"Nobody knows what really is the being called 'spirit', to which even you give the material name of 'spirit', which means wind."
— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)
Work Title
Date
1764
Metaphor
"Nobody knows what really is the being called 'spirit', to which even you give the material name of 'spirit', which means wind."
Metaphor in Context
Nobody knows what really is the being called spirit, to which even you give the material name of spirit, which means wind. It is impossible for limited beings like us to know whether our intelligence is substance or faculty: we cannot completely know either extended substance nor the thinking being nor the mechanism of thought.
(p. 28)
(p. 28)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, Ed. Theodore Besterman (London: Penguin Books, 1972).
Date of Entry
08/06/2004
Date of Review
12/22/2011
