green numbers give full details | back to texts | unexpand these ideas
| 5021 | An idea is analysed perfectly when it is shown a priori that it is possible |
| Full Idea: Every idea is analysed perfectly only when it is demonstrated a priori that it is possible. | |||
| From: Gottfried Leibniz (Of Organum or Ars Magna of Thinking [1679], p.3) | |||
| A reaction: I take it he means metaphysical possibility, rather than natural, or we can't think about pigs flying. He probably has maths in mind. Seeing the possibility of something may well amount to understanding its truth conditions. |
| 5020 | Our thoughts are either dependent, or self-evident. All thoughts seem to end in the self-evident |
| Full Idea: Whatever is thought by us is either conceived through itself, or involves the concept of another. …Thus one must proceed to infinity, or all thoughts are resolved into those which are conceived through themselves. | |||
| From: Gottfried Leibniz (Of Organum or Ars Magna of Thinking [1679], p.1) | |||
| A reaction: This seems to embody the rationalist attitude to foundations. I am sympathetic. Experiences just come to us as basic, but they don't qualify as 'thoughts', let alone knowledge. Experiences are more 'given' than 'conceptual'. |
| 5019 | Supreme human happiness is the greatest possible increase of his perfection |
| Full Idea: The supreme happiness of man consists in the greatest possible increase of his perfection. | |||
| From: Gottfried Leibniz (Of Organum or Ars Magna of Thinking [1679], p.1) | |||
| A reaction: I fear that (being a great intellectual) he had a rather intellectual interpretation of 'perfection'. This is in danger of being a tautology, but if the proposal is given an Aritotelian slant I am sympathetic. |