Synopsis:
- Boyle's world:
- Matter is composed of elementary particles
- The features of objects are due to the features and motion of the particles they are made of
- Ideas as the elementary particles of mind
- All bodies possess "primary" qualities (solidity, extension, figure, number, and motion): qualities which are "inseparable" from the bodies themselves
- Secondary qualities are the ones that produce sensations in observers (color, sound, taste)
- Secondary qualities can be understood in terms of the primary qualities that produce them
- Perceptions are mechanical interactions with objects, that cause mechanical interactions within the nervous system and ultimately the brain, where "sensations" arise ("causal" theory of perception)
- The sensations are caused by the objects, but all we know is the sensations, not necessarily the real objects
- The world is not necessarily what appears to us
- All knowledge derives from experience ("empiricism")
- Knowledge is acquired
- Ideas rule our mind
- Ideas derive from experience, although some ideas may derive from other ideas
- The mind is helpless against simple ideas due to sense-experience
- The mind can combine, relate and abstract ideas to form other ideas
- People have rights
- Government has the duty to protect their rights and first and foremost their property rights
- Three branches of government for "checks and balances"
- Separation of church and state
- Rule of the majority ("liberalism")
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