Schopenhauer imagined a dialogue between matter, which represents the viewpoint of materialism, and the subject of cognition, representing the viewpoint of idealism, to show that these views are not contradicting each other but are complementary parts of the whole of reality. This dialogue can be found in Schopenhauer’s handwritten legacy, volume 3, Adversaria no. 263.

What follows is my translation from the original German text.

Microcosm and Macrocosm:

a dialogue between matter and the subject of cognition.

The confl...

Spinoza postulated three different kinds of knowledge in his Ethica:

Ex omnibus supra dictis clare apparet nos multa percipere et notiones universales formare I° ex singularibus nobis per sensus mutilate, confuse et sine ordine ad intellectum repræsentatis (vide corollarium propositionis 29 hujus) et ideo tales perceptiones cognitionem ab experientia vaga vocare consuevi. II° ex signis exempli gratia ex eo quod auditis aut lectis quibusdam verbis rerum recordemur et earum quasdam ideas formemus similes iis per quas res imaginamur (vide scholium propositionis 18 huju...