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Single Idea 3627
[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / C. Rationalism / 1. Rationalism
]
Full Idea
A dog certainly makes similar kinds of judgement to your perceiving men by their hats and cloaks when they see their master's hat or clothes, …and they can recognise their master even if he is standing, sitting, lying down, or crouching.
Gist of Idea
Dogs can make the same judgements as us about variable things
Source
comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.32) by Pierre Gassendi - Objections to 'Meditations' (Fifth) 272
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Meditations on First Philosophy etc.', ed/tr. Cottingham,John [CUP 1986], p.77
Related Idea
Idea 3615
Little reason is needed to speak, so animals have no reason at all [Descartes]
The
228 ideas
from René Descartes
16634
|
I can't be unaware of anything which is in me
[Descartes]
|
3634
|
We can't prove a first cause from our inability to grasp infinity
[Descartes]
|
3635
|
Essence must be known before we discuss existence
[Descartes]
|
3622
|
The Cogito is not a syllogism but a self-evident intuition
[Descartes]
|
3643
|
The concept of mind excludes body, and vice versa
[Descartes]
|
3626
|
Knowing the attributes is enough to reveal a substance
[Descartes]
|
3630
|
Our thinking about external things doesn't disprove the existence of innate ideas
[Descartes]
|
3631
|
A blind man may still contain the idea of colour
[Descartes]
|
3640
|
Possible existence is a perfection in the idea of a triangle
[Descartes]
|
3639
|
Necessary existence is a property which is uniquely part of God's essence
[Descartes]
|
3637
|
Ideas in God's mind only have value if he makes it so
[Descartes]
|
3621
|
Only judgement decides which of our senses are reliable
[Descartes]
|
3644
|
Two things being joined together doesn't prove they are the same
[Descartes]
|
4298
|
All items of possible human knowledge are interconnected, and can be reached by inference
[Descartes]
|
24018
|
One truth leads us to another
[Descartes]
|
24019
|
If we accept mere probabilities as true we undermine our existing knowledge
[Descartes]
|
24020
|
We all see intuitively that we exist, where intuition is attentive, clear and distinct rational understanding
[Descartes]
|
24022
|
Our souls possess divine seeds of knowledge, which can bear spontaneous fruit
[Descartes]
|
24021
|
The method starts with clear intuitions, followed by a process of deduction
[Descartes]
|
24023
|
All the sciences searching for order and measure are related to mathematics
[Descartes]
|
24024
|
The secret of the method is to recognise which thing in a series is the simplest
[Descartes]
|
24025
|
Clear and distinct truths must be known all at once (unlike deductions)
[Descartes]
|
24031
|
When Socrates doubts, he know he doubts, and that truth is possible
[Descartes]
|
24030
|
3+4=7 is necessary because we cannot conceive of seven without including three and four
[Descartes]
|
24029
|
Among the simples are the graspable negations, such as rest and instants
[Descartes]
|
24032
|
Clever scholars can obscure things which are obvious even to peasants
[Descartes]
|
24028
|
The force by which we know things is spiritual, and quite distinct from the body
[Descartes]
|
24026
|
Our four knowledge faculties are intelligence, imagination, the senses, and memory
[Descartes]
|
24027
|
Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them
[Descartes]
|
24033
|
Most scholastic disputes concern words, where agreeing on meanings would settle them
[Descartes]
|
24035
|
Unity is something shared by many things, so in that respect they are equals
[Descartes]
|
24036
|
I can only see the proportion of two to three if there is a common measure - their unity
[Descartes]
|
24034
|
If someone had only seen the basic colours, they could deduce the others from resemblance
[Descartes]
|
9807
|
In pursuing truth, anything less certain than mathematics is a waste of time
[Descartes]
|
3600
|
Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress
[Descartes]
|
3601
|
Most things in human life seem vain and useless
[Descartes]
|
1581
|
Greeks elevate virtues enormously, but never explain them
[Descartes]
|
3602
|
Almost every daft idea has been expressed by some philosopher
[Descartes]
|
3603
|
Methodical thinking is cautious, analytical, systematic, and panoramic
[Descartes, by PG]
|
3604
|
When rebuilding a house, one needs alternative lodgings
[Descartes]
|
3605
|
We can believe a thing without knowing we believe it
[Descartes]
|
1583
|
In morals Descartes accepts the conventional, but rejects it in epistemology
[Roochnik on Descartes]
|
3606
|
I was searching for reliable rock under the shifting sand
[Descartes]
|
3608
|
I can deny my body and the world, but not my own existence
[Descartes]
|
3607
|
In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain
[Descartes]
|
3610
|
Truth is clear and distinct conception - of which it is hard to be sure
[Descartes]
|
3609
|
I am a thinking substance, which doesn't need a place or material support
[Descartes]
|
3611
|
Understanding, rather than imagination or senses, gives knowledge
[Descartes]
|
3612
|
Clear and distinct conceptions are true because a perfect God exists
[Descartes]
|
3614
|
A machine could speak in response to physical stimulus, but not hold a conversation
[Descartes]
|
3613
|
Reason is universal in its responses, but a physical machine is constrained by its organs
[Descartes]
|
3615
|
Little reason is needed to speak, so animals have no reason at all
[Descartes]
|
3616
|
The soul must unite with the body to have appetites and sensations
[Descartes]
|
3617
|
I aim to find the principles and causes of everything, using the seeds within my mind
[Descartes]
|
3618
|
Only experiments can settle disagreements between rival explanations
[Descartes]
|
16686
|
God has established laws throughout nature, and implanted ideas of them within us
[Descartes]
|
16635
|
Incorporeal substances are powers or forces
[Descartes, by Pasnau]
|
16684
|
Impenetrability only belongs to the essence of extension
[Descartes]
|
7504
|
Modern science comes from Descartes' view that knowledge doesn't need moral purity
[Descartes, by Foucault]
|
1569
|
Descartes impoverished the classical idea of logos, and it no longer covered human experience
[Roochnik on Descartes]
|
2857
|
Since Plato all philosophers have followed the herd, except Descartes, stuck in superficial reason
[Nietzsche on Descartes]
|
17865
|
Descartes gives an essence by an encapsulating formula
[Descartes, by Almog]
|
6929
|
Modern philosophy set the self-conscious ego in place of God
[Descartes, by Feuerbach]
|
6153
|
Interaction between mental and physical seems to violate the principle of conservation of energy
[Rowlands on Descartes]
|
6490
|
For Descartes, objects have one primary quality, which is geometrical
[Descartes, by Robinson,H]
|
4017
|
Descartes created the modern view of rationality, as an internal feature instead of an external vision
[Descartes, by Taylor,C]
|
16631
|
If we remove surface qualities from wax, we have an extended, flexible, changeable thing
[Descartes]
|
1585
|
Descartes tried to model reason on maths instead of 'logos'
[Roochnik on Descartes]
|
10054
|
Arithmetic and geometry achieve some certainty without worrying about existence
[Descartes]
|
6347
|
Descartes can't begin again, because sceptics doubt cognitive processes as well as beliefs
[Pollock/Cruz on Descartes]
|
2247
|
To achieve good science we must rebuild from the foundations
[Descartes]
|
1582
|
Labelling slightly doubtful things as false is irrational
[Roochnik on Descartes]
|
2248
|
Reason says don't assent to uncertain principles, just as much as totally false ones
[Descartes]
|
2249
|
It is prudent never to trust your senses if they have deceived you even once
[Descartes]
|
3620
|
We correct sense errors with other senses, not intellect
[Mersenne on Descartes]
|
3619
|
The senses can only report, so perception errors are in the judgment
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2251
|
Even if my body and objects are imaginary, there may be simpler things which are true
[Descartes]
|
2252
|
Surely maths is true even if I am dreaming?
[Descartes]
|
2253
|
God may have created nothing, but made his creation appear to me as it does now
[Descartes]
|
2254
|
To achieve full scepticism, I imagine a devil who deceives me about the external world and my own body and senses
[Descartes]
|
3849
|
"I think therefore I am" is the absolute truth of consciousness
[Sartre on Descartes]
|
3850
|
We discovers others as well as ourselves in the Cogito
[Sartre on Descartes]
|
2255
|
Only one certainty is needed for progress (like a lever's fulcrum)
[Descartes]
|
2257
|
I myself could be the author of all these self-delusions
[Descartes]
|
2256
|
Maybe there is only one certain fact, which is that nothing is certain
[Descartes]
|
2259
|
"I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind
[Descartes]
|
2258
|
I must even exist if I am being deceived by something
[Descartes]
|
3160
|
The Cogito is a transcendental argument, not a piece of a priori knowledge
[Rey on Descartes]
|
1117
|
The Cogito proves subjective experience is basic, but makes false claims about the Self
[Russell on Descartes]
|
2873
|
Maybe 'I' am not the thinker, but something produced by thought
[Nietzsche on Descartes]
|
5360
|
The thing which experiences may be momentary, and change with the next experience
[Russell on Descartes]
|
2870
|
'I think' assumes I exist, that thinking is known and caused, and that I am doing it
[Nietzsche on Descartes]
|
5188
|
A thought doesn't imply other thoughts, or enough thoughts to make up a self
[Ayer on Descartes]
|
3624
|
That I perform an activity (thinking) doesn't prove what type of thing I am
[Hobbes on Descartes]
|
3120
|
Autistic children seem to use the 'I' concept without seeing themselves as thinkers
[Segal on Descartes]
|
4526
|
The Cogito assumes a priori the existence of substance, when actually it is a grammatical custom
[Nietzsche on Descartes]
|
5579
|
How can we infer that all thinking involves self-consciousness, just from my own case?
[Kant on Descartes]
|
5580
|
My self is not an inference from 'I think', but a presupposition of it
[Kant on Descartes]
|
5587
|
We cannot give any information a priori about the nature of the 'thing that thinks'
[Kant on Descartes]
|
5588
|
The fact that I am a subject is not enough evidence to show that I am a substantial object
[Kant on Descartes]
|
1369
|
It is a precondition of the use of the word 'I' that I exist
[Ayer on Descartes]
|
3623
|
The Cogito only works if you already understand what thought and existence are
[Mersenne on Descartes]
|
2260
|
If I don't think, there is no reason to think that I exist
[Descartes]
|
3625
|
The 'thinking thing' may be the physical basis of the mind
[Hobbes on Descartes]
|
2261
|
My perceiving of things may be false, but my seeming to perceive them cannot be false
[Descartes]
|
2263
|
The wax is not perceived by the senses, but by the mind alone
[Descartes]
|
3628
|
Substance cannot be conceived or explained to others
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
3627
|
Dogs can make the same judgements as us about variable things
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2264
|
We don't 'see' men in heavy clothes, we judge them to be men
[Descartes]
|
2265
|
We perceive objects by intellect, not by senses or imagination
[Descartes]
|
2266
|
My general rule is that everything that I perceive clearly and distinctly is true
[Descartes]
|
4301
|
Someone may think a thing is 'clear and distinct', but be wrong
[Leibniz on Descartes]
|
5685
|
True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God
[Descartes]
|
5686
|
In some thoughts I grasp a subject, but also I will or fear or affirm or deny it
[Descartes]
|
3629
|
All ideas are adventitious, and come from the senses
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2268
|
One idea leads to another, but there must be an initial idea that contains the reality of all the others
[Descartes]
|
2430
|
I can learn the concepts of duration and number just from observing my own thoughts
[Descartes]
|
2269
|
God the creator is an intelligent, infinite, powerful substance
[Descartes]
|
2272
|
There must be at least as much in the cause as there is in the effect
[Descartes]
|
1400
|
Some cause must unite the separate temporal sections of a person
[Descartes]
|
2274
|
The idea of God in my mind is like the mark a craftsman puts on his work
[Descartes]
|
2273
|
The ideas of God and of my self are innate in me
[Descartes]
|
2275
|
It is self-evident that deception is a natural defect, so God could not be a deceiver
[Descartes]
|
2276
|
The mind is a non-extended thing which thinks
[Descartes]
|
2277
|
Since God does not wish to deceive me, my judgement won't make errors if I use it properly
[Descartes]
|
2278
|
Error arises because my faculty for judging truth is not infinite
[Descartes]
|
2281
|
If we ask whether God's works are perfect, we must not take a narrow viewpoint, but look at the universe as a whole
[Descartes]
|
2280
|
Many causes are quite baffling, so it is absurd to deduce causes from final purposes
[Descartes]
|
2282
|
My capacity to make choices with my free will extends as far as any faculty ever could
[Descartes]
|
2283
|
Our 'will' just consists of the feeling that when we are motivated to do something, there are no external pressures
[Descartes]
|
2284
|
I make errors because my will extends beyond my understanding
[Descartes]
|
3636
|
God didn't give us good judgement even about our own lives
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2279
|
A triangle has a separate non-invented nature, shown by my ability to prove facts about it
[Descartes]
|
2285
|
I can think of innumerable shapes I have never experienced
[Descartes]
|
2286
|
The idea of a supremely perfect being is within me, like the basic concepts of mathematics
[Descartes]
|
3632
|
We mustn't worship God as an image because we have no idea of him
[Hobbes on Descartes]
|
3633
|
We can never conceive of an infinite being
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2287
|
Existence and God's essence are inseparable, like a valley and a mountain, or a triangle and its properties
[Descartes]
|
2288
|
I cannot think of a supremely perfect being without the supreme perfection of existence
[Descartes]
|
5036
|
Descartes cannot assume that a most perfect being exists without contradictions
[Leibniz on Descartes]
|
3638
|
Existence is not a perfection; it is what makes perfection possible
[Gassendi on Descartes]
|
2289
|
Nothing apart from God could have essential existence, and such a being must be unique and eternal
[Descartes]
|
2290
|
Once it is clear that there is a God who is no deceiver, I conclude that clear and distinct perceptions must be true
[Descartes]
|
3641
|
It is circular to make truth depend on believing God's existence is true
[Arnauld on Descartes]
|
4524
|
Descartes is right that in the Christian view only God can guarantee the reliability of senses
[Nietzsche on Descartes]
|
1399
|
Imagination and sensation are non-essential to mind
[Descartes]
|
2294
|
I can only sense an object if it is present, and can't fail to sense it when it is
[Descartes]
|
2295
|
Why does pain make us sad?
[Descartes]
|
2296
|
If pain is felt in a lost limb, I cannot be certain that a felt pain exists in my real limbs
[Descartes]
|
2552
|
Knowing different aspects of brain/mind doesn't make them different
[Rorty on Descartes]
|
4305
|
Descartes gives no clear criterion for individuating mental substances
[Cottingham on Descartes]
|
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]
|
2298
|
Mind is not extended, unlike the body
[Descartes]
|
3423
|
Descartes is a substance AND property dualist
[Descartes, by Kim]
|
3642
|
Pythagoras' Theorem doesn't cease to be part of the essence of triangles just because we doubt it
[Arnauld on Descartes]
|
2297
|
If I can separate two things in my understanding, then God can separate them in reality
[Descartes]
|
2301
|
We know by thought that what is done cannot be undone
[Descartes]
|
4861
|
Does Descartes have a clear conception of how mind unites with body?
[Spinoza on Descartes]
|
4862
|
Can the pineal gland be moved more slowly or quickly by the mind than by animal spirits?
[Spinoza on Descartes]
|
2303
|
The mind is utterly indivisible
[Descartes]
|
2302
|
Faculties of the mind aren't parts, as one mind uses them
[Descartes]
|
2305
|
Waking actions are joined by memory to all our other actions, unlike actions of which we dream
[Descartes]
|
3151
|
Descartes put thought at the centre of the mind problem, but we put sensation
[Rey on Descartes]
|
6907
|
For Descartes a person's essence is the mind because objects are perceived by mind, not senses
[Descartes, by Feuerbach]
|
6914
|
Descartes transformed 'God is thinkable, so he exists' into 'I think, so I exist'
[Descartes, by Feuerbach]
|
4641
|
In the Meditations version of the Cogito he says "I am; I exist", which avoids presenting it as an argument
[Descartes, by Baggini /Fosl]
|
13923
|
Descartes' claim to know his existence before his essence is misleading or absurd
[Descartes, by Lowe]
|
6930
|
Modern self-consciousness is a doubtful abstraction; only senses and feelings are certain
[Feuerbach on Descartes]
|
21800
|
Descartes mentions many cognitive faculties, but reduces them to will and intellect
[Descartes, by Schmid]
|
6540
|
Even Descartes may concede that mental supervenes on neuroanatomical
[Lycan on Descartes]
|
20190
|
Belief is not an intellectual state or act, because propositions are affirmed or denied by the will
[Descartes, by Zagzebski]
|
7733
|
Superman's strength is indubitable, Clark Kent's is doubtful, so they are not the same?
[Maslin on Descartes]
|
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]
|
4016
|
Descartes makes strength of will the central virtue
[Descartes, by Taylor,C]
|
4313
|
Are there a few primary passions (say, joy, sadness and desire)?
[Descartes, by Cottingham]
|
4015
|
For Descartes passions are God-given preservers of the mind-body union
[Descartes, by Taylor,C]
|
3654
|
The pineal gland links soul to body, and unites the two symmetrical sides of the body
[Descartes, by PG]
|
20037
|
Merely willing to walk leads to our walking
[Descartes]
|
23989
|
There are six primitive passions: wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness
[Descartes, by Goldie]
|
16763
|
We don't die because the soul departs; the soul departs because the organs cease functioning
[Descartes]
|
21962
|
Metaphysics is the roots of the tree of science
[Descartes]
|
3657
|
Understanding, not the senses, gives certainty
[Descartes]
|
3659
|
I know the truth that God exists and is the author of truth
[Descartes]
|
3660
|
Atheism arises from empiricism, because God is intangible
[Descartes]
|
5004
|
We can know basic Principles without further knowledge, but not the other way round
[Descartes]
|
3656
|
The greatest good for a state is true philosophers
[Descartes]
|
3658
|
Total doubt can't include your existence while doubting
[Descartes]
|
12730
|
We will not try to understand natural or divine ends, or final causes
[Descartes]
|
16601
|
Matter is not hard, heavy or coloured, but merely extended in space
[Descartes]
|
15987
|
Physics only needs geometry or abstract mathematics, which can explain and demonstrate everything
[Descartes]
|
5005
|
I think, therefore I am, because for a thinking thing to not exist is a contradiction
[Descartes]
|
5006
|
'Thought' is all our conscious awareness, including feeling as well as understanding
[Descartes]
|
5007
|
Most errors of judgement result from an inaccurate perception of the facts
[Descartes]
|
5009
|
We do not praise the acts of an efficient automaton, as their acts are necessary
[Descartes]
|
5008
|
The greatest perfection of man is to act by free will, and thus merit praise or blame
[Descartes]
|
5010
|
Our free will is so self-evident to us that it must be a basic innate idea
[Descartes]
|
5011
|
There are two ultimate classes of existence: thinking substance and extended substance
[Descartes]
|
5012
|
'Nothing comes from nothing' is an eternal truth found within the mind
[Descartes]
|
5013
|
A substance needs nothing else in order to exist
[Descartes]
|
16630
|
If we perceive an attribute, we infer the existence of some substance
[Descartes]
|
16633
|
A substance has one principal property which is its nature and essence
[Descartes]
|
5014
|
We can understand thinking occuring without imagination or sensation
[Descartes]
|
5016
|
Five universals: genus, species, difference, property, accident
[Descartes]
|
5015
|
A universal is a single idea applied to individual things that are similar to one another
[Descartes]
|
5017
|
In thinking we shut ourselves off from other substances, showing our identity and separateness
[Descartes]
|
5018
|
Even if tightly united, mind and body are different, as God could separate them
[Descartes]
|
16744
|
All powers can be explained by obvious features like size, shape and motion of matter
[Descartes]
|
20964
|
Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion'
[Descartes, by Papineau]
|
22593
|
Our sensation of light may not be the same as what produces the sensation
[Descartes]
|
16569
|
The Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry of the philosophers need themselves to be explained
[Descartes]
|
21963
|
It is possible that an omnipotent God might make one and two fail to equal three
[Descartes]
|
3652
|
I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body
[Descartes]
|
3653
|
My Meditations are the complete foundation of my physics
[Descartes]
|
4736
|
Truth is such a transcendentally clear notion that it cannot be further defined
[Descartes]
|
3789
|
The more reasons that compel me, the freer I am
[Descartes]
|
12251
|
Substantial forms are not understood, and explain nothing
[Descartes]
|
16772
|
An angelic mind would not experience pain, even when connected to a human body
[Descartes, by Pasnau]
|
16712
|
Atheism is an atrocious and intolerable crime in any country
[Descartes]
|
6518
|
Matter can't just be Descartes's geometry, because a filler of the spaces is needed
[Robinson,H on Descartes]
|
13445
|
Descartes showed a one-one order-preserving match between points on a line and the real numbers
[Descartes, by Hart,WD]
|
16774
|
Descartes thinks distinguishing substances from aggregates is pointless
[Descartes, by Pasnau]
|
4310
|
We have inner awareness of our freedom
[Descartes]
|
7400
|
Descartes said images can refer to objects without resembling them (as words do)
[Descartes, by Tuck]
|
19676
|
Nature is devoid of thought
[Descartes, by Meillassoux]
|
6553
|
Descartes discussed the interaction problem, and compared it with gravity
[Descartes, by Lycan]
|