Étienne Gilson: Thought

“Having left us with thought (not a soul), and extension (not a body), [Descartes] does not know how to account for the union of soul and body.”

“What, then, will this philosophy be? Thomas only employed it for the service it renders Christian wisdom. No doubt this is why he never thought of separating it from this wisdom and giving it a name. He probably did not foresee that the day would come when people would go through his works to extract the elements of a philosophy from his theology. He himself never attempted this synthesis.”

“Having expelled quality from the field of extension, [idealists] do not know how to account for it when it reappears in thought.”

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

“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.”

“All realism derives from the analysis of knowledge; all idealism derives from the analysis of a thought.”