ALL ABOUT EVE, LOCKE AND LEIBNITZ

To answer this proposed question, we must assume facts not in evidence: that Eve and the apple are real and not illusory. As Locke would have it:

as God has set some things in broad day-light, as he has given us some certain knowledge though limited to a few things in comparison, probably as a taste of what intellectual creatures are capable of, to excite in us a desire and endeavour after a better state (Cummins 250).

Eve saw reality in the extended apple. Her reality was that she was either hungry or simply desirous of something sweet and tasty, namely, an apple. It would have made little difference to her if the apple had been yellow or green, although red is surely a more pleasing color, indicating full ripeness. "The mind has two faculties�.first knowledge�secondly, judgment" (Cummins 250). Eve's knowledge was that apples taste good. Eve's judgment was that no matter who extended the apple to her, it was "safe" to eat. After all, had she and Adam not tasted all the fruits of Eden? Locke explains that our knowledge (that is, human knowledge) is narrow and limited, but that humans rely on some form of probability: "the conformity of anything without own knowledge, observation and experience�secondly, the testimony of others, vouching their observation and experience" (Cummins 251). Our experience is that apples are healthy and tasty. In this allegory, of course, the all-knowing "serpent" also vouches for the validity and good t

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, according to Leibnitz, "to believe that only what is actual is possible�is to start on the road toward atheism" (Matson 393). She saw, in the extended apple, something beyond the physical appearance of the apple: She saw satisfying her hunger, or her need, or all of the above. Locke places Eve at the point of biting into the extended red apple because her knowledge is limited: "our rational knowledge cannot reach to the whole extent of our ideas" (Cummins 224). To put it simply (and perhaps a little naively) Eve did not think beyond wanting to eat the apple. There was no "what if" in her choice. The mental even, according to Locke, began with an idea. "The senses at first let in particular ideas" (Cummins 119). In that sense, the extension in this parable "includes no solidity nor resistance to the motion of body, as body does" (Cummins 147). Therefore the mental event preceding the actual motion of the body is what energizes the body's motion. Thought (or ideas) precede motion. Choice precedes activity. "Leibnitz was an outside-in philosopher. The starting point is the world not his own consciousness" (Matson 392). Therefore, he would be at odds with Locke, because Eve had no thought of possible consequences of

Category: Philosophy - A