display all the ideas for this combination of texts
4 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. |
| 12556 | Mathematics is just about ideas, so whether circles exist is irrelevant [Locke] |
| Full Idea: All the discourses of mathematicians concerning conic sections etc. concern not the existence of any of those figures, but their demonstrations, which depend on their ideas, are the same, whether there be any square or circle existing in the world or no. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 4.04.08) | |
| A reaction: If the full-blown platonic circle really existed, we would have the epistemic problem not only of getting in causal contact with it, but also of knowing whether our idea of it was the correct idea. We can't know that, so we just work with our idea. |
| 7782 | Every simple idea we ever have brings the idea of unity along with it [Locke] |
| Full Idea: Amongst all the ideas we have… there is none more simple, than that of unity, or one… every idea in our understanding, every thought in our minds, brings this idea along with it. | |
| From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.16.01) | |
| A reaction: If every idea we think of necessarily brings another idea along with it, that makes you suspect that the accompanying idea is innate. If I derive the concept of the sun from experience, do I also derive the idea that my concept is a unity? |