more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 4842
[filed under theme 18. Thought / C. Content / 2. Ideas
]
Full Idea
By ideas I do not mean images such as are formed at the back of the eye, or in the midst of the brain, but the conceptions of thought.
Gist of Idea
Ideas are not images formed in the brain, but are the conceptions of thought
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Pr 48)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.120
A Reaction
This appears to be equating 'ideas' with what we now call 'concepts', which presumably makes Spinoza less open to criticism than other philosophers of his time, for postulating baffling mental copies of the world.
The
18 ideas
with the same theme
[mental events which internally represent reality]:
|
5685
|
True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God
[Descartes]
|
|
21807
|
Ideas are powerful entities, which can produce further ideas
[Spinoza, by Schmid]
|
|
4830
|
An 'idea' is a mental conception which is actively formed by the mind in thinking
[Spinoza]
|
|
4842
|
Ideas are not images formed in the brain, but are the conceptions of thought
[Spinoza]
|
|
20311
|
An idea involves affirmation or negation
[Spinoza]
|
|
6486
|
Ideas are the objects of understanding when we think
[Locke]
|
|
15967
|
The word 'idea' covers thinking best, for imaginings, concepts, and basic experiences
[Locke]
|
|
12496
|
Complex ideas are all resolvable into simple ideas
[Locke]
|
|
12945
|
Thoughts correspond to sensations, but ideas are independent of thoughts
[Leibniz]
|
|
12938
|
An idea is an independent inner object, which expresses the qualities of things
[Leibniz]
|
|
19357
|
The idea of green seems simple, but it must be compounded of the ideas of blue and yellow
[Leibniz]
|
|
12950
|
We must distinguish images from exact defined ideas
[Leibniz]
|
|
19427
|
True ideas represent what is possible; false ideas represent contradictions
[Leibniz]
|
|
19423
|
By an 'idea' I mean not an actual thought, but the resources we can draw on to think
[Leibniz]
|
|
5374
|
Berkeley probably used 'idea' to mean both the act of apprehension and the thing apprehended
[Russell on Berkeley]
|
|
23630
|
Only philosophers treat ideas as objects
[Reid]
|
|
12615
|
Mental representations are the old 'Ideas', but without images
[Fodor]
|
|
5636
|
Cartesian 'ideas' confuse concepts and propositions
[Scruton]
|