Acts of the Mind, Ideas and Linguistic Meanings

From Newton’s Opticks to the Theory of Abstraction: the case of John Locke

Abstract

Newton’s Opticks is a key source for theories about the mind in the 17th-18th centuries. According to the text, light is transformed into mnestic traces and mental images, creating a close relationship between vision and cognitive processes. The text suggests that cognitive activity goes beyond individual mental images and converges into the elaboration of general mental images. These general mental images play a significant role in categorization and language use. Although Locke accounts for this framework, he questions it himself by opening the following debate. The main aim of this contribution is to verify the status of the Lockean imagist theory of meaning by revisiting and interpreting it as a prototypical one and by considering the relationship between cognition and language. In particular, the paper will put forth the argument that the visual-cognitive aspect and the semiotic-linguistic aspect in Locke are not in opposition; they are complementary.