“Any definitions we care to make about matter are thus tautological.”
Source: Liber Kaos (1992), p. 83
Context: Matter can be conveniently divided for descriptive purposes into space, time, mass, and energy. However we can only describe any one of these phenomena in terms of the other three. Any definitions we care to make about matter are thus tautological.
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Peter J. Carroll 45
British occultist 1953Related quotes
Source: Trent's Own Case (1936), Chapter XV: "Eunice Makes a Clean Breast of It"
February 22, 2015 https://www.wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/36082#efmAGSAH-
Attributed, WikiLeaks - The Podesta Emails
XII, 95
On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662)
Context: A definition, if it is to be called perfect, must explain the inmost essence of a thing, and must take care not to substitute for this any of its properties. In order to illustrate my meaning, without taking an example which would seem to show a desire to expose other people's errors, I will choose the case of something abstract, the definition of which is of little moment. Such is a circle. If a circle be defined as a figure, such that all straight lines drawn from the center to the circumference are equal, every one can see that such a definition does not in the least explain the essence of a circle, but solely one of its properties. Though, as I have said, this is of no importance in the case of figures and other abstractions, it is of great importance in the case of physical beings and realities, for the properties of things are not understood so long as their essences are unknown. If the latter be passed over, there is necessarily a perversion of the succession of ideas which should reflect the succession of nature, and we go far astray from our object.
