Single Idea 6208

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 1. Physical Mind]

Full Idea

Conceptions and apparitions are nothing really, but motion in some internal substance of the head.

Gist of Idea

Conceptions and apparitions are just motion in some internal substance of the head

Source

Thomas Hobbes (Human Nature [1640], Ch.VII.1)

Book Reference

'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.4


A Reaction

Note that he carefully covers both thought in concepts and thought in images, and also that he is not saying that thought is the substance, but that it is a 'motion'. This strikes me as an excellent word, and I think Hobbes is right.