Extension (philosophy)

“ The difficulty arises from the very nature of extended things, whether realized or only conceived; the real order escapes none of the difficulties of the ideal. If ideal extension cannot be constituted out of unextended points, neither can real extension; if ideal extension has no limit to its divisibility until we come to simple points, the same is also true of real extension; for in both it is a result of the essence of extension, and inseparable from it. ”

“ It is the same with the fourth proposition, that without the idea of extension, we can have no fixed idea of any thing corporeal, no fixed rule in relation to phenomena, but are like blind men. If, for an instant, we abstract the idea of extension, it is impossible for us to take a step in advance. ”

“ It is evident that we can unite, in one conception, the two ideas of extension in general and the negation of limit; and if this is what is called the idea of infinite extension, it is clear that we have this idea. This conception of infinite extension, abstracts all conditions of the reality; we do not know whether there be, in the nature of extended things, any thing which prevents the absolute infinity of their extension; consequently, we are ignorant whether there is or is not any latent contradiction, which the general conception does not reveal to us. ”

“ Before proceeding farther, in our inquiry with respect to the origin of the notion of extension, it may, however, be of advantage, to take a short retrospect of the progress which we have already made; for, if we have found nothing more, we have, at least, as I conceive, found reason to reject a considerable part of our former belief on the subject, which, though a negative acquisition, is yet a very important one. ”

“ What extension is, in relation to sensible intuitions, the idea of being is, in relation to conceptions. The intuition of extension, and the idea of being, are the two fundamental points in all ideological and ontological science ”

“ Having proved the testimony of the senses sufficient to assure us of the existence of bodies, we now come to examine how far the ideas it makes us form are correct. It is not enough to know that we may be sure of the existence of extension; we must inquire if it in reality be such as the senses represent it; and what we say of extension is applicable to the other properties of bodies.
In our opinion, the only sensation that we transfer, and cannot help transferring, to the external, is that of extension; all others relate to objects only as effects to causes, not as copies to originals. ”

“ Since he is by himself, he is sovereignly, and since he is sovereignly, he has all being in himself. Since he has all being in himself, he has without doubt extension; extension is a manner of being, of which I have an idea. I have already seen that my ideas upon the essence of things, are real degrees of being, which actually exist in God, and are possible out of him, because he can produce them. Therefore, extension is in him; he can produce it outside of himself, only because it is contained in the fulness of his being. ”

“ But what else is the perception of extension than the perception of some parts beyond others? Is it not to perceive the difference of magnitude, to perceive some greater than others, and containing them? ”

“ The idea of an abstract extension which is limited, is a contradiction. Limit takes from extension generality; and generality destroys the limit. There can, therefore, be no abstract idea of limited extension; but when we form an idea of extension in the abstract, we conceive it as unlimited, and the imagination attempting to follow the understanding, pictures to itself an indefinite space. ”

“ Extension needs no other extension, in which to be placed, otherwise we should have a processus in infinitum: the succession of things, for the same reason, needs no other succession in which to succeed. ”

“ Even in light and colors, outside of me, there is only a fluid which falls upon a surface, and either directly or reflexly comes, or may come, to my eyes. But extension outside of me, independently of all relation with the senses, is true extension, is something whose existence and nature stand in no need of my senses. When I perceive, or imagine that I perceive it, there is in it, and in my impressions, something besides the relation of an effect to its cause; there is the representation, the internal image of what exists externally. ”

“ In order to know how extension is generated, it would be necessary to free ourselves from all sensible representations, and from all ideas which are in the least degree affected by the phenomenon, and to contemplate it with an eye as simple, a look as penetrating, as that of a pure spirit. It would be necessary to take from all geometrical ideas all phenomenal forms, all representations of the imagination, and present them to the imagination purified from all mixture with the sensible order. It would be necessary to know how far extension, real continuity, agrees with the phenomenal. ”

“ The form of passive sensibility is extension, which necessarily implies multiplicity. The extended is necessarily a collection of parts: to deny extension of God is to affirm his simplicity; to deny that he is a collection of beings, and to affirm the indivisible unity of his nature. ”

“ Things in themselves are not extended; extension is only a form with which the mind clothes them. In the same manner, they are not colored, sonorous, tasteful, or odorous, except inasmuch as we transfer to them that which is in ourselves alone. Every thing being reduced to mere appearances, there is in the external world not even the principle of causality of subjective extension; the mind gives it to objects, does not receive it from them. These objects are pure phenomena ”

“ In consciousness we find a type of true activity; in extension, as such, we have a type of true inertness. In thinking of consciousness, we think of something active without adding any other idea; when we think of extension, it presents to us the image of a thing susceptible of various modifications, the principle of none of which is contained in extension; in order to think of a corporeal activity we have to go out of the pure idea of extension, and consider a principle of change in general, which is not the object of the intuition of the extended. ”

“ When it is said that a body is inconceivable without extension it is not meant that extension is the constitutive notion of the essence of body. This essence is unknown to us, and therefore we cannot know what does or does not belong to it. ”

“ If we assert any thing more than this we do so without any foundation, we substitute for the reality a play of our fancy. The essence of any thing is that which constitutes it what it is, that which serves as the internal ground or root of the properties: who can say that we know this ground, this root, in corporeal objects? Our senses, it is true, perceive nothing not extended: we cannot conceive to what bodies would be reduced if deprived of extension; but from this we can only infer that extension is a form under which bodies are presented to our senses ”

“ All objective sensibility is founded on the intuition of extension; all the pure intellectual order in what relates to indeterminate ideas, is founded on the idea of being. We have seen that from the idea of being proceed the ideas of identity, distinction, unity, number, duration, time, simplicity, composition, the finite, the infinite, the necessary, the contingent, the mutable, the immutable, substance, accident, cause, and effect. ”

“ I do not pretend that it is possible to explain why the representation of extension is found in our soul; we might as well ask why we are intelligent and sensible beings. The only reason a priori which we can give, is that God has so created us. This representation may be found in us, and it is so found, for we experience it; but this internal experience is the limit of philosophy ”

“ Extension is, so far as we are concerned, a determinate object, presented to us in the clearest intuition. The attribute of passive sensibility has ever been regarded as one of the most characteristic determinations ”

“ To be in a place, as we now understand it, is to have a particular extension, with the ordinary form and relations with respect to the extension of other bodies. If we suppose a body with extension subject to other conditions, without the ordinary relation to the extension of other bodies, we destroy the supposition on which we base the impossibility of a body being at the same time in several places. ”

“ Carry the process in thought as far as we may, until the extension of the parts is less than can be imagined, we still cannot escape the admission of forces by which the extension is upheld; and we can find no limit until we arrive at the conception of centres of force without any extension. ”

“ In order to form a clear idea of extension in its relations to sensation, we will analyze it at some length.
And first of all, it is to be remarked, that extension involves multiplicity. An extended being is of necessity a [Pg 284] collection of beings, more or less closely united by a bond which makes them all constitute one whole, but does not prevent them from continuing many. A splendid painting, wherein the unity of the artist's thought dominates, does not cease to be composed of many parts; the moral chain which unites, does not identify them ”

“ Hence also arises a certain conception of extension, which is at the base of the philosophy of Ideas, although it has not been so explicitly brought out. Let us imagine a mind placed alongside becoming, and adopting its movement. Each successive state, each quality, each form, in short, will be seen by it as a mere cut made by thought in the universal becoming. It will be found that form is essentially extended, inseparable as it is from the extensity of the becoming which has materialized it in the course of its flow. Every form thus occupies space, as it occupies time. ”

“ If, in one indivisible act of consciousness, we immediately perceive extended matter exterior to our percipient mind, then Extension exists objectively; and if Extension exists objectively, then Space, its conditio sine qua non, also exists objectively. ”

“ If the substance, the subject of extension is simple, the result will be a simple substance determined or modified by extension, a simple extended substance, which is a contradiction. A thing cannot be conceived as a modification of another unless it is modified by it ”

“ But whence have we these categories which here appear as definitions? We find them doubtless in ourselves, in scientific culture. The existence of the understanding, the will, extension, is therefore not developed from infinite substance, but it is directly expressed in these determinations, and that quite naturally; for of a truth there exists the One into which everything enters, in order to be absorbed therein, but out of which nothing comes. ”

“ When these sensations are produced in an intelligent being, they excite other internal phenomena, distinct from the mere sensitive intuition. Whether general ideas already exist in our mind, or are formed by the aid of sensation, it is certain that they are developed in the presence of sensation. Thus, in the present case we not only have the sensitive intuition of extension, but we also perceive something which is common to all extended objects. Extension ceases to be a particular object, and becomes a general form applicable to all extended things. ”

“ There are some that would persuade us, that body and extension are the same thing, who either change the signification of words, which I would not suspect them of,—they having so severely condemned the philosophy of others, because it hath been too much placed in the uncertain meaning, or deceitful obscurity of doubtful or insignificant terms. ”

“ It is true that extension and resistance are only qualities, but it is equally true that they 203 are qualities of something, and of something which is external to ourselves. Let any one attempt to conceive of extension without something which is extended, or of resistance apart from something which offers resistance, and he will be convinced that we can never know qualities without knowing substance, just as we can not know substance without knowing qualities. ”

“ But before I come more particularly to discuss this matter, I find it proper to consider extension in abstract: for of this there is much talk, and I am apt to think that when men speak of extension as being an idea common to two senses, it is with a secret supposition that we can single out extension from all other tangible and visible qualities, and form thereof an abstract idea, which idea they will have common both to sight and touch. ”

“ And I can no more conceive how a necessarily existing being can, on the same account or in the same manner as space and duration are, be needful in order to the existence of any other being, than I can conceive extension attributed to a thought: that idea no more belonging to a thing existing, than extension belongs to thought. ”

“ Just because both of us have subreptitiously restored the knowledge of extension in denying that extension itself would be annihilated. The knowledge of extension is extension, and extension is the knowledge of extension. Perhaps, in continuation, you will say, we have our own ideas, the secondary qualities are in truth our own ideas; but that besides these we have an idea of something existing externally to us which is not an idea, and that this something forms the aggregate of the primary qualities. ”