Locke takes a very large chunk of the first section of this passage to explain why thought and ideas can only be won through sensation and reflection. Many people, then and today, believe that humans think unconsciously, whether asleep or just not paying attention. Locke disproves these people through disproving their arguments. Take for example, unconscious, whole thought while asleep. Locke argues that if this was the case, then "...the sleeping and waking man are two persons"(Locke). These two "people" would have completely different sensations to reflect on, since one experiences these throughout the day and one experiences nothing. Therefore, their reflection and overall thought process would be completely different.
Another argument against Locke would be that humans do think unconsciously as the same person, but it has no recall of these thoughts. If this were the case, then " To think often, and never to retain it so much as one moment, is a very useless sort of thinking; and the soul, in such a state of thinking, does very little, if at all, excel that of a looking-glass, which constantly receives variety of images, or ideas, but retains none; they disappear and vanish, and there remain no footsteps of them; the looking-glass is never the better for such ideas, nor the soul for such thoughts"(Locke). Locke shows that thought of this nature would be so useless, God would not have created it because it would greatly inhibit our survival.
I posted on Christian's and Abbie's posts.
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