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Full Idea
An idea is true if what it represents is possible; false if the representation contains a contradiction.
Gist of Idea
True ideas represent what is possible; false ideas represent contradictions
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Reflections on Knowledge, Truth and Ideas [1684], p.287)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.287
A Reaction
Odd in the analytic tradition to talk of a single idea or concept (rather than a proposition or utterance) as being 'true'. But there is clearly a notion of valid or legitimate or useful concepts here. Hilbert said true just meant non-contradictory.
Related Ideas
Idea 19423 By an 'idea' I mean not an actual thought, but the resources we can draw on to think [Leibniz]
Idea 5644 In Hegel's logic it is concepts (rather than judgements or propositions) which are true or false [Hegel, by Scruton]
Idea 15716 If axioms and their implications have no contradictions, they pass my criterion of truth and existence [Hilbert]
Idea 19439 God produces possibilities, and thus ideas [Leibniz]
Idea 21410 That a concept is not self-contradictory does not make what it represents possible [Kant]
| 5685 | True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God [Descartes] |
| 21807 | Ideas are powerful entities, which can produce further ideas [Spinoza, by Schmid] |
| 4830 | An 'idea' is a mental conception which is actively formed by the mind in thinking [Spinoza] |
| 4842 | Ideas are not images formed in the brain, but are the conceptions of thought [Spinoza] |
| 20311 | An idea involves affirmation or negation [Spinoza] |
| 6486 | Ideas are the objects of understanding when we think [Locke] |
| 15967 | The word 'idea' covers thinking best, for imaginings, concepts, and basic experiences [Locke] |
| 12496 | Complex ideas are all resolvable into simple ideas [Locke] |
| 12945 | Thoughts correspond to sensations, but ideas are independent of thoughts [Leibniz] |
| 12938 | An idea is an independent inner object, which expresses the qualities of things [Leibniz] |
| 19357 | The idea of green seems simple, but it must be compounded of the ideas of blue and yellow [Leibniz] |
| 12950 | We must distinguish images from exact defined ideas [Leibniz] |
| 19427 | True ideas represent what is possible; false ideas represent contradictions [Leibniz] |
| 19423 | By an 'idea' I mean not an actual thought, but the resources we can draw on to think [Leibniz] |
| 5374 | Berkeley probably used 'idea' to mean both the act of apprehension and the thing apprehended [Russell on Berkeley] |
| 23630 | Only philosophers treat ideas as objects [Reid] |
| 12615 | Mental representations are the old 'Ideas', but without images [Fodor] |
| 5636 | Cartesian 'ideas' confuse concepts and propositions [Scruton] |