work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
3797,"","Reading; found again in Past Masters. Found again in Margreta de Grazia’s ""Imprints: Shakespeare, Gutenberg, and Descartes,"" in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005): 29-58, p. 31.",2003-10-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Let us then conceive of the matter in the following way. First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal. It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal. This is the case, we must admit, not only when we feel some body as having a shape, as being hard or rough to the touch etc., but also when we have a tactile perception of heat or cold and the like. The same is true of the other senses: thus, in the eye, the first opaque membrane receives the shape impressed upon it by multi-coloured light; and in the ears, the nose and the tongue, the first membrane which is impervious to the passage of the object thus takes on a new shape from the sound, the smell and the flavour respectively.
(Rule 12, p. 40)",2012-01-26,9785,"•INTEREST. But not a ""mere analogy""! Interesting, then what is it?
• USE IN ENTRY.","""First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal.""",Impressions,2013-10-07 19:24:41 UTC,Rule Twelve
3797,"",Past Masters,2003-10-01 00:00:00 UTC,"Fifthly, and lastly, the power through which we know things in the strict sense is purely spiritual, and is no less distinct from the whole body than blood is distinct from bone, or the hand from the eye. It is one single power, whether it receives figures from the 'common' sense at the same time as does the corporeal imagination, or applies itself to those which are preserved in the memory, or forms new ones which so preoccupy the imagination that it is often in no position to receive ideas from the 'common' sense at the same time, or to transmit them to the power responsible for motion in accordance with a purely corporeal mode of operation. In all these functions the cognitive power is sometimes passive, sometimes active; sometimes resembling the seal, sometimes the wax. But this should be understood merely as an analogy, for nothing quite like this power is to be found in corporeal things. It is one and the same power: when applying itself along with imagination to the 'common' sense, it is said to see, touch etc.; when addressing itself to the imagination alone, in so far as the latter is invested with various figures, it is said to remember; when applying itself to the imagination in order to form new figures, it is said to imagine or conceive; and lastly, when it acts on its own, it is said to understand. How understanding comes about I shall explain at greater length in the appropriate place. According to its different functions, then, the same power is called either pure intellect, or imagination, or memory, or sense-perception. But when it forms new ideas in the corporeal imagination, or concentrates on those already formed, the proper term for it is 'native intelligence'. We are regarding it as being capable of performing these different operations; and the distinction between these terms will have to be kept in mind in what follows. If all these matters are conceived along such lines, the attentive reader will have no difficulty in gathering what aids we should seek to obtain from each of these faculties and the lengths to which human endeavour can be stretched in supplementing the shortcomings of our native intelligence.
(Rule 12, p. 41-3)",2012-01-26,9789,"•Not published in Descartes lifetime. First Dutch translation in 1684. First Latin in 1701.
• USE IN ENTRY","""In all these functions the cognitive power is sometimes passive, sometimes active; sometimes resembling the seal, sometimes the wax.""",Impressions,2012-01-26 14:59:47 UTC,Rule Twelve
3797,"","Reading; found again searching in Past Masters. Found again in Margreta de Grazia’s ""Imprints: Shakespeare, Gutenberg, and Descartes,"" in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005): 29-58, p. 31. ",2012-01-26 14:55:12 UTC,"Let us then conceive of the matter in the following way. First, in so far as our external senses are all parts of the body, sense-perception, strictly speaking, is merely passive, even though our application of the senses to objects involves action, viz. local motion; sense-perception occurs in the same way in which wax takes on an impression from a seal. It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal. This is the case, we must admit, not only when we feel some body as having a shape, as being hard or rough to the touch etc., but also when we have a tactile perception of heat or cold and the like. The same is true of the other senses: thus, in the eye, the first opaque membrane receives the shape impressed upon it by multi-coloured light; and in the ears, the nose and the tongue, the first membrane which is impervious to the passage of the object thus takes on a new shape from the sound, the smell and the flavour respectively.
(Rule 12, p. 40)",,19542,"• INTEREST. ""no mere analogy"" ... The deflationary mere in metaphors like this deserves comment. USE IN ENTRY.","""It should not be thought that I have a mere analogy in mind here: we must think of the external shape of the sentient body as being really changed by the object in exactly the same way as the shape of the surface of the wax is altered by the seal.""",Impressions,2013-10-07 19:23:33 UTC,Rule Twelve
3623,"",Reading,2012-01-30 21:12:52 UTC,"Here I could add something about how the traces of these ideas pass through the arteries to the heart, and thus radiate through all the blood; and about how certain actions of a mother may sometimes even cause such traces to be imprinted on the limbs of the child being formed in her womb. But I shall content myself with telling you more about how the traces are imprinted on the internal part of the brain which is the seat of the memory.",,19560,"","""But I shall content myself with telling you more about how the traces are imprinted on the internal part of the brain which is the seat of the memory.""","",2012-01-30 21:12:52 UTC,""
7547,"",Reading,2013-07-16 19:19:12 UTC,"We need only have eyes to see the necessary influence which age has over reason. The soul follows the progress of the body, as well as of education. In the fair sex, the soul adapts itself to the delicacy of constitution: thence flow that tenderness, that affection, those lively sentiments founded rather upon passion than reason; and in fine, those prejudices and superstitions whose impression is so hard to be effaced. Man, on the contrary, whose brain and nerves participate in the firmness of all the solids, has his mind, as well as the features of his face, more nervous. [...]
(p. 14)",,21807,"","""In the fair sex, the soul adapts itself to the delicacy of constitution: thence flow that tenderness, that affection, those lively sentiments founded rather upon passion than reason; and in fine, those prejudices and superstitions whose impression is so hard to be effaced.""","",2013-07-16 19:19:12 UTC,""
7547,"",Reading,2013-07-16 19:39:28 UTC,"Like that bird on yonder spray, the imagination seems to be perpetually ready to take wing. Hurried with incessant rapidity by the vortex of blood and animal spirits, one undulation makes an impression, which is immediately effaced by another; the soul pursues it, but often in vain: she must wait to bewail the loss of what she did not quickly lay hold of; and thus it is that the imagination, true image of time, is incessantly destroyed and renewed.
(pp. 33-4)",,21822,"","""Hurried with incessant rapidity by the vortex of blood and animal spirits, one undulation makes an impression, which is immediately effaced by another; the soul pursues it, but often in vain: she must wait to bewail the loss of what she did not quickly lay hold of; and thus it is that the imagination, true image of time, is incessantly destroyed and renewed.""","",2013-07-16 19:39:28 UTC,""
6808,"",Searching at OLL,2013-08-09 16:17:09 UTC,"A Thirst after glory is not different from instinct, which every creature hath for its own preservation. We seem to extend our existence, when we can make it to be remembered by others; this is a new life which we acquire, and which becomes as precious to us as that which we received from heaven.
But as all men are not equally fond of life, neither are they equally sensible to glory. This noble passion is indeed always engraved upon their hearts; but imagination and education mould it a thousand ways.
This difference, which is founded between man and man, is more perceivable between nation and nation.
[Le désir de la gloire n'est point différent de cet instinct que toutes les créatures ont pour leur conservation. Il semble que nous augmentons notre être, lorsque nous pouvons le porter dans la mémoire des autres: c'est une nouvelle vie que nous acquérons, et qui nous devient aussi précieuse que celle que nous avons reçue du ciel.
Mais comme tous les hommes ne sont pas également attachés à la vie, ils ne sont pas aussi également sensibles à la gloire. Cette noble passion est bien toujours gravée dans leur cœur; mais l'imagination et l'éducation la modifient de mille manières.
Cette différence, qui se trouve d'homme à homme, se fait encore plus sentir de peuple à peuple.]
(Letter LXXXIX, Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna.)",,22125,"","""This noble passion is indeed always engraved upon their hearts; but imagination and education mould it a thousand ways.""",Impressions and Writing,2013-08-09 16:17:09 UTC,"Letter LXXXIX, Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna."