ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author focuses on the epistemic issues germane to the doctrine of notions. He examines a distinction that has been largely overlooked in the literature, which is George Berkeley’s distinction between positive and relative notions. The author aims to elucidate Berkeley’s positive/relative notions distinction by examining Thomas Reid’s distinction between direct and relative conceptions. Second, focusing on relative notions, the author argues that knowledge based upon relative notions is analogous to what Bertrand Russell called knowledge by description. He discusses ‘the describing model of relative notions’. The author shows that the describing model of relative notions is consistent with Berkeley’s accounts of one’s notions of substance. He also argue that the describing model of relative notions allows one to have notions of operations of minds and relations among ideas, provided that one has positive notions of perception and causality.