Etienne Gilson Quotes on Mind
Etienne Gilson, the leading twentieth-century historian of medieval philosophy, made the relation between thought and being the centre of his own position, and the quotes gathered here express it. Gilson traced modern idealism to a single decision: when Descartes made the mathematical method the method for metaphysics, philosophy began to proceed from thought to things rather than from things to thought. Against this he defended a realism in which being is the condition of knowing, and knowing is not the condition of being. He summed up the contrast in a memorable formula: while Descartes finds being in thought, Saint Thomas finds thought in being. Drawn largely from Methodical Realism, these passages show Gilson arguing that the mind's proper starting point is reality itself, and that medieval thought still has something to teach modern philosophy.
Quotes
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“What, then, will this philosophy be? Thomas only employed it for the service it renders Christian wisdom . No doubt this is why he never thought of separating it from this wisdom and giving it a name . He probably did not foresee that the day would come when people would go through his works to extract the elements of a philosophy from his theology . He himself never attempted this synthesis.”
Introduction -
“The mathematician always proceeds from thought to being or things. Consequently, critical idealism was born the day Descartes decided that the mathematical method must henceforth be the method for metaphysics.”
Wikiquote -
“Having left us with thought (not a soul), and extension (not a body), [Descartes] does not know how to account for the union of soul and body.”
Methodical Realism -
“Having expelled quality from the field of extension, [idealists] do not know how to account for it when it reappears in thought.”
Methodical Realism -
“Every given reality implies the thought which apprehends it. Therefore being is the condition of knowing; knowing is not the condition of being.”
Methodical Realism -
“All realism derives from the analysis of knowledge; all idealism derives from the analysis of a thought.”
Methodical Realism -
“Most of our contemporaries think that, at bottom, being a philosopher and adopting an idealist method are one and the same thing.”
Methodical Realism -
“While Descartes finds being in thought, Saint Thomas finds thought in being.”
Methodical Realism