Malachi Martinez
Philosophy 111-003
Professor Kurt Pond
18 July 2014

The Primary and Secondary Attributes of John Locke

There’s nothing like a fresh pineapple when it’s ripe and in season. You can enjoy it in so many ways, it’s almost impossible to think of all of them. But have you ever really stopped and thought about long and hard about that pineapple? Have you ever thought of the details of that pineapple? The philosopher known as John Locke would have taken every attribute and quality of that same pineapple into consideration. Where we would have just seen the pineapple as a simple pineapple, Locke would see things about it that we may have never noticed before. Though I cannot fully agree with all of Locke’s theories, his ideas on primary and secondary attributes come with strong evidence to support them and deserve to be recognized as viable beliefs.
The philosopher, Galileo stated in 1623, nine years before Locke’s birth, "I think that tastes, odors, colors, and so on are no more than mere names so far as the object in which we locate them are concerned, and that they reside in consciousness. Hence if the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be wiped away and annihilated". (Galilei)
Let’s go back to the pineapple and break it down a little more. One would say the primary attributes of the pineapple would be first its shape, which is fairly oval, its color, which would be a golden yellowish color, its density, which could be said to be hard unlike , say, a strawberry or grape, which could be squished and its outer texture which can be considered bumpy and prickly. These attributes would be considered fact and not necessary to prove, hence making them primary. On the other hand are the secondary attributes, which can vary depending on the opinion of the person noticing them. Though some may say the pineapple is bitter, others might think its sweet, the juiciness of the pulp could not be determined by simply looking at it, and its distinct flavor would not be known until you bite into it. These cannot be proven without interaction with the fruit so these become secondary attributes.
Immanuel Kant argued against this theory in his book, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, stating that primary, as well as secondary, qualities are all subjective and both mere appearances that are located in the mind of the observer. "Long before Locke's time, it has been generally assumed and granted without detriment to the actual existence of external things, that many of their predicates may be said to belong not to the things in themselves, but to their appearances, and to have no proper existence outside our representation.” (Kant) Much in the same way as Descartes, (1596-1650), Kant also believed that there were attributes of colors, smells, etc. but did not consider them to be truly in the body. “While a soul may change all of its modes for other modes, i.e. change all of its thoughts, it cannot change its attribute, i.e. thinking. It cannot be without its attribute, and hence, without some mode or other.”
Another famous philosopher, George Berkeley, also argued the theories of Locke in his book, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, In Opposition To Sceptics and Atheists. Hylas represents John Locke and is derived from an ancient Greek word for "matter," which Hylas argues for in the dialogue and using Philonous as the character to represent himself, Berkeley argues his own metaphysical views. Berkeley