Miguel Roig asked about " "If a thing exists, it exists in some amount; and if it exists in some amount, it can be measured".
Miguel and most other respondents, including me, fingered Edward Thorndike, although just where he said it remains uncertain (although I plunk for the 1918 reference I provided in my post as the most promising). Then Chris Green asserted: > Um, guys, it was actually Descartes who originally wrote this, in > "Principles of Philosophy." If Thorndike also said it, he was repeating > it. It would be interesting to know whether he gave the correct > attribution, or presented it in his own voice, fooling generations of > psychologists after him that he was the originator of the saying. Um, Chris, you're not going to get off that easily. Assuming your post was more than merely a belated April Fool's, you'll have to tell us exactly where he said it in _Principles_ and how, if you want to be believed. For what it's worth, I searched the online John Veitch's "Selections from Principles of Philosophy" without coming up with it. I also searched _Principles_ in Google Books and failed again. There were a few places where he possibly said something which could be generously interpreted as similar to the idea expressed in the quotation, but that's a long way from claiming that it was actually Descartes who owns the quote. It seems to me much more likely to be Thorndikean that Cartesian. Perhaps you confused the quote with that other famous one from Rene, "I think, therefore I'm not George Bush". Or something like that. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 0C8 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://faculty.frostburg.edu/psyc/southerly/tips/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
