display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
| 12488 | The idea of 'one' is the simplest, most obvious and most widespread idea [Locke] |
| Full Idea: Among all the ideas we have, as there is none suggested to the mind by more ways, so there is none more simple than that of unity, or one; ..every idea in our understanding, every thought of our minds brings this idea along with it. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.16.01) | |
| A reaction: What does Locke mean by 'suggested' to the mind? I take it that this phenomenon of psychology (or of reality, if you like) is the foundation of mathematics, making one clearly prior to zero. |
| 12489 | If there were real infinities, you could add two together, which is ridiculous [Locke] |
| Full Idea: If a man had a positive idea of infinite, either duration or space, he could add two infinities together; nay, make one Infinite infinity bigger than another, absurdities too gross to be confuted. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.17.20) | |
| A reaction: A beautifully heartfelt objection to everything Cantor stood for, two hundred years before Cantor got round to it. |