Full Idea
Alongside the passion for simplification …is the passion for distinguishing; it is the passion to be acquainted with the parts rather than to comprehend the whole.
Gist of Idea
We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole
Source
William James (The Sentiment of Rationality [1882], p.22)
Book Reference
James,William: 'Selected Writings of William James', ed/tr. Bird,Graham [Everyman 1995], p.22
A Reaction
As I child I dismantled almost every toy I was given. This seems to be the motivation for a lot of analytic philosophy, but Aristotle also tended to think that way.
Related Ideas
Idea 22644 Our greatest pleasure is the economy of reducing chaotic facts to one single fact [James]
Idea 14165 Analysis falsifies, if when the parts are broken down they are not equivalent to their sum [Russell]