ABSTRACT
Locke's account of belief, even on his own narrow and technical conception of it, is, as we have seen, torn between a variety of theoretical presuppositions and demands. He adhered to a traditional view of affirmation or judgement as the predicative joining of concepts, understanding judgements of probability as the operation of a cognitive faculty which naturally adjusts its output to the grounds of assent. At the same time he was grappling with the problem of error and irrational belief, with the complication that error and irrationality can be both blameworthy and ascribable to the passions. The present section will offer a very brief philosophical assessment of these issues and their inter-relations.
