7 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) |
| 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. |
| 295 | The good is beautiful [Plato] |
| Full Idea: The good is beautiful. | |
| From: Plato (Lysis [c.400 BCE], 216d) | |
| A reaction: also Timaeus 87c |
| 294 | People say that friendship exists only between good men [Plato] |
| Full Idea: People say that friendship exists only between good men. | |
| From: Plato (Lysis [c.400 BCE], 214d) |
| 13304 | Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius] |
| Full Idea: In a single day there lies open to men of learning more than there ever does to the unenlightened in the longest of lifetimes. | |
| From: Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]), quoted by Seneca the Younger - Letters from a Stoic 078 | |
| A reaction: These remarks endorsing the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated seem to have been popular in late antiquity. It tends to be the religions which discourage great learning, especially in their emphasis on a single book. |
| 20820 | Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus] |
| Full Idea: Posidonius defined time thus: it is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed and slowness. | |
| From: report of Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42 | |
| A reaction: Hm. Can we define motion or speed without alluding to time? Looks like we have to define them as a conjoined pair, which means we cannot fully understand either of them. |
| 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) |