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13307 | If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Nothing's outside your scope when it comes to measurement. Well, if you're such an expert, measure a man's soul; tell me how large or how small that is. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 088) | |
A reaction: This is Descartes's non-spatial argument, which I take to be one of the four main props to his mind-body dualism. As always, it is expressed with beautiful concision by Seneca. |
19257 | Whatever is First must be sentient [Peirce] |
Full Idea: I think that what is First is ipso facto sentient. | |
From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], VIII) | |
A reaction: He doesn't mention Leibniz's monads, but that looks like the ancestor of Peirce's idea. He doesn't make clear (here) how far he would take the idea. I would just say that whatever is 'First' must be active rather than passive. |