View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Locke use an example to illustrate mode?

2. Where does Locke say ideas come from?

3. Where does understanding originate, according to Locke?

4. What is the contemporary name for Locke's field of inquiry?

5. Composition is the ability to do what, according to Locke?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Locke say ideas come to us?

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

3. How does Locke define retention?

4. What aspect of knowledge does Locke exclude from "Essay Concerning Human Understanding"?

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

6. In what way is understanding limited, according to Locke?

7. What is the difference between natural principles and innate principles?

8. What benefits do humans receive from understanding, according to Locke?

9. How does Locke define abstraction?

10. Describe the two kinds of ideas Locke describes.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How would a society predicated on the idea of innate knowledge differ from a society predicated on a Lockean epistemology in which knowledge is shaped by experience? Compare and contrast these societies.

Essay Topic 2

Locke's definition of experience and language is based solely on individual experience--but what is the role of the family in promoting certain knowledge and restricting or prohibiting other kinds of knowledge? Does Locke account for teachers and parents in his arguments about knowledge and experience?

Essay Topic 3

In what way is Locke defining a science of knowledge, and in what way is "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" a book of philosophy? Does Locke's taxonomy of knowledge make his philosophy scientific? What would it mean if we define "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" as science, as a taxonomy of ideas, rather than as philosophy?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 636 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample