Date: 1644, 1647

"Sensory awareness comes about by means of nerves, which stretch like threads from the brain to all the limbs, and are joined together in such a way that hardly any part of the human body can be touched without producing movement in several of the nerve-ends that are scattered around in that area"

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1648

"Thus all common notions which are engraved in the mind have their origin in observation of things or in verbal instruction."

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)

Date: 1648

"Thus a man who is dressed can be regarded as a compound of a man and clothes. But with respect to the man, his being dressed is merely a mode, although clothes are substances. In the same way, in the case of a man, who is composed of a soul and a body, our author might be regarding the body as t...

— Descartes, René (1596-1650)