(4) If, for the reasons given, we reject both (1), (2), and (3) as
interpretations of our five propositions, the only alternative I
can think of that remains, is one which is roughly identical, so far
as I can see, with Locke's view. It is a view which asserts that the
half-crown and the florin really did exist (in the natural sense)
before I saw them; that they really are approximately circular (again
in the natural sense); that, therefore, they are not composed of
sensibles which I or others should directly apprehend under other
conditions; and that therefore also neither these sensibles (even if
such do now exist) nor those which I am now directly apprehending are
in the place in which the coins are. It holds, therefore, that the
coins do really _resemble_ some sensibles, in respect of the "primary"
qualities which these have; that they really are round, and one larger
than the other, in much the same sense in which some sensibles are
round and some larger than others. But it holds also that no sensibles
which we ever do directly apprehend, or should directly apprehend, if
at a given time we were in other positions, are _parts_ of those coins;
and that, therefore, there is no reason to suppose that any parts of
the coins have any of the "secondary qualities"--colour, etc.--which
any of these sensibles have.
On this view, it is plain, there is nothing to prevent us from holding
that, as suggested in I (3), all sorts of unexperienced sensibles do
exist. We are only prevented from holding that, if they do, those which
have the same source all exist in the _same place_ as their source.
And the natural view to take as to the status of sensibles generally,
relatively to physical objects, would be that none of them, whether
experienced or not, were ever in the same place as any physical object.
That none, therefore, exist "anywhere" in physical space; while, at the
same time, we can also say, as argued in I (2), that none exist "in the
mind," except in the sense that some are directly apprehended by some
minds. And the only thing that would need to be added, is that some,
and some only, _resemble_ the physical objects which are their source,
in respect of their shape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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