the ability to construct the abstract idea of the color about a certain thing. In the other way, the ideas which are having nothing to do are left out in the second form of formation of the abstract ideas. Like the complex ideas about a certain thing are left out and the formation of these sorts of the ideas happen in this way. These are the main reasons according to Locke, through which the abstract ideas are formed. The similarities in these ideas are taken together and the abstract ideas about the color, for instance, are incepted. It was Locke who not only criticized the one who gave the concept of the essences, but also he elaborated and made the essences clarified according to his views.

The different meaning

Locke also took into consideration the importance and the different understanding of the language. The language and the words that are spoken or written do not mean one and the same thing for all the people living in the world. It is the matter of understanding. There are many reasons for this un-understanding. For instance, the words that are creating complexities might be containing the complex idea that is not easy to understand, it might be any sort of standard that is only limited to a specific region, the real meaning of the words might be different than what one is considering, the persons conveying those words might not be saying them clearly, and the likewise reasons were pointed out by him. It is really important to understand them as it is the language that makes us understand what other is saying. Moreover, for getting the real meaning, a hard effort should be made to come to the right meaning of what the other said. It is the really necessary and should be done in any way.

Berkeley’s criticism over the concept of the abstract ideas

He criticized these ideas by pondering over the two reasons that he presented. The very first one of them is that according to him, the idea which is separable in the mind is separable in reality as well. The color of a thing cannot be thought to be in existence separately than the thing about which the idea is being generated. A thing will obviously be having a definite shape and the other features too so that means nobody can say that the features of one thing can be separated with its other parts. It can only be thought of, but in reality it cannot be in existence. Taking the example of the human body will make the situation clearer. The color of the body of a person cannot be thought of separately with the other parts of the body.

The second reason of his criticism is that he was of the view that the abstract ideas are indeterminate so it is impossible for us to think that the men are without any arms or the proper shape, caring on the example of the human person. It is the really impossible to think of a person who is without head or any other important part of body. Same is the case with something that cannot be extended we cannot thing of them or the thing that is having no particular color, we cannot thing of them. The thing which is not in existence cannot be thought of. He is basically more tended towards the things that are in front o him or the other persons.

The types of abstract ideas that can be conceived by the human mind

Ideas are related to the imagination and are the part of the mind. It is really important to the reason for the generation of the ideas. They are generated through the observations, the experience that the persons have. We perceive about a thing that means we are creating an ideas about a certain thing at hand. And when that thing comes to us in some other time in the coming future, we immediately know about them. There are two ways through which they are generated, the very first one is the sensation and the second one is the reflection.

The sensations are the external objects that are conveyed with the use of the senses that one uses. Like we say that the color of a particular thing is black or white. These are the senses that create them, while on the other side, there are reflections that are related to the mind and are related to the internal objects of the human body. It is basically what we think about a certain object. The ideas are of two main types like the simple and the complex. The first ones are those that are having uniformity in them and belong to one and the same thing.

They have the ability to be in existence and they cannot be destroyed as they are built over something obvious and the one having a proper shape. The other ideas are the complex ones those ideas are the combination of the simple ideas. Understanding them requires the deep insight into the matter. The simples have been further divided by him into the one that come from one senses, the ones that come from more than one senses, ideas from reflections, and the ideas that come from the reflections and the senses. They are obvious with the proper understanding and the logic.

The primary and the secondary qualities are also covered in them. On the other side, there are the complex ideas that are further divided from the point of view of, relation, combination, and abstraction. In the case the very first one, the relation is found out between two ideas like on the equality. After that the combination is created at the time when the ideas are combined with each other, and this is the important part of the complex ideas. The last way through which the complex ideas are formed or generated is abstraction.

Just like Berkeley criticized his work, there is something that has been criticized by him and that is the notion of essence. This was the concept that has been practicing since the time of Plato. Plato was of the view that we can recognize the people who belong to our species. We can say that a man is man because we know that a man looks like him, and he is having the same parts of the body as the others have. On the other side, Locke did not focus over the essence that make a thing called what it is, instead he criticized and said that the essence in nothing more than the abstract, after that they do not represent anything else. Moreover, the essence cannot separate the things, but these are the differences and the similarities; they are enough to make them separate with each other. In this way, one can categorize the things rather focusing over the essence to find difference among them.

The nominal and real essences

He further categorized the essence into two different types that includes the real and the nominal essence. The nominal essence is the observable features of a certain object. This means that by seeing the object, we can make a conclusion that what and how the object looks alike. For instance, if we observe a bird like a crow, when we see it, we come to know that what it looks alike. We will understand the features of that bird and whenever we observe it in the coming future; we shall get to know that it is crow as the nominal essence has already been concluded.

The real essence on the other side, are the invisible features of object. They cannot be seen and touched. They are the reasons that are why; one can observe the seeable features that are found to be in the object. They are most important as they create the appearance of the object for the person observing. The parts of the body of the crow, the DNA and the other bodily features that are found in it are the real essence, as nobody can observe it as the crow moves or flies. One who understands each and every likewise thing is basically getting closer to the real essence. This essence is much more important for living and is more related to the reality.

Ideas that cannot be conceived

The primary qualities of a certain objects cannot be conceived by the mind at the time when they are thought by ignoring the secondary qualities. The primary qualities are those qualities that change according to the perspective of the person who is observing the object. The things that have not been seen and are not in existence are impossible to be conceived by the persons. In other words, the actual shape or the qualities of those objects are impossible to be conceived in the mind. Just a copy or a resemblance is not enough to make sure that the idea can be thought accurately. The real thing is real and the fake is always superficial, and there is no doubt in it. The idea cannot be divided into other parts. For conceiving the idea, it is really necessary to keep the idea intact and do not divide it into further parts. The abstract ideas themselves are impossible to be conceived according to Locke. The extension, figure, and motion that are abstracted from the other qualities are inconceivable. Sounds, heat, cold are the secondary qualities and they are the sensations that exist in the mind and are of different color, texture, and size.

Evaluation of Berkeley over the doctrine of abstract ideas

Berkeley basically criticized the materialism along with his contradiction with the work of Locke. It is really important here to understand the difference of the abstract and the particular ideas here as it was the part of his criticism over Locke. The later consist of those ideas that unlike the prior one has the proper shape and an organized structure. It does not mean that the abstract ideas are featureless, contradictory, or they do not comply with the reality. They are what they are and are the part of the imagination in the same way as the other ideas are.

There are two types of abstraction that can be identified, the very first one is the generalization and the second one is the separation. The abstract ideas about a person are the combination of the simple ideas. The later ones are really very simple to understand by the mind so the complex one would be the combination of them. While there are other things that have in themselves the things from where the idea related to them is raised. This all happens in the mind. Locke was more concerned about the words and according to him, how the words can be generalized was the central point of consideration. Names are not the part of the abstraction rather making sure that it can be taken into consideration as the general idea.

He was of the view that if the nearby things are particulars then what the reason is that the words are generalized. For instance, we say that the color of the cat is black, we cannot generalized that all the cats are black, this would be nonsense or irrational to say and then to prove it. Same is the case with the ideas; we cannot generalize a specific thing over all the ideas belonging to the idea from where we started our conversation. General ideas can be done so, but it is not the case with the abstract general ideas. Berkeley criticized him due to this reason of general terms and then making them implemented over the others.

Unclear and vague

Moreover, according to him, the abstract ideas are the ones that are vague and cannot be thought of utterly in the mind. So it is psychologically impossible to have those ideas in the correct format. He was of the view that the abstract ideas need to be the sensible ones rather only the one basing over the reasons. The real properties of things are what should be taken into consideration, while thinking about the object. Just making assumptions about the things would not be justified and rational to construct one’s viewpoint on.

One of the pieces of the criticism that he generated is when he said that there should have been a specific thing about which the discussion is happening. For instance, if we are talking about the white color, it should be determined that which is the thing of which the color is being described. One thing should be in mind that the object is clear and can be observed or in other words, the object is concrete. The thing which can be perceived is the material thing. The body is the material thing as it can be perceived, and everything which is perceived cannot be separated from each other. The triangle should be drawn to make its proof obvious. The truth is always general and can be applied over the other similar ideas too. But according to him, the proof of a calculation of a triangle does not mean that it will demonstrate something about the abstract ideas. There should be proof in the mind and it requires a diagram of any sort of triangle. The truth can be generally applied to all other things, and in this case it can be applied over all other triangles.

He further attacked over the immaterialism, which according to him is base of discussion of Locke. Immaterialism is the study of the objects that have not yet been created and they are to be formed and given proper shape. There is a distinction between materials, which is used to make something, and immaterial, which is nothing but an idea and a thought in one’s mind. According to Berkeley, immaterialism or the idealism is the view which expresses that the real objects depend over the mind. The real objects are easily understood and obvious to observe that is why, it gets really naïve for a mind to have them in mind. He did not consider the mind the material thing, but any other thing that is having it appearance on its own. There are a number of reasons for the beliefs that he is having. Berkeley said that Locke’s abstract ideas are disjointed. Metaphysics of Berkeley is having a feature that it is impossible for the objects to be in existence independently.

The realities are the combinations of the ideas that we are having in our mind and through the experience that we have gained. The perceiving thing is only the one that is really in existence, while the other things that are not in existence cannot be perceived. If one will perceive them, they will not in the exact order and shape. The things that are having no existence at all are immaterial. For instance, one forms an idea about a thing that has not yet been seen by one and one is to see or touch that. It is really clear that the mind remembers the things that have been seen properly or from top to bottom. If the evaluation is made of this criticism of Berkeley, one would come to know that he is justified and reasonable to some of the extent regarding the generation of the object that have been seen and those which have been unseen.

The philosophers have their own mindsets, and they describe everything according to themselves. Berkeley, in fact, responded Locke and was against the abstract ideas. One which is having no existence at all will never be able to be depicted in the mind accurately. He is right to this extent that the things which can be seen properly are the ones perceived properly. One challenge to the coming one and then the coming one confront the beliefs of thence coming one.  But this is true that he has provided us the reason to believe.