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Single Idea 2600

[filed under theme 18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / c. Nativist concepts ]

Full Idea

I have never written or taken the view that the mind requires innate ideas which are something distinct from its own faculty of thinking.

Gist of Idea

The mind's innate ideas are part of its capacity for thought

Source

René Descartes (Comments on a Certain Broadsheet [1644], p.365)

Book Ref

'The Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Beakley,B /Ludlow P [MIT 1992], p.365

The 3 ideas from 'Comments on a Certain Broadsheet'

2600 The mind's innate ideas are part of its capacity for thought [Descartes]
2601 Qualia must be innate, because physical motions do not contain them [Descartes]
2602 What experience could prove 'If a=c and b=c then a=b'? [Descartes]