work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
4411,"",Searching in ECCO,2006-10-08 00:00:00 UTC,"It would be hard Indeed, if a Philosophy, which has Considered Ideas with such Accuracy, should be Mistaken in every Point; And it may Possibly be True in this, with one Restriction, in Respect of the first Part of what is here Affirm'd, that our Comparing Ideas with on another, as to Extent, Degree, Time, Place, &c. is the Ground of Relations, Namely, if it is Meant, so far as we Apprehend those Relations; But if it is Affirm'd in General, it is a Mistake; Because not only our Comparing our Ideas, but the Different Genius's, Tempers, and Complexions of our Minds, by which we first Receive, and them Compare them, comes into the account, which this Philosophy does not at all Regard; For it's whole Systeme Aims at this, to make the Furniture of every Person's Mind Alike, their Reason and Faculties the same, and which Garniture, after it has made it a Rasa Tabula, must be of it's own Supplying; 'Tis an Empty Room, without any Thing to Set if off or Adorn it, till this Philosophy has taken Care to put into it, what Ideas and Faculties it Thinks Proper for it's Ornament and Embellishing; And amongst the Rest, is this of Comparing Ideas; as if it was the same in all Men, and was not to be Distinguished by the Various Forces, Powers, and Capacities of the Mind, which it Certainly Ought to be.
(V.v.11, p. 633)",,11632,"•I've included four times: Furniture, Garniture, Tabula Rasa, Room","""For it's whole Systeme Aims at this, to make the Furniture of every Person's Mind Alike, their Reason and Faculties the same, and which Garniture, after it has made it a Rasa Tabula, must be of it's own Supplying; 'Tis an Empty Room, without any Thing to Set if off or Adorn it, till this Philosophy has taken Care to put into it, what Ideas and Faculties it Thinks Proper for it's Ornament and Embellishing.""","",2009-09-14 19:36:06 UTC,Book V. Chapt V.
4411,Blank Slate,"Searching ""tabula rasa"" in ECCO",2006-10-08 00:00:00 UTC,"THESE being Little more than Definitions of Terms, there is Little more to be said Concerning them, Excepting, That the Mind does not Form these Complex Ideas from it's Comparing of Simple Ideas, but Receives them Complex from Experience and Observation, and then by Reflection and Reason Distinguishes them into the several Parts, of which they are Composed. We rather take Notice of this here; Because this Philosophy had made the Mind a Rasa Tabula, or a Blank Paper, or an Empty and Void Room without any Furniture, which therefore it was to Supply; And this is done by Storing it with it's Simple Ideas from Sensation and Reflection, and from thence Deriving it's Complex Ones; On the Contrary we say, that what this Philosophy Terms Simple Ideas, are Abstracted ones, as Colour, Sound, Extension, &c. and therefore are not First in the Mind, but are Made by it; And on the other Hand, what it Names Complex Ideas, are Received Whole, and Compounded into the Mind, and are afterwards Separated into the Simple Ideas, or the Particulars, of which they Consist.
(V.v.35, p. 677)",,11637,"•I've included four times: Tabula Rasa, Paper, Room, Furniture","""We rather take Notice of this here; Because this Philosophy had made the Mind a Rasa Tabula, or a Blank Paper, or an Empty and Void Room without any Furniture, which therefore it was to Supply; And this is done by Storing it with it's Simple Ideas from Sensation and Reflection, and from thence Deriving it's Complex Ones; On the Contrary we say, that what this Philosophy Terms Simple Ideas, are Abstracted ones, as Colour, Sound, Extension, &c. and therefore are not First in the Mind, but are Made by it; And on the other Hand, what it Names Complex Ideas, are Received Whole, and Compounded into the Mind, and are afterwards Separated into the Simple Ideas, or the Particulars, of which they Consist.""",Writing,2009-09-14 19:36:06 UTC,Book V. Chapt V.
4493,"",OLL,2005-08-23 00:00:00 UTC,"CLEO.
So it may be in part: but there are Men of prodigious Reading, that have likewise great Memories, who judge ill, and seldom say any thing a propos, or say it when it is too late. Among the helluones librorum, the Cormorants of Books, there are wretched Reasoners, that have canine Appetites, and no Digestion. What Numbers of learned Fools do we not meet with in large Libraries; from whose Works it is evident, that Knowledge must have lain in their Heads, as Furniture at an Upholder's; and the Treasure of the Brain was a Burden to them, instead of an Ornament! All this proceeds from a Defect in the Faculty of Thinking; an Unskilfulness, and want of Aptitude in managing, to the best Advantage, the Idea's we have receiv'd. We see others, on the contrary, that have very fine Sense, and no Litterature at all. The generality of Women are quicker of Invention, and more ready at Repartee, than the Men, with equal Helps of Education; and it is surprizing to see, what a considerable Figure some of them make in Conversation, when we consider the small Opportunities they have had of acquiring Knowledge.",2012-04-10,11804,"•I've included thrice: Furniture, Treasure, Ornament","""What Numbers of learned Fools do we not meet with in large Libraries; from whose Works it is evident, that Knowledge must have lain in their Heads, as Furniture at an Upholder's; and the Treasure of the Brain was a Burden to them, instead of an Ornament!""",Rooms,2012-04-10 21:26:43 UTC,Fourth Dialogue
4493,"",OLL,2005-08-23 00:00:00 UTC,"HOR.
I plainly feel that this Operation of Thinking is a Labour, or at least something that is transacting, in my Head, and not in my Leg nor my Arm: What Insight or real Knowledge have we from Anatomy Concerning it?
Cleo.
None at all à priori: The most consummate Anatomist knows no more of it than a Butcher's Prentice. We may admire the curious Duplicate of Coats,1 and close Embroidery of Veins and Arteries that environ the Brain: But when dissecting it we have viewed the several Pairs of Nerves with their Origin, and taken Notice of some Glands of various Shapes and Sizes, which differing from the Brain in Substance, could not but rush in View; when these, I say, have been taken Notice of, and distinguish'd by different Names, some of them not very pertinent, and less polite, the best Naturalist must acknowledge, that even of these large visible Parts there are but few, the Nerves and Blood-Vessels excepted, at the Use of which he can give any tollerable Guesses: But as to the mysterious Structure of the Brain itself, and the more abstruse Oeconomy of it, that he knows nothing; but that the whole seems to be a medullary Substance, compactly treasur'd up in infinite Millions of imperceptible Cells, that dispos'd in an unconceivable Order, are cluster'd together in a perplexing Variety of Folds and Windings. He'll add, perhaps, that it is reasonable to think, this to be the capacious Exchequer of human Knowledge, in which the faithful Senses deposite the vast Treasure of Images, constantly, as through their Organs they receive them: That it is the Office in which the Spirits are separated from the Blood, and afterwards sublim'd and volatiliz'd into Particles hardly corporeal; and that the most minute of these are always, either searching for, or variously disposing the Images retain'd, and shooting through the infinite Meanders of that wonderful Substance, employ themselves, without ceasing, in that inexplicable Performance, the Contemplation of which fills the most exalted Genius with Amazement.
(pp. 178-9, pp. 165-6 in OUP ed.)",,11812,"•Note, I've circled back. This entry precedes the previous entries in the actual text.
&bull:INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY?
Was paginated pp. 133-4. Was that a mistake? -- AER identified issue in the MS","""But as to the mysterious Structure of the Brain itself, and the more abstruse Oeconomy of it, that he knows nothing; but that the whole seems to be a medullary Substance, compactly treasur'd up in infinite Millions of imperceptible Cells, that dispos'd in an unconceivable Order, are cluster'd together in a perplexing Variety of Folds and Windings. He'll add, perhaps, that it is reasonable to think, this to be the capacious Exchequer of human Knowledge, in which the faithful Senses deposite the vast Treasure of Images, constantly, as through their Organs they receive them""",Coinage,2014-04-16 19:42:56 UTC,Fourth Dialogue
4495,"",Reading,2011-03-31 21:46:51 UTC,"IX. Atheism therefore, that bugbear of women and fools, is the very top and perfection of free-thinking. It is the grand arcanum to which a true genius naturally riseth, by a certain climax or gradation of thought, and without which he can never possess his soul in absolute liberty and repose. For your thorough conviction in this main article, do but examine the notion of a God with the same freedom that you would other prejudices. Trace it to the fountain-head, and you shall not find that you had it by any of your senses, the only true means of discovering what is real and substantial in nature: you will find it lying amongst other old lumber in some obscure corner of the imagination, the proper receptacle of visions, fancies, and prejudices of all kinds; and if you are more attached to this than the rest, it is only because it is the oldest. This is all, take my word for it, and not mine only, but that of many more the most ingenious men of the age, who, I can assure you, think as I do on the subject of a deity. Though some of them hold it proper to proceed with more reserve in declaring to the world their opinion in this particular, than in most others. And it must be owned, there are still too many in England who retain a foolish prejudice against the name of atheist. But it lessens every day among the better sort: and when it is quite worn out, our free-thinkers may then (and not till then) be said to have given the finishing stroke to religion; it being evident that so long as the existence of God is believed, religion must subsist in some shape or other. But the root being once plucked up, the scions which shot from it will of course wither and decay. Such are all those whimsical notions of conscience, duty, principle, and the like, which fill a man's head with scruples, awe him with fears, and make him a more thorough slave than the horse he rides. A man had better a thousand things be hunted by bailiffs or messengers than haunted by these spectres, which embarrass and embitter all his pleasures, creating the most real and sore servitude upon earth. But the free-thinker, with a vigorous flight of thought, breaks through those airy springes, and asserts his original independency. Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it; but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
(pp. 44-5)",,18272,INTEREST. USE: Mention in ROOMS?,"""Trace it to the fountain-head, and you shall not find that you had it by any of your senses, the only true means of discovering what is real and substantial in nature: you will find it lying amongst other old lumber in some obscure corner of the imagination, the proper receptacle of visions, fancies, and prejudices of all kinds; and if you are more attached to this than the rest, it is only because it is the oldest.""",Rooms,2011-03-31 21:46:51 UTC,Dialogue I
4475,"",Searching in Google Books,2012-01-22 20:56:30 UTC,"14. Wherefore here is a Double Errour committed by Vulgar Philosophers; First, That they make the Sensible Ideas and Phantasms to be totally impressed from without in a gross corporeal Manner upon the Soul, as It were upon a dead Thing; and, Secondly, That then they suppose the Intelligible Ideas, the Abstract and Universal Notions of the Mind, to be made out of these Sensible Ideas and Phantasms thus impressed from without in a Corporeal Manner likewise by Abstraction or Separation of the Individuating Circumstances, as it were by the hewing off certain Chips from them, or by hammering, beating or anvelling of them out into thin Intelligible Ideas; as if Solid and Massy Gold should be beaten out into thin Leaf-Gold. To which Purpose they have ingeniously contrived and set up an Active Understanding, like a Smith or Carpenter, with his Shop or Forge in the Brain, furnished with all necessary Tools and Instruments for such a Work. Where I would only demand of these Philosophers, Whether this their so expert Smith or Architect, the Active Understanding, when he goes about his Work, doth know what he is to do with these Phantasms before-hand, what he is to make of them, and unto what Shape to bring them? If he do not, he must needs be a bungling Workman; but if he do, he is prevented in his Design and Undertaking, his Work being done already to his Hand; for he must needs have the Intelligible Idea of that which he knows or Understands already within himself; and therefore now to what Purpose should he use his Tools, and go about to hew and hammer and anvil out these Phantasms into thin and subtle Intelligible Ideas, meerly to make that which he hath already, and which was Native and Domestick to him?
(IV.iii.14, pp. 219-221)",,19513,Cudworth understands the regress problem. INTEREST. USE IN ENTRY.,"""Where I would only demand of these Philosophers, Whether this their so expert Smith or Architect, the Active Understanding, when he goes about his Work, doth know what he is to do with these Phantasms before-hand, what he is to make of them, and unto what Shape to bring them? If he do not, he must needs be a bungling Workman; but if he do, he is prevented in his Design and Undertaking, his Work being done already to his Hand; for he must needs have the Intelligible Idea of that which he knows or Understands already within himself; and therefore now to what Purpose should he use his Tools, and go about to hew and hammer and anvil out these Phantasms into thin and subtle Intelligible Ideas, meerly to make that which he hath already, and which was Native and Domestick to him?""",Inhabitants and Metal,2012-01-22 20:56:30 UTC,"Book IV, Chapter iii"
7509,"","Reading Dennis Todd's Imagining Monsters (University of Chicago Press, 1995), 137.
",2013-07-08 19:49:43 UTC,"I now proceed to Memory, which is nothing but the same Imagination acting without the assistance of exterior Objects. To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occasions thereby increases and strengthens itself by degrees, till at last it acquires such a consistency (if I may so call it) as makes it subsist as long as the Machine itself. A Stock of Images having been thus acquired, they each have their respective little Cell or Lodge, where they go and hide. Yet we must not suppose that they are continually in their Retirement; they would become useless if they were so. But on the contrary, great Numbers of them are always going to and fro; and if one of them chances to go by the Cell or Lodge of another which has the least real or imaginary conformity with it, out pops the retired Image, and immediately joins the wandering one. This never so obviously happens, as when a new Image is introduced into the Brain, who as soon as he appears, occasions great Commotions among all the old Inhabitants who either have, or think they have, any resemblance or relation to the new Comers.
(pp. 186-7)",,21523,"","""To explain this, we must consider that the first Image which an outward Object imprints on our Brain is very slight; it resembles a thin Vapour which dwindles into nothing, without leaving the least track after it. But if the same Object successively offers itself several times, the Image it occasions thereby increases and strengthens itself by degrees, till at last it acquires such a consistency (if I may so call it) as makes it subsist as long as the Machine itself. A Stock of Images having been thus acquired, they each have their respective little Cell or Lodge, where they go and hide.""",Impressions and Rooms,2013-07-08 19:53:17 UTC,""
7546,"",Google Books,2013-07-16 15:27:54 UTC,"I say, our Author maintains that Moral Virtue is so far from allowing a Man to gratify his Appetites, that on the contrary it vigorously commands us to subdue them, and to divest ourselves of our Passions, in order to purify the Mind, as Men take out the Furniture when they would clean a Room thoroughly: For, according to him, Virtue consists wholly in Self-Denial: By which he understands Peoples combating themselves, and undergoing all imaginable Austerities, even refusing what one should think absolutely necessary to keep them alive. I am willing "" says he, to pag Adoration to Virtue wherever, I can meet with it, with a proviso that I shall not be oblig'd to admit any as such, where I can see no Self-Denial. [...]""
(p. 153)",,21783,Paraphrasing Mandeville,"""I say, our Author maintains that Moral Virtue is so far from allowing a Man to gratify his Appetites, that on the contrary it vigorously commands us to subdue them, and to divest ourselves of our Passions, in order to purify the Mind, as Men take out the Furniture when they would clean a Room thoroughly.""",Rooms,2013-07-16 15:27:54 UTC,""
7593,"",Searching in ECCO-TCP,2013-08-16 17:22:45 UTC,"But that I may clear up your Doubt as to the Part I am upon, I have added at the Head of this Section, the Word Departed, to intimate to you, that I am Orthodox in my Notion; that I am none of the Sect of Soul-Sleepers, or for imprisoning Souls in a Limbus of the Ancients; but that, in a few Words, by the Appearance of Souls Unembodied, I mean such as having been embodied or imprison'd in Flesh, are discharg'd from that Confinement, or as I call it unhous'd and turn'd out of Possession. For I cannot agree that the Soul is in the Body, as in a Prison; but rather that, like a rich Nobleman, he is pleas'd to inhabit a fine Country Seat or Palace of his own Building, where he resolves to live and enjoy himself, and does so, 'till by the Fate of things his fine Palace being over-turn'd, whether by an Earthquake or otherwise, is bury'd in its own Ruins, and the noble Owner turn'd out of Possession, without a House.
(pp. 44-5)",,22208,"","""For I cannot agree that the Soul is in the Body, as in a Prison; but rather that, like a rich Nobleman, he is pleas'd to inhabit a fine Country Seat or Palace of his own Building, where he resolves to live and enjoy himself, and does so, 'till by the Fate of things his fine Palace being over-turn'd, whether by an Earthquake or otherwise, is bury'd in its own Ruins, and the noble Owner turn'd out of Possession, without a House.""",Rooms,2013-08-16 17:22:45 UTC,"Chapter V
"
7607,"",ECCO-TCP,2013-08-17 19:09:15 UTC,"The true Use of Titles, is, That they may serve, as shining Lights, to lay open and illustrate, the spacious Chambers of a Mind well-furnished. But, to a close, and sordid, Soul, they are like Torches, which we carry down, to illuminate a sickly Dungeon: Where they expose, but the more disgracefully, the narrow Cells, bare Walls; and Dirtiness.
(p. 322)",,22278,"","""The true Use of Titles, is, That they may serve, as shining Lights, to lay open and illustrate, the spacious Chambers of a Mind well-furnished.""",Rooms,2013-08-17 19:09:15 UTC,""