William Whewell Quotes on Mind
William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, and philosopher and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge for more than two decades. This page collects quotes attributed to William Whewell on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to William Whewell:
“The fundamental antithesis of philosophy is between ideas and things.”
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“We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our reflection by the Things which we have observed.”
The Elements of Morality , Book 1, ch. 1. (1845) -
“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.”
Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England , Lecture 7. (1852) -
“According to the technical language of old writers, a thing and its qualities are described as subject and attributes; and thus a man’s faculties and acts are attributes of which he is the subject. The mind is the subject in which ideas inhere. Moreover, the man’s faculties and acts are employed upon external objects; and from objects all his sensations arise. Hence the part of a man’s knowledge which belongs to his own mind, is subjective: that which flows in upon him from the world external to him, is objective.”
Part I Of Ideas, Book I Of Ideas in General, Chap. 4 Of the Difference and Opposition of Sensation and Ideas