"If there is something more in a living being than a pure mechanism, Descartes is bound in advance to miss it."

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

"Well, now I can make some highways, maybe. Well, now I can set out to do it and maybe it will be a painting of something else. Because if you know the measure of something, for yourself.. .There's is …"

— Willem de Kooning

Art1904–1997

#knowledge

"This progress among the people through Dhamma has been done by two means, by Dhamma regulations and by persuasion. Of these, Dhamma regulation is of little effect, while persuasion has much more effec…"

— Ashoka

Economics-303–-231

#life

"Campaign groups which used to oppose neo-Nazis realized that there weren’t sufficient Nazis to justify their business models. They decided that, henceforth, attacking parties such as Ukip should also …"

— Douglas Murray

Economics1979

#philosophy

"Upon the low value of "constructive" criticism I can offer testimony out of my own experience. My books have been commonly reviewed at length, and many critics have devoted themselves to pointing out …"

— H. L. Mencken

Literature1880–1956

#love