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Full Idea
I can understand myself without the faculties of imagining and sensing, but not vice versa; I cannot understand them without me - a substance endowed with understanding.
Gist of Idea
I can exist without imagination and sensing, but they can't exist without me
Source
René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §6.78)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.157
A Reaction
I think this is a fundamental and important error on Descartes' part. The idea that understanding is possible without imagination (and even sensation) is wrong, and it leads to the misleading concept of 'pure' reason.
| 5266 | It would seem that the thinking part is the individual self [Aristotle] |
| 1401 | Since I only observe myself to be thinking, I conclude that that is my essence [Descartes] |
| 2299 | I can exist without imagination and sensing, but they can't exist without me [Descartes] |
| 6907 | For Descartes a person's essence is the mind because objects are perceived by mind, not senses [Descartes, by Feuerbach] |
| 5017 | In thinking we shut ourselves off from other substances, showing our identity and separateness [Descartes] |
| 6721 | Ideas are perceived by the mind, soul or self [Berkeley] |
| 1352 | Thoughts change continually, but the self doesn't [Reid] |
| 5549 | Mental representations would not be mine if they did not belong to a unified self-consciousness [Kant] |