Russell (1961: 548):
'Thinking' is used by Descartes in a very wide sense. A thing that thinks, he says, is one that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, imagines, and feels — for feeling, as it occurs in dreams, is a form of thinking. Since thought is the essence of mind, the mind must always think, even during deep sleep.
Blogger Comments:
Through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Descartes 'thinking' includes verbal processes (affirms, denies) and three of the four types of mental process:
- cognition (doubts, understands, conceives, imagines)
- desideration (wills)
- emotion (feels).
His omission of the fourth type of mental process, perception, strategically supports the epistemology he wants to establish.
No comments:
Post a Comment