Primary and Secondary Qualities The Historical and Ongoing Debate [Hardcover]

Fourteen newly commissioned essays trace the historical development of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, which lies at the intersection of issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of perception.Primary and Secondary Qualitiesfocuses on the age of the Scientific Revolution, thelocus classicusof the distinction, but begins with chapters on ancient Greek and Scholastic accounts of qualities in an effort to identify its origins. The remainder of the volume is devoted to philosophical reflections on qualities from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Virtually every major figure is represented from Gassendi to Kant, and special attention is paid to Locke, Descartes, and Hume. The essays collected here cover a wide range of topics, including the foundation for the distinction, the question of whether or not it is metaphysical or merely epistemic, the status of secondary qualities, the nature of sensory representation, the relation between philosophy and science, the status of dispositions, and the semantics of sensible-quality terms.

Introduction
1. The Distinction between Primary and Secondary Qualities in Ancient Atomism,Mi-Kyoung Lee
2. Scholastic Qualities, Primary and Secondary,Robert Pasnau
3. Gassendi and the 17th-Century Atomists on Primary and Secondary Qualities,Antonia LoLordo
4. Descartes on 'What We Call Colour',Lawrence Nolan
5. Sensible Qualities and Material Bodies in Descartes and Boyle,Lisa Downing
6. Primary and Secondary Qualities in Locke's Essay,Michael Ayers
7. Locke's Distinction between Primary Primary Qualities and Secondary Primary Qualities,Edwin McCann
8. Primary and Secondary Qualities in the Phenomenalist Theory of Leibniz,Martha Bolton
9. Qualities and Simple Ideas: Hume and his Debt to Berkeley,Alan Nelson and David Landy
10. Hume and the Sensible Qualities,Kennel$