I agree more with Locke, because all of our thoughts in our heads can only be described to others or relateable to others through words. If I was trying to describe how my brother looks, I can give characteristics like long hair, glasses which is supposed to represent my idea of how my brother looks. However, this is only just my idea of how he looks and others might have a different idea of how he looks and use different words
(Mill) If someone said “a strong person”, wouldn’t that be our idea of things, or our personal idea of a strong person? For Mill’s example the Sun and day are two things that are factual but what about other generalized things?
(Locke) Couldn’t words also stand for feelings people have too, and not just the ideas? I think if I said something like “I’m sad” is not me having the idea of being sad but a feeling
Response to your Locke question:
ReplyDeleteI think that words can be used to represent feelings, but it is the perception or idea of that feeling that is being expressed as a word. We could express some feelings such as pain through words without the need for an individual's idea of pain because it is a response to physical stimuli. However, I think ideas are necessary in expressing emotions in terms of words. In your example, sadness could be perceived differently by many kinds of people: it may be perceived, for example, as the act of crying to a child, or the feeling of emptiness or discontent with oneself to an adult.
I think that in this way, it is your individual idea of what is "sad" that you are expressing when you say "I'm sad", not the idea of being sad.
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ReplyDeleteI think that when Locke says ideas, he's also including feelings as well because the way in which individuals perceive feelings are based on their ideas of those feelings.
ReplyDelete-- Hassan Wado