Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas

Leipzig

1684

"For certainly there must be some change in our mind when we have some thoughts and then others, and, in fact, ideas of things we are not actually thinking about are in our minds as the shape of Hercules is in rough marble."

As to the controversy over whether we see everything in God (which is certainly an old opinion and should not be rejected completely, if it is understood properly) or whether we have our own ideas, one must understand that, even if we were to see everything in God, it would nevertheless be necessary that we also have our own ideas, that is, not little copies of God's, as it were, but affections and modifications or our mind corresponding to that very thing we perceived in God. For certainly there must be some change in our mind when we have some thoughts and then others, and, in fact, the ideas of things that we are not actually thinking about are in our mind as the shape of Hercules is in rough marble. Moreover, it is necessary not only that there actually be in God an idea of absolute and infinite extension but also that there be an idea of each shape, which is nothing but a modification of absolute extension. Furthermore, when we perceive colors or smells, we certainly have no perception other than that of shapes and of motions,though so very numerous and so very small that our mind cannot distinctly consider each individual one in this, its present state, and thus does not notice that its perception is composed of perceptions of minute shapes and motions alone, just as when we perceive the color green in a mixture of yellow and blue powder, we sense only yellow and blue finely mixed, even though we do not notice this, but rather fashion some new thing for ourselves.
(p. 27)

Visual Arts::Sculpture Mineral::Marble

Reading

Leibniz, G. W. Philosophical Essays. Ed. and Trans. Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co., 1989.

10/06/2003