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Single Idea 2183
[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 4. Pro-Empiricism
]
Full Idea
The creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting or diminishing the materials afforded us by the sense or experience. For example, a golden mountain or a virtuous horse come from joining ideas.
Gist of Idea
We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences
Source
David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], II.13)
Book Ref
Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.19
A Reaction
The example of the Golden Mountain comes from Aguinas Quodlibeta 8.2.1. The original idea is in Sextus Empiricus.
Related Idea
Idea 22763
We can only dream of a winged man if we have experienced men and some winged thing [Sext.Empiricus]
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[reasons for favouring the empirical view of knowledge]:
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1500
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When we sleep, reason closes down as the senses do
[Heraclitus, by Sext.Empiricus]
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543
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All men long to understand, as shown by their delight in the senses
[Aristotle]
|
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1822
|
Reason can't judge senses, as it is based on them
[Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
|
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5702
|
The senses are much the best way to distinguish true from false
[Lucretius]
|
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5729
|
If the senses are deceptive, reason, which rests on them, is even worse
[Lucretius]
|
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16637
|
The absolute boundaries of our thought are the ideas we get from senses and the mind
[Locke]
|
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3938
|
Geometry is originally perceived by senses, and so is not purely intellectual
[Berkeley]
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2183
|
We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences
[Hume]
|
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2186
|
We cannot form the idea of something we haven't experienced
[Hume]
|
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2194
|
How could Adam predict he would drown in water or burn in fire?
[Hume]
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2702
|
Only madmen dispute the authority of experience
[Hume]
|
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2205
|
You couldn't reason at all if you lacked experience
[Hume]
|
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2217
|
When definitions are pushed to the limit, only experience can make them precise
[Hume]
|
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21285
|
Events are baffling before experience, and obvious after experience
[Hume]
|
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6577
|
For Kant, our conceptual scheme is disastrous when it reaches beyond experience
[Kant, by Fogelin]
|
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16925
|
Appearance gives truth, as long as it is only used within experience
[Kant]
|
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12108
|
All real knowledge rests on observed facts
[Comte]
|
|
9082
|
Clear concepts result from good observation, extensive experience, and accurate memory
[Mill]
|
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5185
|
It is further sense-experience which informs us of the mistakes that arise out of sense-experience
[Ayer]
|
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21685
|
Empiricism says evidence rests on the senses, but that insight is derived from science
[Quine]
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