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"If Intellection and Knowledge were mere Passion from without, or the bare Reception of Extraneous and Adventitious Forms, then no Reason could be given at all why a Mirrour or Looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as Sensibly perceive those Images which it receives and reflects to us."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Author

Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Work Title

A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for James and John Knapton

Date

1731

Metaphor

"If Intellection and Knowledge were mere Passion from without, or the bare Reception of Extraneous and Adventitious Forms, then no Reason could be given at all why a Mirrour or Looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as Sensibly perceive those Images which it receives and reflects to us."

Metaphor in Context

3. If Intellection and Knowledge were mere Passion from without, or the bare Reception of Extraneous and Adventitious Forms, then no Reason could be given at all why a Mirrour or Looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as Sensibly perceive those Images which it receives and reflects to us. And therefore Sense of it self, as was before intimated, is not a mere Passion, but a Passive Perception of the Soul, which hath something of Vital Energy in it, because it is a Cogitation; to which Vital Energy of the Soul those Sensible Ideas of Light, Colours, Heat, and the like, owe all their Entity. Much less therefore can Intellection be a Pure Passion. But if Intellection and Knowledge were a Mere Passive Perception of the Soul from without, and nothing but Sense, Or the Result of it, then What Reason could be given, why Brute Animals, that have all the same Senses that Men have, and some of them more acute, should not have Intellection also, and be as capable of Logick, Mathematicks and Metaphysicks, and have the same Notions of Morality, of a Deity and Religion that Men have? [...]
(IV.i.3, p. 130)