Locke on Knowledge of the External World
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
What does Locke think we can know about the external world? In this chapter, I present an alternative account of Locke’s epistemic project that is importantly different from traditional epistemology. I call this the “faculty view of knowledge,” where the answer to the question of what we can know lies in a descriptive account of what our minds are doing when we know. My interpretation of Locke’s account as a description of our mental faculties, enables us to understand Locke’s distinction between knowledge and judgment and to better accommodate what he thinks we can know about the external world.
DOI
10.4324/9781315099675
Recommended Citation
Vaughn, A. (2022). Locke on knowledge of the external world. In J. Gordon-Roth & S. Weinberg (Eds.), The Lockean mind (ch.12). Routledge.
Comments
ISBN 9781315099675 (eBook); 9781138296909 (paper)