Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
You think of a remote man merely as a man; that is, you think of him in the right way.
G. K. Chesterton • The G. K. Chesterton Collection [50 Books]
Chrysippus, or other Stoics inspired by his work, had an elaborate theory of knowledge, in the main empirical and based on perception, though they allowed certain ideas and principles, which were held to be established by consensus gentium, the agreement of mankind. But Zeno, as well as the Roman Stoics, regarded all theoretical studies as
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
Dr Johnson’s point was that Berkeley’s denial of the rock’s existence is incompatible with finding an explanation of the rebound that he himself felt.
David Deutsch • The Fabric of Reality
But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.
G. K. Chesterton • The G. K. Chesterton Collection [50 Books]
Reductionism envisages a universe of things – and simply material things at that. How these things are related is viewed as a secondary matter. However, I suggest that relationships are primary, more foundational than the things related: that the relationships don’t just ‘connect’ pre-existing things, but modify what we mean by the ‘things’, which
... See moreIain McGilchrist • The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World
Using modern terminology, we may say: Ideas of unperceived things or occurrences can always be defined in terms of perceived things or occurrences, and therefore, by substituting the definition for the term defined, we can always state what we know empirically without introducing any unperceived things or occurrences. As regards our present
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
My opinions were the sport of eternal change. Some times I conceived the apparition to be more than human. I had no grounds on which to build a disbelief.
Charles Brockden Brown • Wieland: or, the Transformation, an American Tale
There is a section (Book I, Part I, Sec. VII) “Of Abstract Ideas,” which opens with a paragraph of emphatic agreement with Berkeley’s doctrine that “all general ideas are nothing but particular ones, annexed to a certain term, which gives them a more extensive significance, and makes them recall upon occasion other individuals, which are similar to
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
He begins with the distinction between “impressions” and “ideas.” These are two kinds of perceptions, of which impressions are those that have more force and violence. “By ideas I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning.” Ideas, at least when simple, are like impressions, but fainter.