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Single Idea 4830
[filed under theme 18. Thought / C. Content / 2. Ideas
]
Full Idea
By 'idea', I mean the mental conception which is formed by the mind as a thinking thing (this is not a passive perception with regard to the object, but expresses an activity of the mind).
Gist of Idea
An 'idea' is a mental conception which is actively formed by the mind in thinking
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Def 3)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.82
A Reaction
This is interesting as a seventeenth century attempt to grapple with the nature of thought. Spinoza sees it as of the essence of mind, since it is what the mind contributes, rather than what happens to the mind when it experiences.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[mental events which internally represent reality]:
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5685
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True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God
[Descartes]
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21807
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Ideas are powerful entities, which can produce further ideas
[Spinoza, by Schmid]
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4830
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An 'idea' is a mental conception which is actively formed by the mind in thinking
[Spinoza]
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4842
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Ideas are not images formed in the brain, but are the conceptions of thought
[Spinoza]
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20311
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An idea involves affirmation or negation
[Spinoza]
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6486
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Ideas are the objects of understanding when we think
[Locke]
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15967
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The word 'idea' covers thinking best, for imaginings, concepts, and basic experiences
[Locke]
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12496
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Complex ideas are all resolvable into simple ideas
[Locke]
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12945
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Thoughts correspond to sensations, but ideas are independent of thoughts
[Leibniz]
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12938
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An idea is an independent inner object, which expresses the qualities of things
[Leibniz]
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19357
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The idea of green seems simple, but it must be compounded of the ideas of blue and yellow
[Leibniz]
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12950
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We must distinguish images from exact defined ideas
[Leibniz]
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19427
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True ideas represent what is possible; false ideas represent contradictions
[Leibniz]
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19423
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By an 'idea' I mean not an actual thought, but the resources we can draw on to think
[Leibniz]
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5374
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Berkeley probably used 'idea' to mean both the act of apprehension and the thing apprehended
[Russell on Berkeley]
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23630
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Only philosophers treat ideas as objects
[Reid]
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12615
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Mental representations are the old 'Ideas', but without images
[Fodor]
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5636
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Cartesian 'ideas' confuse concepts and propositions
[Scruton]
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