display all the ideas for this combination of texts
9 ideas
5686 | In some thoughts I grasp a subject, but also I will or fear or affirm or deny it [Descartes] |
Full Idea: Other thoughts are different from ideas, as when I will, or fear, or affirm, or deny, there is always some thing that I grasp as the subject of my thought, yet I embrace in my thought something more than the likeness of that thing. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.37) | |
A reaction: Note that the class of mental events we call 'propositional attitudes' had already been identified by Descartes. His categories of thinking in Med. Three might be one of his most important contributions, because that is what matters in the mind. |
4017 | Descartes created the modern view of rationality, as an internal feature instead of an external vision [Descartes, by Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: Rationality is now an internal property of subjective thinking, rather than its consisting in (according to Plato) its vision of reality. This view of Descartes' has become the standard modern view. | |
From: report of René Descartes (Meditations [1641]) by Charles Taylor - Sources of the Self §8 | |
A reaction: Greek 'logos' actually seemed to be both internal and external. We have certainly lost the idea that the universe is rational, even though it is ordered. |
23300 | Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
Full Idea: Aristotle, and also the Stoics, denied rationality to animals. …The Platonists, the Pythagoreans, and some more independent Aristotelians, did grant reason and intellect to animals. | |
From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Richard Sorabji - Rationality 'Denial' | |
A reaction: This is not the same as affirming or denying their consciousness. The debate depends on how rationality is conceived. |
2284 | I make errors because my will extends beyond my understanding [Descartes] |
Full Idea: My errors are owing simply to the fact that, since the will extends further than the intellect, I do not contain the will within the same boundaries, but extend it to things I do not understand. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.58) |
5685 | True ideas are images, such as of a man, a chimera, or God [Descartes] |
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. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.37) | |
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. |
3629 | All ideas are adventitious, and come from the senses [Gassendi on Descartes] |
Full Idea: I would go further than you and note that all our ideas seem to be adventitious - to proceed from things which exist outside the mind and come under one of our senses. ..The idea of a giant is a man of ordinary size which the mind enlarges at will. | |
From: comment on René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.38) by Pierre Gassendi - Objections to 'Meditations' (Fifth) 280 | |
A reaction: A classic early statement of modern empiricism. Gassendi needed to think about logic, maths, and necessities to make his case more secure. Where did his idea to 'enlarge' the giant come from? |
2285 | I can think of innumerable shapes I have never experienced [Descartes] |
Full Idea: I can think of countless geometrical figures, concerning which there can be no suspicion of their ever having entered me through the senses. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §5.64) |
2273 | The ideas of God and of my self are innate in me [Descartes] |
Full Idea: The idea of God is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §3.51) |
2286 | The idea of a supremely perfect being is within me, like the basic concepts of mathematics [Descartes] |
Full Idea: The idea of God, that is, the idea of a supremely perfect being, is one discovered to be no less within me than the idea of any figure or number. | |
From: René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §5.65) |