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Single Idea 21804
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 1. Faculties
]
Full Idea
Faculties are either complete fictions, or nothing but metaphysical beings or universals, which are used to forming from particulars (as 'stoneness' is to a stone).
Gist of Idea
Faculties are either fictions, or the abstract universals of ideas
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Pr 48S), quoted by Stephan Schmid - Faculties in Early Modern Philosophy 3
Book Ref
'The Faculties: a history', ed/tr. Perler,Dominic [OUP 2015], p.170
A Reaction
So they are, at best, the sources of our concepts. Does that mean one faculty for each concept, or one huge concept-generating faculty?
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[theory that each distinct capacity has a specific source]:
24061
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If we divide the mind up according to its capacities, there are a lot of them
[Aristotle]
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20204
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Whether the mind has parts is irrelevant, since it obviously has distinct capacities
[Aristotle]
|
23906
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Courage from spirit is natural and unconquerable, as seen in the young
[Aristotle]
|
20785
|
Our conceptions arise from experience, similarity, analogy, transposition, composition and opposition
[Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
|
21799
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We just use the word 'faculty' when we don't know the psychological cause
[Galen]
|
23264
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Philosophers think faculties are in substances, and invent a faculty for every activity
[Galen]
|
22107
|
Sensations are transmitted to 'internal senses' in the brain, chiefly to 'phantasia' and 'imagination'
[Aquinas, by Kretzmann/Stump]
|
24026
|
Our four knowledge faculties are intelligence, imagination, the senses, and memory
[Descartes]
|
21800
|
Descartes mentions many cognitive faculties, but reduces them to will and intellect
[Descartes, by Schmid]
|
21804
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Faculties are either fictions, or the abstract universals of ideas
[Spinoza]
|
2869
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Kant's only answer as to how synthetic a priori judgements are possible was that we have a 'faculty'!
[Nietzsche on Kant]
|
9346
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Judgements which are essentially and strictly universal reveal our faculty of a priori cognition
[Kant]
|
5572
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Reason has logical and transcendental faculties
[Kant]
|
24145
|
Mind is a mechanism of abstraction and simplification, aimed at control
[Nietzsche]
|
23191
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Minds have an excluding drive to scare things off, and a selecting one to filter facts
[Nietzsche]
|
14868
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Our primary faculty is perception of structure, as when looking in a mirror
[Nietzsche]
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23943
|
Distinguishing reason from passion is based on an archaic 'faculty' theory
[Solomon]
|
2539
|
Mental modules for language, social, action, theory, space, emotion
[McGinn]
|
20657
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There are 23 core brain functions, with known circuit, transmitters, genes and behaviour
[Watson]
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22135
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Our concepts can never fully capture reality, but simplification does not falsify
[Boulter]
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