Sunday, May 8, 2011

Parallel Texts

In reading Locke on Saturday, I noticed the passage

"And how covetous the mind is to be furnished with all such ideas as have no pain accompanying them, may be a little guessed by what is observable in children new-born; who always turn their eyes to that part from whence the light comes, lay them how you please."

This sounded familiar, and indeed Aristotle's Metaphysics opens

"All men by nature desire to know An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight."

Then Sunday morning I happened to see two children of at most three weeks old, the daughters of acquaintances, and did not have have a chance to check up on Locke; one was in a shady vestibule, in her mother's arms and without much chance to turn, the other in a shaded carriage in the full sun of 16th St.

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