HKB
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Often appears with: reason and the intellect · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · truth and demonstration · suspension of judgment · skepticism · sense and instinct · philosophy and wisdom · obscure and imperfect ideas · language, naming, and meaning · failure of reason · errors from misinterpretation · education and the training of the young
Usually: argument (1) · reflection (1) · crisis of belief (1) · curiosity (1) · exhortation (1) · resignation (1)
Locke explains why reason often fails: when we lack ideas, when ideas are obscure or imperfect, when intermediate ideas are missing, when false principles are used, and when doubtful terms confuse argument.
18. Consequences of Words, and Consequences of Ideas. Though the deducing one proposition from another, or making inferences in WORDS, be a great part of reason, and that which it is usually employed about; yet the principal act of ratiocination is THE FINDING THE AGREEMENT OR DISAGREEMENT OF TWO IDEAS ONE WITH ANOTHER, BY THE INTERVENTION OF A THIRD. As a man, by a yard, finds two houses to be of the same length, w…
In the introduction, Berkeley argues that philosophy should bring wisdom and calm, but instead produces doubts when people move beyond sense; he claims difficulties come mainly from misuse of faculties and false first principles.
INTRODUCTION 1. Philosophy being nothing else but THE STUDY OF WISDOM AND TRUTH, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men. Yet so it is, we see the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high-road of plain common…