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He is Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 7:11:39 +0000 He is all ; he is being ; or better and more simply, he is. For the fewer words we use, the more we say. He is. Autor of the post: Undefined Still, I do not hesitate Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 7:26:16 +0000 Beware of adding any thing to this." 76 While reading these magnificent words, I am carried away by the elevation and grandeur of his ideas of God and of his immensity, and I forget the objections to the first proposition, which, if not false or inexact, is not, to say the least, expressed with all the clearness that could be desired. Still, I do not hesitate to maintain that his opinion coincides with Clarke s, although the illustrious writer, Christian, and poet, seem to merit a pardon for the philosopher. Autor of the post: Undefined Perhaps he would come nearer Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 7:36:57 +0000 77 DESCAKTES opinion wholly confounds space and bodies, making the essence of bodies consist in extension, and asserting that wherever there is space, there is body. This opinion we have seen to be void of all reasonable foun dation. Perhaps he would come nearer the truth who should say, that in reality space is nothing more than the exten sion of bodies, without reference to the question whether extension does or does not constitute the essence of bodies, and denying its infinity. Autor of the post: Undefined If I hold before my Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 7:53:08 +0000 Let us examine this last opinion. Analyzing the origin of the idea of space, we find that it is merely the idea of extension taken in the abstract. If I hold before my eyes an orange, I may, by means of abstractions, ar rive at the idea of a pure extension, equal to that of the orange. Autor of the post: Undefined It is plain Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 8:05:12 +0000 In order to do this, I begin by abstracting its color, taste, smell, and all its qualities which affect the senses. I then have left only an extended being, and if I take from it its mobility, it is reduced to a part of space equal to the size of the orange. It is plain that the same abstraction is possible in re- lation to the universe, and the result will be the idea of all the space which the universe occupies. Autor of the post: Undefined If we form the idea Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 8:18:22 +0000 79 Here I shall answer an objection which might be made to this explanation of the idea of space, and thereby take advantage of this opportunity to throw some light upon the origin of the idea of infinite, or imaginary space. The difficulty is this. If we form the idea of space by the mere abstraction of the qualities which accompany extension, we can only conceive a space equal to the size of the body from which we have abstracted all its sensible qualities. Autor of the post: Undefined The solution of this difficulty Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 8:36:21 +0000 The abstraction made upon an orange can only give a space equal to the size of the orange, and that made upon the universe can only give a space equal to what we conceive in the universe. Consequently, we can never, by this means, obtain the idea of a space without limits which always presents itself to our mind when we think of space considered in itself. The solution of this difficulty is in the truth that abstrac tion rises from the particular to the general. Autor of the post: Undefined If from the idea Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 8:50:16 +0000 From the idea of gold, by abstracting those properties which con stitute gold, and attending only to those which it possesses as metal, I arrive at the much more general idea of metal, which belongs not only to gold, but to all other metals. By this abstraction I pass the limit which separates gold from other metals, and form an idea which extends to all, neither specifying, nor excluding any. If from the idea of metal I abstract all that constitutes metal, and attend only to what constitutes mineral, I pass another limit, and arrive at a still more general idea. Autor of the post: Undefined Thus passing over the limits Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 9:07:17 +0000 Thus passing success ively the idea of inorganic, of body, and of substance, until I come to the idea of being, I thus form the most general idea possible, and which includes every thing. I take no notice in this place of the different manner in which the idea of being is applicable to God and to creatures. Thus passing over the limits which distinguish and, as it were, separate objects, abstraction rises to the most general. Autor of the post: Undefined But if I abstract all Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 9:26:57 +0000 If we apply this doctrine to the abstractions made upon bodies, we shall discover the reason of the illimitability of the idea of space. When after the abstractions made upon the orange, I have left only the idea of its extension, the abstraction has not reached the highest point possible ; for my conception is not that of extension in itself, but only of the extension of the orange ; I conceive its extension, not extension itself. But if I abstract all that makes this extension the ex tension of the orange, and attend only to extension in itself, then the idea of figure disappears, the extension expands indefinitely, it is impossible for me to assign any term to it, for any limit would make it a determinate, a particular extension, not extension in itself. 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