id,comments,provenance,dictionary,created_at,reviewed_on,work_id,theme,context,updated_at,metaphor,text
8646,"• INTEREST. Priestley's formula for combating dualism: dualism would make it so...
• Suzanne found quote:--""As yet unlocated quote from Priestley: ""[P]roperly speaking, his mind is no more in his body than it is in the moon."" -- Ed. SDM. found original quote...will require change in metaphor"" ",Reading,"",2005-07-18 00:00:00 UTC,2007-04-26,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:48:23 UTC,"""I am rather inclined to think that, though the subject is beyond our comprehension at present, that man does not consist of two principles, so essentially different from one another as matter and spirit, which are always described as having not one common property, by means of which they can affect or act upon each other; the one occupying space, and the other not only not occupying the least imaginable portion of space, but incapable of bearing relation to it; insomuch that, properly speaking, my mind is no more in my body, than it is in the moon.""","I am rather inclined to think that, though the subject is beyond our comprehension at present, man does not consist of two principles, so essentially different from one another as matter and spirit, which are always described as having not one common property, by means of which they can affect or act upon each other; the one occupying space, and the other not only not occupying the least imaginable portion of space, but incapable of bearing relation to it; insomuch that, properly speaking, my mind is no more in my body, than it is in the moon. I rather think that the whole man is of some uniform composition, and that the property of perception, as well as the other powers that are termed mental, is the result (whether necessary, or not) of such an organical structure as that of the brain. Consequently, that the whole man becomes extinct at death, and that we have no hope of surviving the grave but what is derived from the scheme of revelation.
(p. xx)"
13564,"","Searching ""soul"" and ""stranger"" in Past Masters","",2006-03-05 00:00:00 UTC,,5057,"",Sect II --Of the Origin of Our Ideas in General,2009-09-14 19:38:43 UTC,"Sense ""must therefore remain a stranger to the objects and causes affecting it""","Sense consists in the obtruding of certain impressions upon us, independently of our wills; but it cannot perceive what they are, or whence they are derived. It lies prostrate under its object, and is only a capacity in the soul of having its own state altered by the influence of particular causes. It must therefore remain a stranger to the objects and causes affecting it.
(663)"
18961,"",Reading,Writing,2011-07-22 13:44:57 UTC,,3370,Tabula Rasa,Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:18:25 UTC,""To assist the imagination, indeed, but by no means in any consistency with the notion of a nervous fluid, it had been conceived that ideas resembled characters drawn upon a tablet; and the language in which we generally speak of ideas, and their affections, is borrowed from this hypothesis.""","To assist the imagination, indeed, but by no means in any consistency with the notion of a nervous fluid, it had been conceived that ideas resembled characters drawn upon a tablet; and the language in which we generally speak of ideas, and their affections, is borrowed from this hypothesis. But neither can any such tablet be found in the brain, nor any style, by which to make the characters upon it; and though some of the more simple phænomena of ideas, as their being more or less deeply impressed, their being retained a longer or or a shorter time, being capable of being revived at pleasure, &c. may be pretty well explained by the hypothesis of such a tablet, and characters upon it, it is wholly inadequate to the explanation of other, and very remarkable phænomena of ideas, especially their mutual association. Besides, this hypothesis suggests nothing to explain any of the mental operations respecting ideas.
(viii-ix)"
18962,"",Reading,Writing,2011-07-22 13:47:16 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:18:44 UTC,"""But neither can any such tablet be found in the brain, nor any style, by which to make the characters upon it; and though some of the more simple phænomena of ideas, as their being more or less deeply impressed, their being retained a longer or or a shorter time, being capable of being revived at pleasure, &c. may be pretty well explained by the hypothesis of such a tablet, and characters upon it, it is wholly inadequate to the explanation of other, and very remarkable phænomena of ideas, especially their mutual association.""","To assist the imagination, indeed, but by no means in any consistency with the notion of a nervous fluid, it had been conceived that ideas resembled characters drawn upon a tablet; and the language in which we generally speak of ideas, and their affections, is borrowed from this hypothesis. But neither can any such tablet be found in the brain, nor any style, by which to make the characters upon it; and though some of the more simple phænomena of ideas, as their being more or less deeply impressed, their being retained a longer or or a shorter time, being capable of being revived at pleasure, &c. may be pretty well explained by the hypothesis of such a tablet, and characters upon it, it is wholly inadequate to the explanation of other, and very remarkable phænomena of ideas, especially their mutual association. Besides, this hypothesis suggests nothing to explain any of the mental operations respecting ideas.
(viii-ix)"
18963,"",Reading,"",2011-07-22 15:20:08 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:20:08 UTC,"""That vibrations corresponding to all the varieties of sensations and ideas that ever take place in any human, mind may take place in the same brain at the same time, can create no difficulty to any person who considers the capacity of the air itself to transmit different vibrations, without limits, at the same instant of time.""","That vibrations corresponding to all the varieties of sensations and ideas that ever take place in any human, mind may take place in the same brain at the same time, can create no difficulty to any person who considers the capacity of the air itself to transmit different vibrations, without limits, at the same instant of time. In a concert, in which ever so many instruments are employed, a person skilled in music, I am told, is able to attend to which of them all he pleases. At the same time ever so many persons may be speaking, and sounds of other kinds may be made, each of which is transmitted without the least interruption from the rest. How infinitely complex must be the vibration of the air a little above the streets of such a city as London; and yet there can be no doubt but that each found has its proper effect, and might be attended to separately, by an ear sufficiently exquisite. That vibrations which are nearly isochronous affect and modify one another, so as to become perfectly so, sufficiently corresponds to the phænomena of ideas, and therefore makes no objection to this doctrine.
(p. xii-xiii)"
18964,"",Reading,"",2011-07-22 15:21:47 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:21:47 UTC,"""That vibrations [in the air above London] which are nearly isochronous affect and modify one another, so as to become perfectly so, sufficiently corresponds to the phænomena of ideas, and therefore makes no objection to this doctrine.""","That vibrations corresponding to all the varieties of sensations and ideas that ever take place in any human, mind may take place in the same brain at the same time, can create no difficulty to any person who considers the capacity of the air itself to transmit different vibrations, without limits, at the same instant of time. In a concert, in which ever so many instruments are employed, a person skilled in music, I am told, is able to attend to which of them all he pleases. At the same time ever so many persons may be speaking, and sounds of other kinds may be made, each of which is transmitted without the least interruption from the rest. How infinitely complex must be the vibration of the air a little above the streets of such a city as London; and yet there can be no doubt but that each found has its proper effect, and might be attended to separately, by an ear sufficiently exquisite. That vibrations which are nearly isochronous affect and modify one another, so as to become perfectly so, sufficiently corresponds to the phænomena of ideas, and therefore makes no objection to this doctrine.
(p. xii-xiii)"
18965,"",Reading,"",2011-07-22 15:26:15 UTC,,3370,"","",2011-07-22 15:26:36 UTC,"""[T]here may be a farther difference in the constitution of the nerves belonging to the different senses, or there may be so many circumstances that affect or modify their vibrations, that they may be as distinguishable from one another, as different human voices sounding the same note; and probably no two individuals of the human race can sound the same note so much alike, as that they could not be distinguished from one another.""","Besides the four differences of vibrations above-mentioned, which alone are insisted upon by Dr. Hartley, there may be a farther difference in the constitution of the nerves belonging to the different senses, or there may be so many circumstances that affect or modify their vibrations, that they may be as distinguishable from one another, as different human voices sounding the same note; and probably no two individuals of the human race can sound the same note so much alike, as that they could not be distinguished from one another.
(p. xiv)"
18966,"",Reading,"",2011-07-22 15:30:47 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 15:30:47 UTC,"""For this reason a bow of any kind, that has been bent, does not restore itself to the same form that it had before, but leans a little to the other, in consequence of the spheres of attraction and repulsion belonging to the several particles having been altered by the change of their situation. Something similar to this may take place with respect to the brain.""","This supposition of the particles of the brain retaining a disposition to vibrate as they have formerly vibrated, will be rendered more probable, from considering that all solid substances seem to retain a disposition to continue in any state before impressed. For this reason a bow of any kind, that has been bent, does not restore itself to the same form that it had before, but leans a little to the other, in consequence of the spheres of attraction and repulsion belonging to the several particles having been altered by the change of their situation. Something similar to this may take place with respect to the brain.
(p. xvi)"
18967,"A different way of thinking about the metaphor of ""characters.""",Reading,Writing,2011-07-22 16:02:55 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 16:04:07 UTC,"""To the mere novice in philosophical investigations, it will appear impossible to reduce all the variety of thinking to so simple and uniform a process; but to the same person it would also appear impossible a priori, that all the varieties of language, as spoken by all the nations in the world, mould be expressed by means of a short alphabet.""","To the mere novice in philosophical investigations, it will appear impossible to reduce all the variety of thinking to so simple and uniform a process; but to the same person it would also appear impossible a priori, that all the varieties of language, as spoken by all the nations in the world, mould be expressed by means of a short alphabet. Also those phenomena in nature which depend upon gravity, electricity, &c. are no less various and complex; and the more we know of nature, the more particular facts, and particular laws, we are able to reduce to simple and general laws: insomuch that now it does not appear impossible, but that, ultimately, one great comprehensive law shall be found to govern both the material and intellectual world.
(pp. xxiv-xxv)"
18968,"",Reading,"",2011-07-22 16:06:08 UTC,,3370,"",Introductory Essays,2011-07-22 16:06:08 UTC,"""Also those phenomena in nature which depend upon gravity, electricity, &c. are no less various and complex; and the more we know of nature, the more particular facts, and particular laws, we are able to reduce to simple and general laws: insomuch that now it does not appear impossible, but that, ultimately, one great comprehensive law shall be found to govern both the material and intellectual world.""","To the mere novice in philosophical investigations, it will appear impossible to reduce all the variety of thinking to so simple and uniform a process; but to the same person it would also appear impossible a priori, that all the varieties of language, as spoken by all the nations in the world, mould be expressed by means of a short alphabet. Also those phenomena in nature which depend upon gravity, electricity, &c. are no less various and complex; and the more we know of nature, the more particular facts, and particular laws, we are able to reduce to simple and general laws: insomuch that now it does not appear impossible, but that, ultimately, one great comprehensive law shall be found to govern both the material and intellectual world.
(pp. xxiv-xxv)"