more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 5685
[filed under theme 18. Thought / C. Content / 2. Ideas
]
Full Idea
Some of my thoughts are like images of things; to these alone does the word 'idea' properly apply, as when I think of a man, or a chimera, or the sky, or an angel, or God.
Clarification
A 'chimera' is a mythological animal
Gist of Idea
True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God
Source
René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.37)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Philosophical Essays and Correspondence', ed/tr. Ariew,Roger [Hackett 2000], p.114
A Reaction
Descartes is obviously aware of a problem with the application of the word 'idea'. This definition seems rather narrow (and visual), but it is certainly confined to concepts, and does not expand to include propositions.
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]
|