What Are Primary and Secondary Qualities?

1. What are Primary and Secondary qualities?

In his Essay concerning Human Understanding John Locke describes primary qualities as properties of an object that are inseparable from the object. Meaning that these qualities never change, no matter how much the object is altered. These properties are mind independent and exist in the physical word external to us. He gives the example of the a grain of wheat, if the grain of wheat is divided into two parts or a million pieces the solidity, extension, shape and mobility of that will not change.

According to Locke Secondary qualities are properties that are in the object themselves. These properties are perceived in our minds by the power of the primary qualities to create these perceptions. For example color, taste, smell and sound these properties are dependent ideas that we perceive that do not exist in the external object only in our minds.

My language is the same as my identity

Can you imagine what this world would be like if languages didn’t exist? How would we express ourselves? Certainly this world would be in complete chaos and disorder if we did not have out different languages to communicate with each other. Nelson Mandela once said “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart.”(Nelson Mandela) If you can interact with someone in their language it can show two things; either you are of that culture which can give that person a sense of belonging or you have invested time in learning the language which shows respect of that culture. Language plays a key role in our everyday lives; it is one of the main means by which human beings communicate with each other. People take great pride in their language as it is the first thing that people hear when we first introduce and express ourselves. By speaking our dialects even our accents tells the people around us exactly who we are and where were from. So it is safe to say language is one of the most important key to us understanding ourselves, without it we’ll never truly know who we are. “If Black English isn’t a language then tell me what is?” by James Baldwin an “How to tame a wild tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua conveys the idea that language is a form of expressing one’s self and when society forces us to conform to their standard of what languages they believe should be spoken, they are oppressing your culture.

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