"While Descartes finds being in thought, Saint Thomas finds thought in being."

Étienne Gilson Philosophy See all quotes by Étienne Gilson →

React to this quote

More by Étienne Gilson

“The scientific sterility of the Middle Ages has to be condemned for the same reasons which make it necessary today to condemn the philosophic sterility of scientism.”

“With Descartes the Cogito ergo sum turns into Cogito ergo res sunt .”

“As used today, the word realism means in the first place the opposite to idealism when it claims that it is possible to pass from the subject to the object.”

“Having left us with thought , and extension , does not know how to account for the union of soul and body.”

“Up to Descartes' time, and particularly during the Middle Ages, it had always been agreed that philosophy consisted in a transposition of reality into conceptual terms”

“Hume's skepticism, therefore, descends in a direct line from Cartesian mathematicism.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I’ve never heard the term “numerical synesthesia,” but now that I have, yes, this is how she often sees. This is how she is able to calm herself. This is her path to tapping into the energy of spirit.…"

— Nnedi Okorafor

Literature1974

#philosophy

"No disease any refugee might bring to America is as dangerous as the disease of fear, bigotry and hatred now being spread in America by Fox."

— Bill Kristol

Politics1952

#philosophy

"Particle physics suffers more from being infected by the socio-political mood of the day than from lack of spectacular opportunities for major and profound discoveries."

— Leon M. Lederman

Science1922–2018

#philosophy

"Mystics of every faith report contacts with a world that startles and transforms them with its dazzling darkness. Zen stands squarely in this camp, its only uniqueness being that it makes breaking the…"

— Huston Smith

Literature1919–2016

#philosophy