[author unknown]
In Vere Claiborne Chappell (ed.),
Locke. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 113-132 (
1998)
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Abstract
Relations are things that depend for their existence on more than one substance. This conception of relation is coherent as far as it goes, and fits well with John Locke's conception of entities as divided into the general categories of substance, mode, and relation. Locke's conception of the nature of causation is not well developed, but anticipates the far more influential conception articulated by his intellectual successor, David Hume. Far more interesting, from the point of view of later philosophical developments, are Locke's views on the nature of identity and diversity, and on the nature of moral relations. Locke briefly outlines four categories of relations, with special attention to moral relations (the other three being proportional relations, natural relations and instituted relations). It is worth noticing that Locke's theory of morality is firmly ensconced in the natural law tradition.