Quotes from book
De Motu

Name: De Motu
Author: George Berkeley

George BerkeleyOriginal title De motu: Sive; de motu principio et natura, et de causa communicationis motuum (Latin, 1721)

For other works by the same name, see De Motu .De motu: Sive; de motu principio et natura, et de causa communicationis motuum , or simply De Motu, is an essay written by George Berkeley and published in 1721. The essay was unsuccessfully submitted for a prize that had been offered by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.

“Abstract terms (however useful they may be in argument) should be discarded in meditation, and the mind should be fixed on the particular and the concrete, that is, on the things themselves.”

George Berkeley book De Motu

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De Motu (1721)

“In the pursuit of truth we must beware of being misled by terms which we do not rightly understand. That is the chief point. Almost all philosophers utter the caution; few observe it.”

George Berkeley book De Motu

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De Motu (1721)

“For no one's authority ought to rank so high as to set a value on his words and terms even though nothing clear and determinate lies behind them.”

George Berkeley book De Motu

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De Motu (1721)

“Solicitation and effort or conation belong properly to animate beings alone. When they are attributed to other things, they must be taken in a metaphorical sense; but a philosopher should abstain from metaphor.”

George Berkeley book De Motu

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