"Things which do not now exist in the mind itself, can only be perceived, remembered, or imagined, by means of the ideas or images in the mind, which are the immediate objects of perception, remembrance, and imagination." (Thomas Reid, "An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles", 1764)
"Conceiving as well as projecting or resolving, are what the schoolmen called immanent acts of the mind, which produce nothing beyond themselves. But painting is a transitive act, which produces an effect distinct from the operation, and this effect is the picture. Let this therefore be always remembered, that what is commonly called the image of a thing in the mind, is no more than the act or operation of the mind in conceiving it." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact, and partly by conjecture, is like Nebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were partly of iron, and partly of clay." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact, and partly by conjecture, is like Nebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were partly of iron, and partly of clay." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"If one should ask, ‘What is meant by conceiving a thing?’ we should very naturally answer, that it is having an image of it in the mind-and perhaps we could not explain the word better. This shews that conception, and the image of a thing in the mind, are synonymous expressions. The image in the mind, therefore, is not the object of conception, nor is it any effect produced by conception as a cause. It is conception itself. That very mode of thinking which we call conception, is by another name called an image in the mind." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"[...] if there were really such images in the mind, or in the brain, they could not be general, because every thing that really exists is an individual. Universals are neither acts of the mind, nor images in the mind." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In mathematics it [sophistry] had no place from the beginning: Mathematicians having had the wisdom to define accurately the terms they use, and to lay down, as axioms, the first principles on which their reasoning is grounded. Accordingly we find no parties among mathematicians, and hardly any disputes." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In metaphysical reasoning, the process is always short. The conclusion is but a step or two, seldom more, from the first principles or axioms on which it is grounded, and the different conclusions depend not one upon another.
It is otherwise in mathematical reasoning. Here the field has no limits. One proposition leads on to another, that to a third, and so on without end. If it should be asked, why demonstrative reasoning has so wide a field in mathematics, while, in other abstract subjects, it is confined within very narrow limits, I conceive this is chiefly owing to the nature of quantity, […] mathematical quantities being made up of parts without number, can touch in innumerable points, and be compared in innumerable different ways." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In mathematics it [sophistry] had no place from the beginning: Mathematicians having had the wisdom to define accurately the terms they use, and to lay down, as axioms, the first principles on which their reasoning is grounded. Accordingly we find no parties among mathematicians, and hardly any disputes." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"In metaphysical reasoning, the process is always short. The conclusion is but a step or two, seldom more, from the first principles or axioms on which it is grounded, and the different conclusions depend not one upon another.
It is otherwise in mathematical reasoning. Here the field has no limits. One proposition leads on to another, that to a third, and so on without end. If it should be asked, why demonstrative reasoning has so wide a field in mathematics, while, in other abstract subjects, it is confined within very narrow limits, I conceive this is chiefly owing to the nature of quantity, […] mathematical quantities being made up of parts without number, can touch in innumerable points, and be compared in innumerable different ways." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Language is the express image and picture of human thoughts; and, from the picture, we may often draw very certain conclusions with regard to die original." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Mathematicians have, in many cases, proved some things to be possible and others to be impossible, which, without demonstration, would not have been believed […] Mathematics afford many instances of impossibilities in the nature of things, which no man would have believed, if they had not been strictly demonstrated. Perhaps, if we were able to reason demonstratively in other subjects, to as great extent as in mathematics, we might find many things to be impossible, which we conclude, without hesitation, to be possible." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Mathematics, once fairly established on the foundation of a few axioms and definitions, as upon a rock, has grown from age to age, so as to become the most solid fabric that human reason can boast." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Men are often led into errors by the love of simplicity, which disposes us to reduce things to few principles, and to conceive a greater simplicity in nature than there really is." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Nothing more readily gives the conception of a thing than the seeing an image of it. Hence, by a figure common in language, conception is called an image of the thing conceived. But to shew that it is not a real but a metaphorical image, it is called an image in the mind. We know nothing that is properly in the mind but thought; and, when anything else is said to be in the mind, the expression must be figurative, and signify some kind of thought." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"Philosophers very unanimously maintain, that in conception there is a real image in the mind, which is the immediate object of conception, and distinct from the act of conceiving it." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The mathematician pays not the least regard either to testimony or conjecture, but deduces everything by demonstrative reasoning, from his definitions and axioms. Indeed, whatever is built upon conjecture, is improperly called science; for conjecture may beget opinion, but cannot produce knowledge." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The science [mathematics], once fairly established on the foundation of a few axioms and definitions, as upon a rock, has grown from age to age, so as to become the most solid fabric that human reason can boast." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The mathematician pays not the least regard either to testimony or conjecture, but deduces everything by demonstrative reasoning, from his definitions and axioms. Indeed, whatever is built upon conjecture, is improperly called science; for conjecture may beget opinion, but cannot produce knowledge." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"The science [mathematics], once fairly established on the foundation of a few axioms and definitions, as upon a rock, has grown from age to age, so as to become the most solid fabric that human reason can boast." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"There are conceptions which may be called fancy pictures. They are commonly called creatures of fancy, or of imagination. They are not the copies of any original that exists, but are originals themselves […]. They were conceived by their creators, and may be conceived by others, but they never existed. We do not ascribe the qualities of true or false to them, because they are not accompanied with any belief, nor do they imply any affirmation or negation." (Thomas Reid,"Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
"There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words." (Thomas Reid, "Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man", 1785)
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