Locke's Critique of Descartes:

Descartes and Locke on the essence of substances

Abstract

It is well known among Locke scholars that Locke owed much to Descartes for the development of his thought. However, the nature of the influence has not been specifically explored. This paper argues that though Locke inherited several philosophical terminologies and a sort of dualist thinking from Descartes, he altered them to serve for his philosophical project: the examination of our ideas and knowledge by means of his “historical, plain method.” A case study of our idea of substance and its essence shows that unlike Descartes Locke stayed agnostic about the very essence of body and mind. Thus it can be said that Locke held a property dualism in contrast to Descartes' substance dualism.