display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers
3 ideas
12270 | Being is one [Melissus, by Aristotle] |
Full Idea: Being is one. | |
From: report of Melissus (fragments/reports [c.443 BCE]) by Aristotle - Topics 104b23 | |
A reaction: I can only really understand this in terms of physics, as the belief that ultimately there is one simple theory which explains everything. That project doesn't look terribly promising, despite the lovely simplifications of modern physics. |
24029 | Among the simples are the graspable negations, such as rest and instants [Descartes] |
Full Idea: Among the simple things, we must also place their negation and deprivation, insofar as they fall under out intelligence, because the idea of nothingness, of the instant, of rest, is no less true an idea than that of existence, of duration, of motion. | |
From: René Descartes (Rules for the Direction of the Mind [1628], 12) | |
A reaction: He sees the 'simple' things as the foundation of all knowledge, because they are self-evident. Not sure about 'no less true', since the specific nothings are parasitic on the somethings. |
3644 | Two things being joined together doesn't prove they are the same [Descartes] |
Full Idea: The fact that we often see two things joined together does not license the inference that they are one and the same. | |
From: René Descartes (Reply to Sixth Objections [1641], 444) | |
A reaction: Correct. The problem comes when they are never ever apart, and you begin to suspect that they are conjoined in all possible worlds. Why might this be so? It can only be identity or a causal link. |