Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A48871
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An abridgment of Mr. Locke's Essay concerning humane [sic] understanding; Essay concerning human understanding
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Locke, John, 1632-1704.; Wynne, John, 1667-1743.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing L2735; ESTC R23044
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115,066
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330
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from Body Thinking and the power of moving which by reflection we receive from our Minds Existence Duration Number which belong both to the one and to the other By these I imagine might be explained the nature of Colours Sounds Tasts Smells and all other Ideas we have if we had but Faculties acute enough to perceive the several modified Extensions and Motions of these minute Bodies which produce those several Sensations in us CHAP. XXII Of Mixed Modes MIxed Modes are combinations of Simple Ideas of different kinds whereby they are distinguished from simple Modes which consist only of simple Ideas of the same kind put together by the Mind as Virtue Vice a Lie c. The Mind being once furnished with Simple Ideas can put them together in several compositions without examining whether they exist so together in Nature To form such Ideas it suffices if they are consistent There are three ways whereby we get these complex Ideas of Mixed Modes First by Experience and observation of things themselves thus by seeing two Men wrestle we get the Idea of Wrestling Secondly by Invention or voluntary putting together of several simple Ideas in our own Minds so he that first invented Printing had an Idea of it first in his Mind before it ever existed Thirdly by Explaining the names of actions we never saw or notions we cannot see and by enumerating all those Ideas which go to the making them up Thus the mixed Mode which the word Lie stands for is made up of these Simple Ideas First Articulate Sounds Secondly Certain Ideas in the mind of the Speaker Thirdly Words the signs of these Ideas Fourthly Those signs put together by Affirmation or Negation otherwise than the Ideas they stand for are in the mind of the Speaker Since Languages are made complex Ideas are usually got by the explication of those terms that stand for them for since they consist of Simple Ideas combined they may by words standing for those Simple Ideas be represented to the Mind of one who understands those words thô that combination of Simple Ideas was never offer'd to his Mind by the real existence of things Mixed Modes have their Unity from an act of the Mind combining those several Simple Ideas together and considering them as one Complex one The mark of this Union is one name given to that Combination Men seldom reckon any number of Ideas to make one complex one but such collections as there be Names for Thus the Killing of an old Man is as fit to be united into one Complex Idea as that of a Father yet there being no name for it it is not taken for a particular Complex Idea nor a distinct species of action from that of killing any other Man Those collections of Ideas have names generally affixed which are of frequent use in conversation in which cases Men endeavour to communicate their thoughts to one another with all possible dispatch Those others which they have seldom occasion to mention they tie not together nor give them names This gives the reason why there are words in every Language which cannot be rendred by any one single word of another For the Fashions and Customs of one Nation make several combinations of Ideas familiar in one which another had never any occasion to make Such were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks Proscriptio among the Romans This also occasions the constant change of Languages because the change of Custom and Opinions brings with it new combinations of Ideas which to avoid long descriptions have new Names annexed to them and so they become new Species of Complex Modes Of all our Simple Ideas those that have had most Mixed Modes made out of them are Thinking and Motion which comprehend in them all Action and Power from whence these Actions are conceived to flow For Actions being the great business of Mankind it is no wonder if the several Modes of Thinking and Motion should be taken notice of the Ideas of them observed and laid up in Memory and have Names assigned them For without such Complex Ideas with Names to them Men could not easily hold any communication about them Of this kind are the Modes of Actions distinguished by their Causes Means Objects Ends Instruments Time Place and other Circumstances as also of the Powers sitted for those Actions Thus Boldness is the Power to do or Speak what we intend without Fear or Disorder which Power of doing any thing when it has been acquired by the frequent doing the same thing is that Idea we call Habit when forward and ready upon every occasion to break into Action we call it Dispositions Thus Testiness is a disposition or aptness to be Angry Power being the source of all Action the Substances wherein these Powers are whenthey exert this Power are called Causes and the substances thereupon produced or the Simple Ideas introduced into any subject Effects The Efficacy whereby the new Substance or Idea is produced is called in the Subject Exerting that Power Action in the Subject wherein any Simple Idea is changed or produced Passion which Efficacy in intellectual Agents we can I think conceive to be nothing else but Modes of Thinking and Willing In corporeal Agents nothing else but modifications of Motion Whatever sort of Action besides these produces any effect I confess my self to have no Notion or Idea of And therefore many words which seem to express some Action signify nothing of the Action but barely the Effect with some circumstances of the Subject wrought on or cause operating Thus Creation Annihilation contain in them no Idea of the action or manner whereby they are produced but barely of the Cause and the thing done And when a Country-man says the Cold freezes Water thô the word Freezing seem to import some Action yet it truly signifies nothing but the effect viz. That Water that was before fluid is become hard and consistent without containing any Idea of the Action whereby it is done CHAP. XXIII Of our Complex Ideas or Substances THE Mind observing several Simple Ideas to go constantly together which being presumed to belong to one thing are called when so united by one name and by mistake afterwards considered as one Simple Idea We imagine not these Simple Ideas to subsist by themselves but suppose some Substratum wherein they subsist which we call Substance The Idea of pure Substance is nothing but the suppos'd but unknown Support of these Qualities which are capable of producing Simple Ideas in us The Ideas of particular Substances are composed out of this obscure and general Idea of Substance together with such combinations of Simple Ideas as are observed to exist together and supposed to flow from the internal Constitution and unknown Essence of that Substance Thus we come by the Ideas of Man Horse Gold c. Thus the sensible qualities of Iron or a Diamond make the Complex Idea of those Substances which a Smith or a Jeweller commonly knows
Doubt Wavering Distrust Disbelief c. It is a Rule generally approved that any Testimony the farther off it is removed from the Original Truth the less Force it has and in Traditional Truths each Remove weakens the force of the Proof There is a Rule quite contrary to this advanced by some Men who look Opinions to gain Force by growing Older Upon this ground Propositions evidently false or doubtful in their first beginning come by an inverted Rule of Probability to pass for Authentick Truths and those which deserved little Credit from the Mouths of their first Relators are thought to grow venerable by Age and are urged as undeniable But certain it is that no Probability can rise above its First Original What has no other Evidence than the single Testimony of one Witness must stand or fall by his only Testimony thô afterwards cited by Hundreds of others and is so far from receiving any Strength thereby that it becomes the weaker Because Passion Interest Inadvertency Mistake of his Meaning and a thousand odd Reasons or Caprichois Mens Minds are acted by may make one Man quote another's Words or Meaning wrong This is certain that what in one Age was affirmed upon slight grounds can never after come to be more valid in future Ages by being often repeated The Second sort of Probability is concerning Things not falling under the reach of our Senses and therefore not capable of Testimony And such are First The Existence Nature and Operations of Finite Immaterial Beings without us as Spirits Angels c. or the Existence of material Beings such as for their smallness or remoteness our Senses cannot take notice of As whether there be any Plants Animals c. in the Planets and other Mansions of the vast Universe Secondly Concerning the manner of Operation in most parts of the works of Nature wherein thô we see the sensible Effects yet their Causes are unknown and we perceive not the ways and manner how they are produced We see Animals are generated nourished and move the Loadstone draws Iron c. but the Causes that operate and the manner they are produced in we can only guess and probably conjecture In these matters Analogy is the only help we have and it is from that alone we draw all our grounds of Probability Thus observing that the bare rubbing of two Bodies violently upon one another produces Heat and very often Fire we have reason to think that what we call Heat and Fire consists in a certain violent agitation of the imperceptible minute Parts of the burning Matter This sort of Probability which is the best conduct of rational Experiments and the rise of Hypotheses has also its use and influence And a wary reasoning from Analogy leads us often into the discovery of Truths and useful Deductions which would otherwise lie concealed Thô the common Experience and the ordinary course of Things have a mighty influence on the Minds of Men to make them give or refuse Credit to any thing proposed to their Belief yet there is one case wherein the strangeness of the Fact lessens not the Assent to a fair Testimony given of it For where such supernatural Events are suitable to Ends aimed at by him who has the power to change the course of Nature there under such Circumstances they may be the fitter to procure Belief by how much the more they are beyond or contrary to ordinary Observation This is the proper case of Miracles which well attested do not only find Credit themselves but give it also to other Truths There are Propositions that challenge the highest degree of our Assent upon bare Testimony whether the Thing proposed Agree or Disagree with common Experience and the ordinary course of Things or no The reason whereof is because the Testimony is of such an one as cannot deceive nor be deceived and that is God himself This carries with it Certainty beyond Doubt Evidence beyond Exception This is called by a peculiar Name Revelation and our Assent to it Faith which has as much Certainty in it as our Knowledge it self and we may as well doubt of our own Being as we can whether any Revelation from God be True So that Faith is a settled and sure Principle of Assent and Assurance and leaves no manner of room for Doubt or Hesitation only we must be sure that it be a Divine Revelation and that we understand it right else we shall expose our selves to all the extravagancy of Enthusiasm and all the error of wrong Principles if we have Faith and Assurance in what is not Divine Revelation CHAP. XVII Of Reason THE word Reason in English has different Significations Sometimes it is taken for True and Clear Principles Sometimes for Clear and Fair Deductions from those Principles Sometimes for the Cause and particularly for the Final Cause but the Consideration I shall have of it here is as it stands for a Faculty whereby Man is supposed to be distinguished from Beasts and wherein it is evident he much surpasses them Reason is necessary both for the enlargement of our Knowledge and regulating our Assent for it hath to do both in Knowledge and Opinion and is necessary and assisting to all our other Intellectual Faculties and indeed contains Two of them viz. First Sagacity whereby it finds intermediate Ideas Secondly Illation whereby it so orders and disposes of them as to discover what connexion there is in each link of the Chain whereby the Extremes are held together and thereby as it were to draw into view the Truth sought for which is that we call Illation or Inference and consists in nothing but the Perception of the Connexion there is between the Ideas in each step of the Deduction whereby the Mind comes to see either the Certain Agreement or Disagreement of any two Ideas as in Demonstration in which it arrives at Knowledge or their probable Connexion on which it gives or with-holds its Assent as in Opinion Sense and Intuition reach but a little way the greatest part of our Knowledge depends upon Deductions and intermediate Ideas In those Cases where we must take Propositions for true without being certain of their being so we have need to find out examine and compare the grounds of their Probability In both Cases the Faculty which finds out the Means and rightly applies them to discover Certainty in the one and Probability in the other is that which we call Reason So that in reason we may consider these Four Degrees First The discovering and finding out of Proofs Secondly The regular and methodical Disposition of them and laying them in such order as their Connexion may be plainly perceived Thirdly The perceiving their Connexion Fourthly The making a right Conclusion There is one thing more which I shall desire to be considered concerning Reason and that is whether Syllogism as is generally thought be the proper instrument of it ant the usefullest way of exercising this Faculty The Causes I have to doubt of