Greene, Robert (c. 1678-1730)

The principles of the philosophy of the expansive and contractive forces. Or an inquiry into the principles of the modern philosophy, that is, into the several chief rational sciences, which are extant. In seven books

Cambridge

Printed at the University-Press, by Cornelius Crownfield, and are to be sold by him, E. Jefferys, and W. Thurlbourne booksellers in Cambridge, and by J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, W. and J. Innys, and B. Motte, London

1727

"All which Ideas of Reflection, do as fully Evince the Mind not to be a Rasa Tabula, as it is Suppos'd the Ideas of Sensation do Prove it is one."

If yet it should be Argued, that altho' these Abstracted Ideas are not the Immediate Impressions upon our Senses, or Deriv'd into our Minds from them, they are notwithstanding Originally owing to them, because without them we could not make such Abstractions, and if from thence it is Concluded, that the Mind is nothing else but a Rasa Tabula, and Receives all it's Impressions from External Ojects, it is Answered, That the Powers of Reasoning and Abstracting, and by that Means of Making new Ideas Distinct from those, which the Mind has from Sensation, are as Just Proofs, that there is something Originally in the Mind different from the Impressions of Sense, as our Ideas of Sensation are an Argument, that there are Beings External to us; Besides all the other Powers and Faculties of our Minds, of Willing, Judging, and Remembering, and even of Perception it's self, are no ways Deriv'd from Sensation, nor the Ideas which belong to them, but are Own'd to be Ideas of Reflection; All which Ideas of Reflection, do as fully Evince the Mind not to be a Rasa Tabula, as it is Suppos'd the Ideas of Sensation do Prove it is one.
(V.iii.12)

Writing::Tabula Rasa

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Greene, Robert. The principles of the philosophy of the expansive and contractive forces. Or an inquiry into the principles of the modern philosophy, that is, into the several chief rational sciences, which are extant. In seven books. By Robert Greene, ... Cambridge, 1727. Based on information from English Short Title Catalogue. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO

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10/08/2006