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Work #1482 · Late

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

Edward Stillingfleet
1697 (with subsequent rejoinders through 1698) · English
Published letters / controversial-theological exchange · Late-Restoration philosophical theology / Locke controversy

Stillingfleet's 1697–98 replies to Locke — the most extensive philosophical exchange of Locke's life

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke (Late)
Time · Extent Finite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Both
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Limited
Observer · Moral Authority Revelation
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

1697-98. Stillingfleet was 62-63; the exchange continued until his 1699 death.

Space

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

London / Worcester — Stillingfleet's episcopal residence; Oates (Locke's residence with Sir Francis and Lady Masham, in Essex).

Matter

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

Two large 'Answer' volumes plus subsequent rejoinders (~600 pages total). Form is the characteristic seventeenth-century printed-letter controversy.

Observer

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

Stillingfleet as scholastic-metaphysical critic of Locke's empiricism. The observer is the senior Anglican-theological philosopher engaging the most innovative philosophical work of the post-1690 period.

Energy

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

Sustained controversial-philosophical energies of a four-round exchange. The Locke-Stillingfleet controversy is the most extensive published philosophical exchange of either thinker's life.

Information

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

Multiple printed letters published as the controversy unfolded. The exchange shaped Locke's 1700 fourth-edition Essay revisions.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

The Bishop of Worcester's Answer to Mr Locke

The most sustained scholastic-realist critique of Lockean empiricism in print; primary source for both sides. Continuously discussed in subsequent Locke-scholarship; the metaphysical issues (substance and accident, the cognitive accessibility of substance, the relations between language and ontology) were among the most important seventeenth-century philosophical questions.