The Philosophy Book

119 Meditations is written in the first- person form—“I think...”—because he is not presenting arguments in order to prove or di ...

120 us in such a way that we are prone to errors in our reasoning. Or perhaps there is no God—in which case we are even more lik ...

121 ergo sum, meaning “I think therefore I am.” St. Augustine of Hippo had used a very similar argument in The City of God, when ...

122 he is a thinking thing; as he puts it, he knows only that he is, “in the strict sense only” a thinking thing. Later, in the ...

123 Certainty as a premise from which to derive further knowledge—all he needs is that there be a self for him to point to. So e ...

124 IMAGINATION DECIDES EVERYTHING BLAISE PASCAL (1623–1662) IN CONTEXT BRANCH Philosophy of mind APPROACH Voluntarism BEFORE c. ...

125 According to Pascal, we are constantly tricked by the imagination into making the wrong judgments— including judgements abou ...

126 IN CONTEXT BRANCH Metaphysics APPROACH Substance monism BEFORE c.1190 Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides invents a demythol ...

127 See also: Aristotle 56–63 ■ Moses Maimonides 84–85 ■ René Descartes 116–23 ■ Donald Davidson 338 generally, substance is any ...

128 At the level of individual things, including human beings, Spinoza’s attribute dualism is intended in part to deal with the ...

129 According to Spinoza, all objects, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, have a mentality. Both their bodies and their ment ...

130 NO MAN’S KNOWLEDGE HERE CAN GO BEYOND HIS EXPERIENCE JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704) IN CONTEXT BRANCH Epistemology APPROACH Empirici ...

131 See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Thomas Aquinas 88–95 ■ René Descartes 116–23 ■ Benedictus Spinoza 126–29 ■ Gottfried Leibniz 134–37 ...

132 type of knowledge, in their view, can be gained without any direct sensory experience, in the way that it is possible to dev ...

133 As the mind is a blank canvas, or tabula rasa, at birth, Locke believes that anybody can be transformed by a good education, ...

134 THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF TRUTHS: TRUTHS OF REASONING AND TRUTHS OF FACT GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ (1646–1716) IN CONTEXT BRANCH Episte ...

135 See also: Nicolaus of Autrecourt 334 ■ René Descartes 116–23 ■ David Hume 14 8 – 5 3 ■ Immanuel Kant 164–71 ■ Alfred North W ...

136 GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ Each singular substance expresses the whole universe in its own way. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz faculties, ...

137 The mechanical calculator was one of Leibniz’s many inventions. Its creation is a testament to his interest in mathematics a ...

138 TO BE IS TO BE PERCEIVED GEORGE BERKELEY (1685–1753) IN CONTEXT BRANCH Metaphysics APPROACH Idealism BEFORE c.380 BCE In The ...