Abstract

Ten chapters of Locke's 1685 draft are given here, with an introduction, an index of correlating passages in the Essay and the draft, and an interpretive essay, "Locke on Active Power and the Idea of Active Power from Bodies." The passages discuss various aspects of Locke's views on power and causation, including his distinction between active and passive powers, the relation between active power and minds, passive power and bodies, the origin of the idea of power, the definition of qualities as powers, the distinction between actual and potential qualities, our ignorance of the causal basis of properties, and the nature of the causal relation between inner constitutions and sensible qualities of bodies.