Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"When actual thought is suspended, there may remain some secret power of thinking resulting from the constitution of the soul, which will exert itself when the obstruction is removed. As a bow when bent has a disposition to straiten itself again, or a clock to strike, though the hammer be held ba...
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"That mind is said to be possessed of NATURAL LIBERTY, or liberty of choice, which is so constituted, as that its volitions shall not be invincibly determined by any foreign cause or consideration whatever offered to it, but by its own sovereign pleasure."
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"PHILOSOPHICAL LIBERTY consists in a prevailing disposition to act according to the dictates of reason; i. e. in such a manner, as shall, all things considered, most effectually promote our happiness. A disposition to act contrary to this is MENTAL SERVITUDE: and when the mind is equally...
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"To the fourth argument (which is generally called choice εν αδιαφορια) 'tis answered by the opposers of natural liberty, that no such case can occur that two objects should appear entirely equal: and if there did, then a choice would be impossible; for that would imply an effect withou...
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"But this is evidently taking the question for granted: for it will not be allowed that willing is a necessary effect, which must imply a compelling efficient cause; or the mind like a balance to be moved with weights."
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1763 (repr. 1776); 1794 (repr. 1799)
"That perhaps this may be a state of imprisonment to the soul, as many of the philosophers thought; and that when it is set at liberty from the body, it may obtain new and noble ways of perception and action, to us at present unknown."
preview | full record— Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)
Date: 1764
"But behold, this soul of thought frequently has the ascendancy over the animal soul. The thinking soul orders its hands to grasp, and they grasp. It does not tell its heart to beat, its blood to run, its chyle to form; all these things happen without it: so here we have two perplexed souls which...
preview | full record— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)
Date: 1764
"Nobody knows what really is the being called 'spirit', to which even you give the material name of 'spirit', which means wind."
preview | full record— Arouet, François-Marie [known as Voltaire] (1694-1778)
Date: 1764
Perception is "a kind of drama, wherein some things are performed behind the scenes, others are represented to the mind in different scenes, one succeeding the another"
preview | full record— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)
Date: 1764
"Such principles are parts of our constitution, no less than the power of thinking: reason can neither make nor destroy them; nor can it do any thing without them: it is like a telescope, which may help a man to see farther, who hath eyes; but without eyes, a telescope shows nothing at all."
preview | full record— Reid, Thomas (1710-1796)