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Passages similar to: Stromata (Miscellanies) — Chapter IV: To Prevent Ambiguity, We Must Begin with Clear Definition.
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Christian Mysticism
Stromata (Miscellanies)
Chapter IV: To Prevent Ambiguity, We Must Begin with Clear Definition. (2)
Such, then, is the method of the discovery [of truth]. For we must begin with the knowledge of the questions to be discussed. For often the form of the expression deceives and confuses and disturbs the mind, so that it is not easy to discover to what class the thing is to be referred; as, for example, whether the foetus be an animal. For, having a conception of an animal and a foetus, we inquire if it be the case that the foetus is an animal; that is, if the substance which is in the foetal state possesses the power of motion, and of sensation besides. So that the inquiry is regarding functions and sensations in a substance previously known. Consequently the man who proposes the question is to be first asked, what he calls an animal. Especially is this to be done whenever we find the same term applied to various purposes; and we must examine whether what is signified by the term is disputed, or admitted by all. For were one to say that he calls whatever grows and is fed an animal, we shall have again to ask further, whether he considered plants to be animals; and then, after declaring himself to this effect, he must show what it is which is in the foetal state, and is nourished.
Neoplatonic
I, Chapter I (2)
In the first place, therefore, we shall divide the genera of the proposed problems, in order that we may know the quantity and quality of them. And,...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (2) (4)
If we had to ascertain the nature of body and the place it holds in the universe, surely we should take some sample of body, say stone, and examine...
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Neoplatonic
On the Integral Omnipresence of the Authentic Existent (2) (2)
Now the reasoning faculty which undertakes this problem is not a unity but a thing of parts; it brings the bodily nature into the enquiry, borrowing...
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Neoplatonic
I, Chapter II (2)
And with respect to such things as become known by a reasoning process, we shall leave no one of these without a perfect demonstration. But in all thi...
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Neoplatonic
Problems of the Soul (2) (23)
A first principle is that the knowing of sensible objects is an act of the soul, or of the living conjoint, becoming aware of the quality of certain...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (3) (1)
We have now explained our conception of Reality and considered how far it agrees with the teaching of Plato. We have still to investigate the opposed...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (3) (8)
The division into elements must, in short, be abandoned, especially in regard to Sensible Substance, known necessarily by sense rather than by...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (3) (2)
Our first observations must be directed to what passes in the Sensible realm for Substance. It is, we shall agree, only by analogy that the nature...
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Neoplatonic
The Knowing Hypostases and the Transcendent (2)
We begin with the soul, asking whether it is to be allowed self-knowledge and what the knowing principle in it would be and how operating. The...
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Neoplatonic
The Animate and the Man (1)
Pleasure and distress, fear and courage, desire and aversion, where have these affections and experiences their seat? Clearly, either in the Soul...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being- (1) (2)
Take Substance, for Substance must certainly be our starting-point: what are the grounds for regarding Substance as one single genus? It has been rema...
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Neoplatonic
I, Chapter IV (5)
In short, whether you think that there is one genus of the Gods, one of dæmons, and in a similar manner of heroes, and souls essentially incorporeal;...
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Neoplatonic
How the Multiplicity of the Ideal-forms Came Into Being: and Upon the Good (9)
Admitted, then- it will be said- for the nobler forms of life; but how can the divine contain the mean, the unreasoning? The mean is the unreasoning,...
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Greek
Book VII (524)
Is not their mode of operation on this wise—the sense which is concerned with the quality of hardness is necessarily concerned also with the quality...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (3) (3)
How then do we go to work? Let us begin by distinguishing Matter, Form, the Mixture of both, and the Attributes of the Mixture. The Attributes may be...
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Neoplatonic
Problems of the Soul (1) (1)
The soul: what dubious questions concerning it admit of solution, or where we must abide our doubt- with, at least, the gain of recognizing the...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (3) (5)
These are incontrovertible facts in regard to the pseudo-substance of the Sensible realm: if they apply also in some degree to the True Substance of...
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Greek
Book V (477)
Certainly. Do we admit the existence of opinion? Undoubtedly. As being the same with knowledge, or another faculty? Another faculty. Then opinion and ...
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Neoplatonic
On the Kinds of Being (2) (5)
A first point demanding consideration: Bodies- those, for example, of animals and plants- are each a multiplicity founded on colour and shape and...
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