Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'God and Human Attributes', 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'Reply to Fifth Objections'

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7 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently [Shakespeare]
     Full Idea: For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently.
     From: William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing [1600], V.i)
     A reaction: You can't argue with that. I do think that people who have studied philosophy at length are more likely to be 'philosophical' when faced with human misery, but only up to a point.
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / a. Substance
Knowing the attributes is enough to reveal a substance [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I have never thought that anything more is required to reveal a substance than its various attributes.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to Fifth Objections [1641], 360)
12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 3. Innate Knowledge / a. Innate knowledge
Our thinking about external things doesn't disprove the existence of innate ideas [Descartes]
     Full Idea: You can't prove that Praxiteles never made any statues on the grounds that he did not get from within himself the marble from which he sculpted them.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to Fifth Objections [1641], 362)
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / c. Nativist concepts
A blind man may still contain the idea of colour [Descartes]
     Full Idea: How do you know that there is no idea of colour in a man born blind?
     From: René Descartes (Reply to Fifth Objections [1641], 363)
28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / a. Ontological Proof
Possible existence is a perfection in the idea of a triangle [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Possible existence is a perfection in the idea of a triangle, just as necessary existence is a perfection in the idea of God.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to Fifth Objections [1641], 383)
Necessary existence is a property which is uniquely part of God's essence [Descartes]
     Full Idea: In the case of God necessary existence is in fact a property in the strictest sense of the term, since it applies to him alone and forms a part of his essence as it does of no other thing
     From: René Descartes (Reply to Fifth Objections [1641], 383)
28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / c. Moral Argument
God must be fit for worship, but worship abandons morally autonomy, but there is no God [Rachels, by Davies,B]
     Full Idea: Rachels argues 1) If any being is God, he must be a fitting object of worship, 2) No being could be a fitting object of worship, since worship requires the abandonment of one's role as an autonomous moral agent, so 3) There cannot be a being who is God.
     From: report of James Rachels (God and Human Attributes [1971], 7 p.334) by Brian Davies - Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion 9 'd morality'
     A reaction: Presumably Lionel Messi can be a fitting object of worship without being God. Since the problem is with being worshipful, rather than with being God, should I infer that Messi doesn't exist?