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Full Idea
The thought of a secondary quality always carries us back to the sensation which it produces.We give the same name to both, and are apt to confound them.
Gist of Idea
Secondary qualities conjure up, and are confused with, the sensations which produce them
Source
Thomas Reid (Essays on Intellectual Powers 2: Senses [1785], 17)
Book Ref
Reid,Thomas: 'Inquiry and Essays', ed/tr. Beanblossom /K.Lehrer [Hackett 1983], p.185
A Reaction
'Redness', for example. Reid puts the point very nicely. Secondary qualities are not entirely mental; they pick out features of the world, but are much harder to understand than the primary qualities. The qualia question lurks.
| 6492 | Reid is seen as the main direct realist of the eighteenth century [Reid, by Robinson,H] |
| 23634 | Accepting the existence of anything presupposes the notion of existence [Reid] |
| 23635 | Truths are self-evident to sensible persons who understand them clearly without prejudice [Reid] |
| 23637 | Primary qualities are the object of mathematics [Reid] |
| 23638 | Secondary qualities conjure up, and are confused with, the sensations which produce them [Reid] |
| 23639 | It is unclear whether a toothache is in the mind or in the tooth, but the word has a single meaning [Reid] |
| 23640 | Only mature minds can distinguish the qualities of a body [Reid] |
| 23641 | People dislike believing without evidence, and try to avoid it [Reid] |
| 23642 | If non-rational evidence reaches us, it is reason which then makes use of it [Reid] |
| 7631 | Sensation is not committed to any external object, but perception is [Reid] |