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198 From these doctrines it Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 15:48:25 +0000 It is generally dan gerous to laugh at opinions held by great men; for if they are not certain, they have, at least, powerful argu ments in their favor. Nothing is more contrary to sensible representations than the possibility of any thing being in different places at the same time, but we shall find nothing more in conformity with the principles of sound philosophy than this possibility, after w have profoundly analyzed the relations of extension with unextended things, and dis covered the difference between the position of quantity and the position of causality. 198 From these doctrines it may be concluded, that to be in space is not a general condition of all existences, even according to the manner of existences ; for we can conceive existences without relation to any place. Autor of the post: Undefined As imagination is a sort Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:08:23 +0000 Many have con founded imagination with understanding on this point, and believed that what is impossible for the former is equally so for the latter. It is certain that we can imagine nothing without referring it to points of space, and even in purely intellectual objects there is always a sensible representa tion, but the understanding regards these representations as false and does not conform to them. As imagination is a sort of continuation of sensibility, or an internal sense, and the basis of sensations is extension ; it is impossible for us to exercise this internal sense, without the presence of space, which, as we have shown, is only the idea of exten sion in general. Autor of the post: Undefined Is this relation necessary ? Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:25:26 +0000 Position in space is consequently a general condition of all things, as perceived by the senses, but not as perceived by the intellect. 199 POSITION in place is the relation of a body to other bodies. Is this relation necessary ? I distinguish : condi tionally, yes; essentially, no. Autor of the post: Undefined But that the existing order Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:36:32 +0000 God has established this relation, and therefore it is necessary ; but Grod might have ordered it otherwise, and can even now change it, without varying the essence of things. If we admit, as we must, a correspondence between the subjective and the objective, or between the appearance and the reality, we cannot deny that the relations of bodies are constant, and this constancy must proceed from somo necessity. But that the existing order is subject to fixed laws, does not prove that these laws have their root in the essence of things, in such a manner that, supposing the ex- istence of objects, their relations could not have been very different from what they actually are. Autor of the post: Undefined Some maintain that the essence Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:47:02 +0000 200 In order to assert that the existing order of the uni verse is intrinsically necessary, we must know the essence of things; but this is not possible for us, because objects are not immediately present to our understanding, and we see them only under one aspect, that which places them in relation with our sensitive faculties. The best proof of our ignorance of the essence of bodies is the great division of opinion on this subject. Some maintain that the essence of bodies is extension or dimensions ; and others that ex tension is merely an accident, not only distinct, but even separable from corporeal substance. Autor of the post: Undefined To say that bodies contain Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:58:13 +0000 The great obscurity in which the investigation of the constitutive elements of bodies is involved, proves that their essence is unknown to us, and that we know nothing of them except their relation to our sensibility. 201 It is not necessary that the aspect under which being is presented to us should contain its whole nature. To say that bodies contain nothing besides what we per ceive in them, is to make our faculties the type of things in themselves, a ridiculous pretension in a being which finds its activity limited at every step and is almost always pas sive in its relations to bodies, and which, in order to exer cise its faculties externally, is forced to submit to the laws of the external world, or else to encounter obstacles which are absolutely insurmountable. Autor of the post: Undefined 202 Hence, in all Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:09:01 +0000 If we are ignorant of the essence of bodies we can have no certain knowledge of what is intrinsically necessary in them ; with the exception of composition, which even the sensible order presents to us, and which we cannot take from bodies without seeming to run into a contradiction. Simplicity and composition in the same object are incoin patible and contradictory. 202 Hence, in all that pertains to the relations of bodies we must abstain from judging absolutely, and speak only conditionally. Autor of the post: Undefined 203 One of the greatest Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:26:44 +0000 We may say : " This happens now : this must happen according to the order now established;" but we cannot say : " This happens, and it is absolutely neces sary that it should happen." The transition from the first proposition to the second, implies the knowledge of what no man can know, that the aspect under which the external world is presented to us is the image of its essence. 203 One of the greatest errors of Descartes was, that he did not make sufficient account of this difference : he placed the essence of bodies in dimensions, which is to coDfound the real world with the phenomenal, and to take one aspect of things for their nature. Autor of the post: Undefined 204 The different aspects under Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:42:05 +0000 It is true that whatever affects us has extension, and that extension is the basis of the rela tions of our sensibility with the external world ; but it does not follow that the essence of this world is nothing more than what is presented to us in its dimensions. We might as well say that the essence of man is the lines which mark his form. 204 The different aspects under which the external world is presented to our senses, ought to prevent us from confounding what is absolute in it with what is relative. Autor of the post: Undefined When we examine the possibility Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:58:38 +0000 A man deprived of one sense would not reason well if he should conclude that the world has no other aspects than those which he perceives. What do we know of the manner in which objects are presented to pure spirits, or of the many other phases which they might offer to our sensibility ? Let us then leave nature its secrets ; and let us not limit omnipotence by saying, that the order of the world is so intrinsically necessary that its present relations cannot be changed without contradiction. When we examine the possibility of a new order of relations between the beings which we call bodies, let us not settle the question too quickly, taking for our only type of the possible the vain impotence of our faculties. 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