ABSTRACT
To require that men should use their words constantly in the same sense and for none but determined and uniform ideas, would be to think that all men should have the same notions and should talk of nothing but what they have clear and distinct ideas of. (Essay, II, p. 106 — original emphasis)
to be had, and annexe to them proper and constant names9 (Essay, II, p. 239 — original emphasis). We should not take words for things, he warns in The Conduct of the Understanding, ‘nor suppose that names in books signify real entities in nature’ until we ‘can frame clear and distinct ideas of those entities’ (Section 29 — my emphasis).
