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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is substance, according to Locke?

2. Which is NOT a method Locke describes for forming a complex idea?

3. Abstraction is the ability to do what, according to Locke?

4. How does Locke say the concept of innate knowledge ultimately fails?

5. What does Locke show about the ideas people claim are innate?

Short Essay Questions

1. What arguments does Locke make against Descartes' philosophy?

2. In what way is knowledge limited, according to Locke?

3. How does Locke define abstraction?

4. What does Locke mean when he says that the mind is a blank slate?

5. What does Locke say about the innateness of moral principles?

6. How does Locke define practical principles?

7. How does Locke define retention?

8. What does Locke say about sensations experienced in the womb?

9. How is duration developed from simple ideas, according to Locke?

10. How does Locke say ideas come to us?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Locke protect his philosophy against the skepticism of Hume and Descartes? What arguments specifically does he refute, and what arguments does he leave himself open to? (Do you think the question of whether innate knowledge exists can be answered?)

Essay Topic 2

Using Locke's methodology, create a definition for an abstract word like esteem, or respect, or revenge or justice. (What other methods can you use? Which method is better?--i.e. more precise, or more effective?)

Essay Topic 3

Which was more important in Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," the actual terminology Locke uses for breaking knowledge down into parts, or the concept that epistemology liberates people from the concepts of instinctual knowledge of concepts like right and wrong?

(see the answer keys)

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