Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Perception', 'Lecture on Nominalism' and 'On the Nature of the Gods ('De natura deorum')'

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2 ideas

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 1. Nature

2652	Some regard nature simply as an irrational force that imparts movement [Cicero]
	Full Idea: Some regard nature as an irrational force which merely imparts a mechanical motion to material bodies.
	From: M. Tullius Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods ('De natura deorum') [c.44 BCE], II.81)

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / c. Matter as extension

6519	Locke's solidity is not matter, because that is impenetrability and hardness combined [Robinson,H]
	Full Idea: Notoriously, Locke's filler for Descartes's geometrical matter, solidity, will not do, for that quality collapses on examination into a composite of the dispositional-cum-relational propery of impenetrability, and the secondary quality of hardness.
	From: Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], IX.3)
	A reaction: I would have thought the problem was that 'matter is solidity' turns out on analysis to be a tautology. We have a handful of nearly synonymous words for matter and our experiences of it, but they boil down to some 'given' thing for which we lack words.