An Essay Concerning Human Understanding |
Contents
| 175 | |
| 225 | |
| 226 | |
| 237 | |
| 240 | |
| 242 | |
| 253 | |
| 254 | |
| xxxiii | |
| 3 | |
| 9 | |
| 19 | |
| 28 | |
| 36 | |
| 42 | |
| 55 | |
| 61 | |
| 79 | |
| 87 | |
| 106 | |
| 124 | |
| 132 | |
| 137 | |
| 154 | |
| 255 | |
| 261 | |
| 267 | |
| 287 | |
| 291 | |
| 293 | |
| 299 | |
| 306 | |
| 309 | |
| 310 | |
| 321 | |
| 329 | |
| 333 | |
| 359 | |
| 363 | |
| 369 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract ideas action agreement or disagreement appear aqua regia assent body capable cause certainty chapter clear Cogito ergo sum colours complex ideas conceive connexion consciousness consider demonstration Descartes discover distinct ideas distinguish doctrine doubt duration effects Empiricism enquiry Essay eternal evident experience extension faculties farther figure finite hath idea of infinite idea of space ideas of substances imprinted infinity innate ideas innate principles intuitive intuitive knowledge Kant knowledge Leibniz Locke Locke's Malebranche matter maxims memory mind motion names nature never objects observe operations pain particular perceive perception perhaps philosophy positive idea primary qualities produce propositions real essence real existence reason received relation secondary qualities sensation and reflection senses sensible qualities signify simple ideas soever solidity sorts soul species spirits supposed syllogism take notice things thought tion truth understanding universal propositions whereby wherein whereof whilst words
Popular passages
Page 188 - For since consciousness always accompanies thinking, and it is that which makes every one to be what he •calls self, and thereby distinguishes himself from all other thinking things ; in this alone consists personal identity, ie the sameness of a rational being; and as far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person...
Page 230 - When therefore we quit particulars, the generals that rest are only creatures of our own making; their general nature being nothing but the capacity they are put into, by the understanding, of signifying or representing many particulars. For the signification they have is nothing but a relation that, by the mind of man, is added to them.
Page 16 - It is an established opinion amongst some men that there are in the understanding certain innate principles; some primary notions or characters, as it were, stamped upon the mind of man, which the soul receives in its very first being, and brings into the world with it.
Page 261 - For if we will reflect on our own ways of thinking, we shall find that sometimes the mind perceives the agreement or disagreement of two ideas immediately by themselves, without the intervention of any other: and this, I think, we may call intuitive knowledge.
Page 42 - Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store, which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE; in that all our knowledge is founded, and from that it ultimately derives itself.
Page 81 - Thus the ideas, as well as children, of our youth, often die before us ; and our minds represent to us those tombs to which we are approaching, where though the brass and marble remain, yet the inscriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away.
Page 76 - I agree with this thinking gentleman, whom I am proud to call my friend, in his answer to this his problem; and am of opinion, that the blind man, at first sight, would not be able with certainty to say which was the globe, which the cube, whilst he only saw them...
Page 76 - Suppose a man BORN blind, and now adult, and taught by his TOUCH to distinguish between a cube and a sphere of the same metal, and nighly of the same bigness, so as to tell, when he felt one and the other, which is the cube, which the sphere. Suppose then the cube and sphere placed on a table, and the blind man be made to see: quaere, whether BY HIS SIGHT, BEFORE HE TOUCHED THEM, he could now distinguish and tell which is the globe, which the cube?
Page xxix - All those sublime thoughts which tower above the clouds, and reach as high as heaven itself, take their rise and footing here: in all that great extent wherein the mind wanders, in those remote speculations it may seem to be elevated with, it stirs not one jot beyond those ideas which SENSE or REFLECTION have offered for its contemplation.
Page 12 - If by this inquiry into the nature of the understanding, I can discover the powers thereof; how far they reach; to what things they are in any degree proportionate; and where they fail us, I suppose it may be of use to prevail with the busy mind of man to be more cautious in meddling with things exceeding its comprehension; to stop when it is at the utmost extent of its tether; and to sit down in a quiet ignorance of those things which, upon examination, are found to be beyond the reach of our capacities.