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Full Idea
The nature of matter, or body viewed as a whole, consists not in its being something which is hard, heavy, or colored, or which in any other way affects the senses, but only in its being a thing extended in length, breadth and depth.
Gist of Idea
Matter is not hard, heavy or coloured, but merely extended in space
Source
René Descartes (Principles of Philosophy [1646], 2.4), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 04.5
Book Ref
Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.74
| 16687 | Bodies are three-dimensional substances [Aquinas] |
| 16684 | Impenetrability only belongs to the essence of extension [Descartes] |
| 16601 | Matter is not hard, heavy or coloured, but merely extended in space [Descartes] |
| 6518 | Matter can't just be Descartes's geometry, because a filler of the spaces is needed [Robinson,H on Descartes] |
| 13185 | Even if extension is impenetrable, this still offers no explanation for motion and its laws [Leibniz] |
| 16683 | Leibniz eventually said resistance, rather than extension, was the essence of body [Leibniz, by Pasnau] |
| 5615 | Extension and impenetrability together make the concept of matter [Kant] |
| 6519 | Locke's solidity is not matter, because that is impenetrability and hardness combined [Robinson,H] |