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Single Idea 4301

[filed under theme 3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 8. Subjective Truth ]

Full Idea

Leibniz objected to Descartes' theory of truth, saying that people may think something is clear and distinct, and yet be wrong.

Gist of Idea

Someone may think a thing is 'clear and distinct', but be wrong

Source

comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.36) by Gottfried Leibniz - works

Book Ref

Cottingham,John: 'The Rationalists' [OUP 1988], p.49

A Reaction

Quite so. Descartes has misunderstood what sort of concept 'truth' is meant to be. It's the usual confusion of epistemology and metaphysics. Truth is not a feature of the human mind.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [no truth, apart from the way individuals see things]:

14040 Observation and applied thought are always true [Epicurus]
3610 Truth is clear and distinct conception - of which it is hard to be sure [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]
5641 For Spinoza, 'adequacy' is the intrinsic mark of truth [Spinoza, by Scruton]
13157 Choose the true hypothesis, which is the most intelligible one [Leibniz]
5022 We hold a proposition true if we are ready to follow it, and can't see any objections [Leibniz]
5651 Traditional views of truth are tautologies, and truth is empty without a subject [Kierkegaard, by Scruton]
22094 Subjective truth can only be sustained by repetition [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
16005 I recognise knowledge, but it is the truth by which I can live and die that really matters [Kierkegaard]
20313 The highest truth we can get is uncertainty held fast by an inward passion [Kierkegaard]
24104 We don't create logic, time and space! The mind obeys laws because they are true [Nietzsche]
5652 True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton]
19144 'Epistemic' truth depends what rational creatures can verify [Davidson]
8705 Anti-realists see truth as our servant, and epistemically contrained [Friend]