Étienne Gilson: Being

Étienne Gilson was French historian and philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on being.
Étienne Gilson: 44   quotes 3   likes

“Most of our contemporaries think that, at bottom, being a philosopher and adopting an idealist method are one and the same thing.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

Thinking

“Indeed, all idealism derives from Descartes, or from Kant, or from both together, and whatever other distinguishing features a system may have, it is idealist to the extent that, either in itself, or as far as we are concerned, it makes knowing the condition of being.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

“Every given reality implies the thought which apprehends it. Therefore being is the condition of knowing; knowing is not the condition of being.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

Reality

“If there is something more in a living being than a pure mechanism, Descartes is bound in advance to miss it.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

“The mathematician always proceeds from thought to being or things. Consequently, critical idealism was born the day Descartes decided that the mathematical method must henceforth be the method for metaphysics.”

Étienne Gilson

Methodical Realism

Mathematics