ジョン・ロックにおける実在的本質と自然種

抄録

The distinction between real and nominal essences is a very important one in Locke's Essay. With respect to substances, Locke insists that our nominal essences do not coincide with the real essences. The nominal essence is an abstract idea for which a general name stands. But his attitude towards the real essences of substances is very obscure. The problem is whether a real essence relates to a particular or to a sort. In Essay we find “the essences of sorts ... are nothing else but these abstract ideas”. Therefore, as some commentators show, it seems that only particular things have the real essences.
In this paper I intend to show that Locke admits the possibility that real essences of substances apply to kinds of particulars.