Locke Book II Ch. 8, 1-6:Positive & Privative Causes

In the beginning of chapter eight, Locke discusses an interesting approach to the concept of privation. Although a cause may be privative, the idea which it causes may nonetheless be positive. Take the example that Locke gives of the colors black and white. Although we know that our experience of blackness is caused by a privation (i.e., the lack of light), the idea of blackness is something positive. When we speak of darkness or blackness, we do not need to be thinking of it as the absence of light or white. This holds true for painters, for whom black is a positive color, even though the color black itself may simply be a privation of the color white. This seems problematic, though, and Locke would agree, because its not clear that black is caused by the lack of white as much as darkness is caused by the lack of light. another example would be a hole. A hole is caused by a lack of material substance in something physical. For example, a hole in a plastic bucket is a hole by virtue of it being a location without plastic. nevertheless, we can meaningfully speak of the shape of the hole in the bucket without having to first speak of the shape of the bucket around the hole. We could relate this same type of reasoning to shadows. A Shadow is caused by light being blocked by something, and the shadow takes the shape of that something which is blocking the light. So although the shadow is really just an absence of light, the shape of the shadow s a shape of something positive, namely the shape of whatever is causing the shadow.