5 ideas
| 3653 | My Meditations are the complete foundation of my physics [Descartes] |
| Full Idea: My six Meditations contain all the foundations of my physics, …and their principles destroy those of Aristotle. | |
| From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1641.01.28) |
| 23123 | Basic to human culture are binary oppositions, such as eating raw or cooked [Levi-Strauss, by Green,TH] |
| Full Idea: Lévi-Strauss made canonic to French structuralism the idea that human culture could be understood through a series of binary oppositionsn - the difference between what could be eaten raw and what cooked being one of the most fundamental. | |
| From: report of Claude Lévi-Strauss (works [1950]) by T.H. Green - Prolegomena to Ethics 1 | |
| A reaction: My guess is that such oppositions can often be illuminating, but will always be eventually judged as too simplistic. |
| 4736 | Truth is such a transcendentally clear notion that it cannot be further defined [Descartes] |
| Full Idea: Truth is such a transcendentally clear notion that it cannot be further defined. | |
| From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1642), quoted by Pascal Engel - Truth Intro | |
| A reaction: This is the view endorsed by Davidson. It is tempting to take basic concepts as axiomatic, but philosophers can't make that move every time they are in trouble. I have to say, though, that truth is a good candidate. |
| 468 | Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.] |
| Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice. | |
| From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where? |
| 3652 | I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body [Descartes] |
| Full Idea: I don't know how to demonstrate that God cannot annihilate the soul, but only that it is entirely distinct from the body, and consequently that it is not naturally subject to die with it, which is all that is required to establish religion. | |
| From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1640.02.24) |