An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Volume 2 |
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abſtract affent affurance againſt agreement or difagreement alfo anfwer becauſe befides body cafe caufe cauſe cerning certainty complex idea confequence confider confideration confifts connexion demonftration difcourfe difcover difputes diftinct elfe errour eternal evidence exift exiſtence faculties fafe faid fame farther fciences feems felf-evident fenfe ferve fettled feveral fhall fhould fhow fide fignification figns fimple ideas fince firft firſt folid fome fomething fometimes foul fpecies fpirit ftand fubftances fubject fuch fuppofe fyllo fyllogifm hath himſelf immaterial impoffible inftance intuitive knowledge itſelf knowledge leaft leaſt ledge lefs lordship matter maxims meaſure men's mind moft moſt motion muft muſt names nature neceffary obfcurity obferve opinions ourſelves perceive perception perfon philofophy pleaſe poffibly pofitions precife prefent proofs propofitions queftion reafon real effence reft revelation ſhall ſtand teftimony thefe themſelves theſe things thofe thoſe thought tion true truth underſtanding univerfal uſe wherein whereof whofe words
Popular passages
Page 61 - For if we will reflect on our own ways of thinking, we shall find that sometimes the mind perceives the agreement or disagreement of two ideas immediately by themselves, without the intervention of any other: and this, I think, we may call intuitive knowledge.
Page 250 - I think it may not be amiss to take notice, that, however faith be opposed to reason, faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind ; which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to any thing but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it. He that believes without having any reason for believing, may be in love with his own fancies ; but neither seeks truth as he ought, nor pays the obedience due to his Maker...
Page 62 - This part of knowledge is irresistible, and like bright sunshine forces itself immediately to be perceived, as soon as ever the mind turns its view that way; and leaves no room for hesitation, doubt, or examination, but the mind is presently filled with the clear light of it. It is on this intuition that depends all the certainty and evidence of all our knowledge...
Page 320 - ... to nature, which was much more the effect of use and practice. I do not deny that natural disposition may often give the first rise to it; but that never carries a man far without use and exercise, and it is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind as well as those of the body to their perfection. Many a good poetic vein is buried under a trade, and never produces any thing for want of improvement.
Page 258 - Whatever God hath revealed is certainly true: no doubt can be made of it. This is the proper object of faith: but whether it be a divine revelation or no, reason must judge...
Page 320 - As it is in the body, so it is in the mind ; practice makes it what it is ; and most even of those excellencies which are looked on as natural endowments, will be found, when examined into more narrowly, to be the product of exercise, and to be raised to that pitch only by repeated actions.
Page 261 - ... new set of discoveries communicated by God immediately; which reason vouches the truth of, by the testimony and proofs it gives that they come from God. So that he that takes away reason to make way for revelation, puts out the light of both, and does muchwhat the same as if he would persuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the remote light of an invisible star by a telescope.
Page 188 - ... perhaps we neither know nor consider how it does it: for it takes not from the certainty of our senses, and the ideas we receive by them, that we know not the manner wherein they are produced: vg whilst I write this, I have, by the paper affecting my eyes, that idea produced in my mind, which whatever object causes, I call white...
Page 320 - Exchange will find a different genius and turn in their ways of talking: and yet one cannot think that all whose lot fell in the city were born with different parts from those who were bred at the university or inns of court. To what purpose all this, but to...
Page 228 - And therefore, in those cases, our assent can be rationally no higher than the evidence of its being a revelation, and that this is the meaning of the expressions it is delivered in.