Note 26 — Chapter XXXI · KRATYLUS.

Plato, Kratyl. pp. 387-389, where πρὸς ἡμᾶς is considered as equivalent to ὡς ἂν ἡμεῖς βουλώμεθα — ᾗ ἂν ἡμεῖς βουλήθωμεν — both of them being opposed to οἷον ἐπεφύκει — τὸ κατὰ φύσιν — ἰδίαν αὐτῶν φύσιν ἔχουσαι.

The error here noted is enumerated by by Mr. John Stuart Mill, among the specimens of Fallacies of Confusion, in his System of Logic, Book v. ch. vii. § 1: “The following is an argument of Descartes to prove, in his à priori manner, the being of a God. The conception, says he, of an infinite Being proves the real existence of such a Being. For if there is not really any such Being, I must have made the conception: but if I could make it, I can also unmake it — which evidently is not true: therefore there must be, externally to myself, an archetype from which the conception was derived. In this argument (which, it may be observed, would equally prove the real existence of ghosts and of witches) the ambiguity is in the pronoun I; by which, in one place, is to be understood my will — in another, the laws of my nature. If the conception, existing as it does in my mind, had no original without, the conclusion would unquestionably follow that I made it — that is, the laws of my nature must have somehow evolved it: but that my will made it, would not follow. Now when Descartes afterwards adds that I cannot unmake the conception, he means that I cannot get rid of it by an act of my will — which is true, but is not the proposition required. I can as much unmake this conception as I can any other: no conception which I have once had, can I ever dismiss by mere volition: but what some of the laws of my nature have produced, other laws, or those same laws in other circumstances, may, and often do, subsequently efface.”