An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 176
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- Adequate and Inadequate Ideas.
- Ideas be oF an Flypsis, is e had no other Idea oF it, but some seu oF its
- Properties: Whereas havins in our plain Ldea, thewhole Essence oF that
- Fioure, e trom chence discover thole Properties, and demonstratively
- sec hour they Aor, and are inseparable trom it.
- 6. c2. Thusthe Nind has three Porrs of abstract Ideas, or nominal FL-
- sences:
- First, Simple Ideas, Whichare entvra, or Copies; but yet certainty
- adequate. Becaule beins intended to express nothins but the porver in
- Thinos eo produce in theMind such a Senlarion, thac sensation, wlien it
- is procluced, cannot but De the Ffect OF FHaE POrVer. Sothe Paper Prrrire
- on havinsthe porver, in the Light. (I speale according ro the common
- Notion OF LighE,) to produce in me the Senlation, which I call Whire, il
- Canmor but Be the F. Fect oF such a Porer, in Lomethins mithout themind:
- lince the Mind has noc the porver to produceans suchi Idea in its selt, and
- beine meant for nothine else bur che PAect ol luch a Pover, that limple
- Idea is real and adequare: the senlation of Whice, in my Mind, beins che
- FReet ot that Porver, trhich is in the Paper to produce it, is perteciy
- adequate tothat Pover; or else, that Pover mould produce a ditterent
- Idea.
- Secondly The complex Ideas of Substances are Fctypes, Copies tOO; DuE
- not perfect ones, not adequate: Which is verr evident co the Mind, in
- thac it plainls perceires, that whaterer Collection of simple Ideas it
- makes ofany Substance that exicts, it cannot be sure, that it exactly an-
- sirers all chat are in that Substance: Since not having tried all che Ope-
- rations of all other Substances uxon it, and Tound aIl the Alterations ic
- vould receiretrom, or cause in other substances, it cannot have an cxact
- adequate Collection oFall its actire and passive Capacities; and (0 noL
- have an adequate complex Ldea oF the Povers ol any substance existing.
- and its Relations, Wrhich is that Port of complex Idea oF Substances we
- Bare. And, alter all, it re could have, and actually had, in our complex
- Ldea, an exact Collection oF all the secundary Oualities, or Povers otany
- Subltance, re hould not vec therebr have an Laea ot the Fssence ot thât
- Thins. For Cince the Porvers, or Oualities, that are observable bY uS, arc
- not the real Fssence of tharSubstance, but depend on it, and Aom trom it,
- any Collection Whatsoerer ot thele Oualicies, cannor be thereat F(-
- Tence OFthat Thing. Whereby it is plain, that our Pdeas ot Subltances are
- not adequates are not whar che Mindintends them to bc. Belides, a Manlias
- no Idea oF Substance in general, nor knors irhat Subltance is in it seIF.
- 6. 24. Thiraly. Complex Ideas of Modes and Relations, are Originals, and
- Archeripes; are not Copies, nor made alter the pattern ot any real Fxi-
- Stence, to Which theMind intendsthem to be contormable, and exactl to
- ansirer. These beins such Collections of simple sdeas, that theMind it selF
- puts together, and luch C ollections, chat each of them contains in it precise-
- ly all that the Mind intends it Mould, chey are Archetypes and Fsences oF
- Modes that maz exist: and lo are deligned ontr for, and belons ontr to
- Tuch Modes, as Whenther do exist, have an exact contormitr trith thole
- complex Ideas. The Ideas theretore oF Modes and Relations, cannot bur
- be adequate.
- II.
- LL
Cite
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 176. Machine transcription, not an edition: Leibniz Legible (model FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74). https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0192?run=74