Who knows not what odd
notions many men's heads are filled with, and what strange ideas all
men's brains are capable of? But if we rest here, we know the truth of
nothing by this rule, but of the visionary words in our own
imaginations; nor have other truth, but what as much concerns
harpies and centaurs, as men and horses. For those, and the like,
may be ideas in our heads, and have their agreement or disagreement
there, as well as the ideas of real beings, and so have as true
propositions made about them. And it will be altogether as true a
proposition to say all centaurs are animals, as that all men are
animals; and the certainty of one as great as the other. For in both
the propositions, the words are put together according to the
agreement of the ideas in our minds: and the agreement of the idea
of animal with that of centaur is as clear and visible to the mind, as
the agreement of the idea of animal with that of man; and so these two
propositions are equally true, equally certain. But of what use is all
such truth to us?
8. Answered, "Real truth is about ideas agreeing to things."
Though what has been said in the foregoing chapter to distinguish real
from imaginary knowledge might suffice here, in answer to this
doubt, to distinguish real truth from chimerical, or (if you please)
barely nominal, they depending both on the same foundation; yet it may
not be amiss here again to consider, that though our words signify
nothing but our ideas, yet being designed by them to signify things,
the truth they contain when put into propositions will be only verbal,
when they stand for ideas in the mind that have not an agreement
with the reality of things.
Pages:
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867