Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing DebateLawrence Nolan Fourteen newly commissioned essays trace the historical development of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, which lies at the intersection of issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of perception. Primary and Secondary Qualities focuses on the age of the Scientific Revolution, the locus classicus of the distinction, but begins with chapters on ancient Greek and Scholastic accounts of qualities in an effort to identify its origins. The remainder of the volume is devoted to philosophical reflections on qualities from the seventeenth century to the present day. Virtually every major figure is represented from Gassendi to Kant, and special attention is paid to Locke, Descartes, and Hume. The essays collected here cover a wide range of topics, including the foundation for the distinction, the question of whether or not it is metaphysical or merely epistemic, the status of secondary qualities, the nature of sensory representation, the relation between philosophy and science, the status of dispositions, and the semantics of sensible-quality terms. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 The Distinction between Primary and Secondary Qualities in Ancient Greek Philosophy | 15 |
2 Scholastic Qualities Primary and Secondary | 41 |
3 Gassendi and the SeventeenthCentury Atomists on Primary and Secondary Qualities | 62 |
4 Descartes on What We Call Color | 81 |
5 Sensible Qualities and Material Bodies in Descartes and Boyle | 109 |
6 Primary and Secondary Qualities in Lockes Essay | 136 |
7 Lockes Distinction between Primary Primary Qualities and Secondary Primary Qualities | 158 |
10 Hume and the Sensible Qualities | 239 |
11 Reid on the Real Foundation of the PrimarySecondary Quality Distinction | 274 |
12 Kant and Helmholtz on Primary and Secondary Qualities | 304 |
13 Are Colors Secondary Qualities? | 339 |
14 Colour Eliminativism | 362 |
Bibliography of Secondary Literature | 386 |
| 395 | |
| 399 | |
8 Primary and Secondary Qualities in the Phenomenalist Theory of Leibniz | 190 |
Hume and his Debt to Berkeley | 216 |
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Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate Lawrence Nolan Limited preview - 2011 |
Primary and Secondary Qualities: The Historical and Ongoing Debate Lawrence Nolan No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
appear argue argument Aristotelian Aristotle atoms attributes basic Berkeley Boyle causal cause claim cold color complex conceive concepts corpuscularian Democritus Descartes discussion disposition dispositionalism distinction between primary early modern edited effect eliminativism Epicurus Epistemology Essay example existence explain extension external objects fundamental Gassendi heat Helmholtz human Hume Hume’s interpretation Kant Leibniz light Locke Locke’s look red Malebranche matter mechanical mechanical philosophy mechanist metaphysical mind modern philosophy motion naïve realism nature ontological Oxford University Press particles passage perceive perception phenomena physical Plato position powers primary and secondary primary qualities primary-secondary quality distinction Principles produce qualia qualities of bodies question real qualities Realism reason Reid relations representations resemblance Robert Boyle Scholastic secondary qualities sensations sense sensible qualities shape simple ideas smell sort spatial substance supervenience suppose taste texture Theophrastus theory thesis things Thomas Reid thought Treatise understanding visual yellow