In philosophical theory, as well as in common parlance, the words self and person are often used interchangeably, usually, but not always, in an effort to express the same idea. For instance, John Locke, in one of the most consequential discussions relating these terms, declared that: ‘PERSON, as I take it, is the name for . . . self. Wherever a man finds what he calls himself, there, I think, ...

In 1945 Vannevar Bush proposed a machine that acted as a “supplement” to memory and met the particular information needs of its user. Because this “memex” recorded “trails” of selected documents, it has been seen as a precursor to hypertext. However, this paper considers Bush in relation to earlier concerns about memory and information, via the ideas of Robert Hooke and John Locke. Whereas Bush...

Like many virtuosi in his day, the English philosopher John Locke maintained an active interest in metrology. Yet for Locke, this was no mere hobby: questions concerning measurement were also implicated in his ongoing philosophical project to develop an account of human understanding. This paper follows Locke's treatment of four problems of measurement from the early Drafts A and B of the Essay...

It is a familiar idea in philosophy that many concepts can be wholly analyzed as structures made up of simpler concepts. For example, Aristotle held that man can be defined as rational animal. Ths suggests that that the concept man is a complex concept built out of the simpler concepts rational and animal. Many philosophers go further, suggesting that all concepts are built up from a limited su...

Harry Frankfurt’s article, “Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility,” triggered a huge literature discussing whether Frankfurt presents a case (or perhaps a template for a case) in which an individual is morally responsible for behavior that he or she could not have avoided.1 In his seminal article (which in a sense goes back to an example originally presented by John Locke in An Essay...

David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher who challenged many of the metaphysical and epistemological orthodoxies of the Modern age. His primary targets were his predecessors Descartes and John Locke. Rather than penetrating to the true essence of reality, Hume saw human thought as largely a practical faculty much imbued with habit. His critique of human knowledge, in particular, remain...

Since John Locke, the so-called argument from ignorance has been considered to be a fallacy, and is widely represented in informal logic textbooks as an example of incorrect reasoning. This might seem surprising to researchers in many scientific disciplines who routinely draw inferences from negative evidence. Oaksford and Hahn (2004) argued that this discrepancy can be explained within a Bayes...

Epistemology is one of three philosophical dichotomies that rises to two main isms obtain knowledge: rationalism initiated by Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and empiricism John Lock (1632-1704). As an empiricist, Locke offers the tabula rasa theory support his argument. Thus, this study aims describe radically comprehensively concept Locke's thought from perspective epistemological philosophy. This...