HKB
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Often appears with: locke · language, naming, and meaning · human vs brutes · general signs · doubt, skepticism, and certainty
Usually: argument (1) · skepticism (1)
He examines Locke’s defense of abstraction as the distinguishing faculty of humans over brutes, but argues that Locke’s reasoning wrongly assumes that use of language requires abstract general ideas.
said they are difficult and not to be attained without pains and study; we may therefore reasonably conclude that, if such there be, they are confined only to the learned. 11. I proceed to examine what can be alleged in DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF ABSTRACTION, and try if I can discover what it is that inclines the men of speculation to embrace an opinion so remote from common sense as that seems to be. There has been…