Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Letter to Mersenne' and 'Natural Science (lost)'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

3 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence
527 Everything exists which anyone perceives [Metrodorus of Chios]
     Full Idea: Everything exists which anyone perceives.
     From: Metrodorus (Chi) (Natural Science (lost) [c.340 BCE], B2), quoted by (who?) - where?
     A reaction: cf Berkeley and Epicurus. This misses out the problem of perceptual error, such as a square tower looking round from a distance, or one person in a group thinking they have seen something. It is still a good criterion, though!
13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 2. Knowledge as Convention
1556 By nature people are close to one another, but culture drives them apart [Hippias]
     Full Idea: I regard you all as relatives - by nature, not by convention. By nature like is akin to like, but convention is a tyrant over humankind and often constrains people to act contrary to nature.
     From: Hippias (fragments/reports [c.430 BCE]), quoted by Plato - Protagoras 337c8
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 3. Constraints on the will
3789 The more reasons that compel me, the freer I am [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I move the more freely towards an object in proportion to the number of reasons which compel me.
     From: René Descartes (Letter to Mersenne [1642])