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Ideas for 'works', 'Meditations' and 'Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value'

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5 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / C. Rationalism / 1. Rationalism
The wax is not perceived by the senses, but by the mind alone [Descartes]
     Full Idea: The perception of the wax is neither a seeing, nor a touching, nor an imagining. Rather, it is an inspection on the part of the mind alone.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.31)
We don't 'see' men in heavy clothes, we judge them to be men [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Were I to look out of my window and observe men crossing the square, I would ordinarily say that I see the men themselves. But what do I see but hats and clothes, which could conceal automata? Yet I judge them to be men.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.32)
Dogs can make the same judgements as us about variable things [Gassendi on Descartes]
     Full Idea: A dog certainly makes similar kinds of judgement to your perceiving men by their hats and cloaks when they see their master's hat or clothes, …and they can recognise their master even if he is standing, sitting, lying down, or crouching.
     From: comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.32) by Pierre Gassendi - Objections to 'Meditations' (Fifth) 272
Aristotle is a rationalist, but reason is slowly acquired through perception and experience [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
     Full Idea: Aristotle is a rationalist …but reason for him is a disposition which we only acquire over time. Its acquisition is made possible primarily by perception and experience.
     From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Michael Frede - Aristotle's Rationalism p.173
     A reaction: I would describe this process as the gradual acquisition of the skill of objectivity, which needs the right knowledge and concepts to evaluate new experiences.
We perceive objects by intellect, not by senses or imagination [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Bodies are not, properly speaking, perceived by the senses or by the faculty of imagination, but by the intellect alone.
     From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §2.34)