A Guide to Stoicism 3 ¶10 — St. George Stock (modern guide)

St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 3 ¶10

Comprehension too was used in a wider sense than that in which we have so far employed it. There was comprehension by the senses as of white and black, of rough and smooth, but there was also comprehension by the reason of demonstrative conclusions such as that the gods exist and that they exercise providence. Here we are reminded of Locke's declaration: "'Tis as certain there's a God as that the opposite angles made by the intersection of two straight lines are equal." The Stoics indeed had great affinities with that thinker or rather he with them. The Stoic account of the manner in which the mind arrives at its ideas might almost be taken from the first book of Locke's Essay. As many as nine ways are enumerated of which the first corresponds to simple ideas-- (1) by presentation, as objects of sense (2) by likeness, as the idea of Socrates from his picture (3) by analogy, that is, by increase or decrease, as ideas of giants and pigmies from men, or as the notion of the centre of the earth, which is reached by the consideration of smaller spheres. (4) by transposition, as the idea of men with eyes in their breasts. (5) by composition, as the idea of a Centaur. (6) by opposition, as the idea of death from that of life. (7) by a kind of transition, as the meaning of words and the idea of place. (8)by nature, as the notion of the just and the good (9)by privation, as handless