ABSTRACT
One aspect of Locke’s philosophy of language that has concerned scholars is the tension between the social nature of language and the individual, psychologized mechanisms of language posited by Locke. In this chapter, I present versions of this concern relating to the subjectivity of meaning and the absence of shared public languages on Locke’s account, and examine Locke’s responses to these concerns. While previous discussions of the tension between the social nature of language and Locke’s individualistic account of its functioning have focused on the barriers for epistemic access to the contents of others’ minds or on the sorts of demands we can place on Locke’s account without risking anachronism, I focus on Locke’s account of norms on our language use, and argue that they play a crucial role in Locke’s resolution of this tension.
