Write this argument out as a series of numbered statements with the conclusion of the argument at the end. If you believe this is a multistep argument, then include marginal notations that indicate how the statements are related. Briefly note whether you think Locke's argument is good. Note: Locke understands "idea" to mean "..an object that exists in a mind. For example, mental images are ideas. Sensations (e. g. sensations of pain) are also ideas" (Stich & Donaldson 115).
"First, it is obvious that those perceptions that we think are produced by outer things are produced in us by exterior causes affecting our senses [...] When my eyes are shut, I can choose to recall to my mind the ideas of light or the sun that former sensations have lodged in my memory [...] But if at noon I turn my eyes towards the sun, I can’t avoid the ideas that the light or sun then produces in me. So there is a clear difference between the ideas stored in my memory (over which, if they were only in my memory, I would always have the same power to call them up or set them aside as I choose) and those that force themselves on me and that I can’t avoid having. The latter ideas—the ones I have whether I want them or not—must be produced in my mind by some exterior cause, and the brisk acting of some external objects whose power I can’t resist."