Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2018
Abstract
The article concentrates on the concept of matter in Descartes and Locke. It shows that Locke's distinction between hardness and impenetrability parallels the Cartesian one, and it argues that this makes it impossible to ascribe to Locke a strict adherence to the atomistic view, which considers that the indivisibility of the ultimate particles results from their perfect hardness.
The article concludes that Locke's agnosticism on the essence of matter is paradoxically derived from the most Cartesian element in Locke's theory of bodies.