COMBINATION AND CONNECTION OF IDEAS are phrases to be found in bk. II. ch. XXXIII. of Locke’s Essay, in which he treats of what is more commonly called Association of Ideas (q.v.).
The phrase Association of Ideas seems to have been introduced by Locke. It stands as the title to one of his chapters in his Essay on the Human Understanding. But in the body of the chapter he uses the phrase combination of ideas. These two phrases have reference to the two views which may be taken of the train of thought in the mind. In both, under ideas are comprehended all the various modes of consciousness. In treating of the association of ideas, the inquiry is as to the laws which regulate the succession or order according to which one thought follows another. But it has been observed that the various modes of consciousness not only succeed in some kind of order, but that they incorporate themselves with one another so as to form permanent and almost indissoluble combinations.— V. ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS.
