more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
A perfect grasp of any subject depends far more on knowing elements than on knowing complexes.
Gist of Idea
Understanding mainly involves knowing the elements, not their combinations
Source
Plato (Theaetetus [c.364 BCE], 206b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Theaetetus', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [Penguin 1987], p.123
648 | Socrates began the quest for something universal with his definitions, but he didn't make them separate [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
166 | A speaker should be able to divide a subject, right down to the limits of divisibility [Plato] |
16123 | Whenever you perceive a community of things, you should also hunt out differences in the group [Plato] |
2083 | Either a syllable is its letters (making parts as knowable as whole) or it isn't (meaning it has no parts) [Plato] |
2086 | Understanding mainly involves knowing the elements, not their combinations [Plato] |
12274 | Begin examination with basics, and subdivide till you can go no further [Aristotle] |
1484 | We should say nothing of the whole if our contact is with the parts [Epicurus, by Plutarch] |
1887 | You cannot divide anything into many parts, because after the first division you are no longer dividing the original [Sext.Empiricus] |
8014 | Resolve a complex into simple elements, then reconstruct the complex by using them [Hobbes, by MacIntyre] |
13099 | Analysing right down to primitive concepts seems beyond our powers [Leibniz] |