"Secondly, when an external sense organ is stimulated by an object, the figure which it receives is conveyed at one and the same moment to another part of the body known as the 'common' sense, without any entity really passing from the one to the other. In exactly the same way I understand that while I am writing, at the very moment when individual letters are traced on the paper, not only does the point of the pen move, but the slightest motion of this part cannot but be transmitted simultaneously to the whole pen. All these various motions are traced out in the air by the tip of the quill, even though I do not conceive of anything real passing from one end to the other."
— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Author
Place of Publication
Amsterdam
Publisher
P. and J. Blaeu
Date
w. 1628, published in 1684, 1701
Metaphor
"Secondly, when an external sense organ is stimulated by an object, the figure which it receives is conveyed at one and the same moment to another part of the body known as the 'common' sense, without any entity really passing from the one to the other. In exactly the same way I understand that while I am writing, at the very moment when individual letters are traced on the paper, not only does the point of the pen move, but the slightest motion of this part cannot but be transmitted simultaneously to the whole pen. All these various motions are traced out in the air by the tip of the quill, even though I do not conceive of anything real passing from one end to the other."
Metaphor in Context
Secondly, when an external sense organ is stimulated by an object, the figure which it receives is conveyed at one and the same moment to another part of the body known as the 'common' sense, without any entity really passing from the one to the other. In exactly the same way I understand that while I am writing, at the very moment when individual letters are traced on the paper, not only does the point of the pen move, but the slightest motion of this part cannot but be transmitted simultaneously to the whole pen. All these various motions are traced out in the air by the tip of the quill, even though I do not conceive of anything real passing from one end to the other. Who then would think that the connection between the parts of the human body is less close than that between the parts of the pen? What simpler way of portraying the matter can be imagined?
(Rule 12, p. 41)
(Rule 12, p. 41)
Categories
Provenance
Past Masters
Citation
Reading Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985).
See Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Amsterdam: P. and J. Blaeu, 1701).
Not published in Descartes' lifetime. Dutch translation in 1684; published in Latin in 1701.
See Opuscula posthuma, physica et mathematica (Amsterdam: P. and J. Blaeu, 1701).
Not published in Descartes' lifetime. Dutch translation in 1684; published in Latin in 1701.
Theme
Writing to the Moment
Date of Entry
10/01/2003
Date of Review
10/23/2003
