Ideas Seldom Thought of for Extending Knowledge

Ideas Seldom Thought Of For Extending Knowledge by Henry Bliss. This nineteenth-century philosophical treatise argues against the existence of innate principles and maintains that all knowledge arises from experience—sensation, reflection, memory, and the powers of the senses. Bliss surveys the mind's faculties, including perception, retention, discernment, duration, time, infinity, and the different modes of thinking, and explains how ideas are formed and how truth is attained through assent and reasoning. He discusses the origin of language, the description of ideas, and the moral ideas useful for knowledge, as well as the nature of the soul and spirit. The work also offers a framework for understanding the limits of human cognition and the role of divine guidance in knowledge. First published in 1851, this volume presents a systematic empiricist program for developing real knowledge through disciplined reflection and education.