"I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth."
— Descartes, René (1596-1650)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Paris
Date
1664
Metaphor
"I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth."
Metaphor in Context
I suppose the body to be nothing but a statue or machine made of earth, which God forms with the explicit intention of making it as much as possible like us. Thus God not only gives it externally the colours and shapes of all the parts of our bodies, but also places inside it all the parts required to make it walk, eat, breathe, and indeed to imitate all those of our functions which can be imagined to proceed from matter and to depend solely on the disposition of our organs.
We see clocks, artificial fountains, mills, and other such machines which, although only man-made, have the power to move of their own accord in many different ways. But I am supposing this machine to be made by the hands of God, and so I think you may reasonably think it capable of a greater variety of movements than I could possibly imagine in it, and of exhibiting more artistry than I could possibly ascribe to it.
(p. 99)
We see clocks, artificial fountains, mills, and other such machines which, although only man-made, have the power to move of their own accord in many different ways. But I am supposing this machine to be made by the hands of God, and so I think you may reasonably think it capable of a greater variety of movements than I could possibly imagine in it, and of exhibiting more artistry than I could possibly ascribe to it.
(p. 99)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Paul S. MacDonald, Concept of Mind (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003),
280; Found again searching in Past Masters
Citation
Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothof, and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Date of Entry
10/09/2003
Date of Review
01/30/2012
