ABSTRACT
Ideas of simple modes are 'only variations, or different combinations of the same simple Idea, without the mixture of any other', while every idea of a mixed mode is 'a combination of several Ideas of several kinds'. Human beings are substances in Locke's universe, so the idea of a human being is the idea of a substance. Real and nominal essences are the same for modes, different for substances. The real essences of modes are known while the real essences of substances are unknown. LoLordo argues that the 'process of conceptual analysis' based on the fanciful thought experiments of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (ECHU). The idea of a moral man, Locke says, is the idea of a corporeal rational creature. LoLordo then argues that there are reasons to think that the idea of a person does not include the idea of a sub-stratum, and hence that the idea of a person is a mode idea.
