display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
12932 | The idea of being must come from our own existence [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: I would like to know how we could have the idea of being if we did not, as beings ourselves, find being within us. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 1.01) | |
A reaction: I could envisage a creature with an entirely 'externa' mind, that just focused on environment, and took its own place in it unthinkingly for granted. I suppose he's right, though. |
5992 | Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Chrysippus, by Tieleman] |
Full Idea: Chrysippus regarded power to act and be acted upon as the criterion for existence or being - a test satisfied by bodies alone. | |
From: report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Teun L. Tieleman - Chrysippus | |
A reaction: This defines existence in terms of causation. Is he ruling out a priori a particle (say) which exists, but never interacts with anything? If so, he is inclining towards anti-realism. |