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22646 | We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James] |
Full Idea: Alongside the passion for simplification …is the passion for distinguishing; it is the passion to be acquainted with the parts rather than to comprehend the whole. | |
From: William James (The Sentiment of Rationality [1882], p.22) | |
A reaction: As I child I dismantled almost every toy I was given. This seems to be the motivation for a lot of analytic philosophy, but Aristotle also tended to think that way. |