"If you do not accept this, then you must untie the knot which in your view must be binding us with adamantine bonds and preventing our mind from soaring above every kind of body."
— Mersenne, Marin (1588-1648)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Paris
Publisher
Michel de Soly
Date
1641
Metaphor
"If you do not accept this, then you must untie the knot which in your view must be binding us with adamantine bonds and preventing our mind from soaring above every kind of body."
Metaphor in Context
If you do not accept this, then you must untie the knot which in your view must be binding us with adamantine bonds and preventing our mind from soaring above every kind of body. The knot is this. We perceive very well that three and two make five and that if you take equals from equals the remainders will be equal; we are convinced of these and numerous other matters, just as you find yourself to be. But why are we not similarly convinced on the basis of your ideas, or our own, that the soul of man is distinct from the body, or that God exists? You will say that you cannot graft this truth into us unless we are prepared to meditate along with you. Well, we have read what you have written seven times, and have lifted up our minds, as best we could, to the level of the angels, but we are still not convinced. We do not believe you will allege that our minds are in the grip of a brutish stupor and are wholly unfitted for metaphysical subjects, when we have had thirty years practice in them! Surely you will prefer to accept that your arguments derived from the ideas of the mind and of God do not have the kind of weight or strength that could or should conquer the minds of learned men who have tried with all their might to detach themselves from corporeal stuff. Indeed we think you will readily admit this if you re-read your Meditations in the spirit of analytical scrutiny which you would adopt if they had been put forward for your examination by an opponent.
(Sixth Set of Objections, p. 283-4)
(Sixth Set of Objections, p. 283-4)
Categories
Provenance
Past Masters
Citation
Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Date of Entry
10/07/2003
Date of Review
10/23/2003
