Holding back no punches, Berkeley directly quotes Locke in his introduction to Principles. “. . does it not require some pains and skill to form the general idea of a triangle . . . for it must be neither oblique, nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, no scalenon, but all and none of these at once.”(Essay 596) Berkeley is quick to respond to this statement. “In effect, it is something imperfect that cannot exist, an idea wherein some parts of several different and inconsistent ideas are put together.” (PHK intro 13) In this example, Berkeley criticizes Locke’s doctrine as not only being impossible to achieve, but also inconsistent. In his reading of Locke, Berkeley states that Locke's’ description of the abstraction process as encompassing “all and none.” Berkeley outlines the contradiction that object or idea cannot posses both all and none of the same qualities. Because there exists a contradiction within Locke's argument, Berkeley asserts, that the doctrine of abstraction is flawed and therefore impossible. However, it is in this example it becomes apparent that Berkeley mis-interprets Locke’s doctrine. Perhaps in angst to defeat abstraction, Berkeley gets tripped up on Locke’s wording. Abstraction only deals with the subtraction of the differences, but keeps the commonalities between
Holding back no punches, Berkeley directly quotes Locke in his introduction to Principles. “. . does it not require some pains and skill to form the general idea of a triangle . . . for it must be neither oblique, nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, no scalenon, but all and none of these at once.”(Essay 596) Berkeley is quick to respond to this statement. “In effect, it is something imperfect that cannot exist, an idea wherein some parts of several different and inconsistent ideas are put together.” (PHK intro 13) In this example, Berkeley criticizes Locke’s doctrine as not only being impossible to achieve, but also inconsistent. In his reading of Locke, Berkeley states that Locke's’ description of the abstraction process as encompassing “all and none.” Berkeley outlines the contradiction that object or idea cannot posses both all and none of the same qualities. Because there exists a contradiction within Locke's argument, Berkeley asserts, that the doctrine of abstraction is flawed and therefore impossible. However, it is in this example it becomes apparent that Berkeley mis-interprets Locke’s doctrine. Perhaps in angst to defeat abstraction, Berkeley gets tripped up on Locke’s wording. Abstraction only deals with the subtraction of the differences, but keeps the commonalities between