...ii, p. 128. * Locke, it is perhaps worth remembering, left it an open question ' whether Omnipotency has not given to some systems of matter, fitly disposed,...matter, so disposed, a thinking immaterial substance ' ; and he was of opinion that ' all the great ends of morality and religion are well enough secured,...

...inference is possible. It is unnecessary to suppose that a distinct immaterial substance exists at all, ' it being, in respect of our notions, not much more...pleases, superadd to matter a faculty of thinking, 1 Essay, Book II. chap. SUM. § 15. (. Book IV. chap. iii. § 6 ; cf. ibid. chap. ix. § 3. than that...

...impossible for us, by the contemplation of our ideas without revelation, to discover, whether omnipotency has not given to some systems of matter, fitly disposed,...thinking immaterial substance; it being, in respect to our notions, not much more remote from our comprehension to conceive, that God can, if he pleases,...

...system of natter, fitly disposed, a power to perceive ani think, or else joined and fixed to natter so disposed, a thinking immaterial substance, it being, in respect of our notions, not much гаовэ remote from our comprehension to conceive that God can, if he pleases, superad to matter...

...habe (Ess. IV, 3, 6: it being in respect of our notions, not much more remote f rom our comprehensiou to conceive that God can, if he pleases, superadd to matter a faculty of thinking, t hau that he should superadd to it anothtr substance with a faculty of thinking), ein Zugeständnis,...

...for us, by the contemplation 01 our own ideas, without revelation, to discover whether Onmipotency has not given to some systems of matter fitly disposed a power to perceive and think ; it being, in respect of our notions, not much more remote from our comprehension to conceive that...

...Locke that there was nothing contradictory or scandalous about the suggestion that God might have ' given to some systems of matter, fitly disposed, a power to perceive and think' (Essay concerning Human Understanding (1687), IV, iii, 6). d An important paper on him by Hou Wai-Lu...

...interpretation, notoriously, is that Locke was seriously prepared to consider the possibility that God might give "to some systems of matter fitly disposed, a power to perceive and think". 11 Here two questions arise. The first is whether the possibility we are concerned with is purely epistemic,...

..."impossible for us, by the contemplation of our own ideas without revelation, to discover whether Omnipotency has not given to some systems of matter, fitly disposed, a power to perceive and think. . . . What certainty of knowledge can any one have that some perceptions, such as, vg, pleasure and...

...for us, by the contemplation of our own Ideas, without revelation, to discover, whether Omnipotency has not given to some Systems of Matter fitly disposed,...Matter so disposed, a thinking immaterial Substance. What this proposal boils down to may not immediately be clear, but some have taken Locke to have been...