# Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu



## booboobear

Hello,
Dont you know, who wrote this sentence (and what version is the right one)?
*Nihil est in intellectu*, *quod ante non fuerit in sensu*
or?
...quod non fuent in sensu
...quod prius non fuerit in sensu
...quod not prius fuerit in sensu
...quod non prius fuerit in sensu
Was it  *Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz or **Saint Thomas (Aquinas) or Aristoteles ?*
Thank you, folks!


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## Joca

Probably Saint Thomas.

Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu.


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## CapnPrep

The Wikipedia article on Sensualism gives a version by Schopenhauer.

This article seems to provide a complete history of the quotation, but only the first page is freely accessible. Some folks at Wikipédia dug up Thomas Aquinas's version: "Praeterea, nihil est in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu" (from _De veritate_, Q2, A3, a19).


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## BabelleWeb

booboobear said:


> Hello,
> Dont you know, who wrote this sentence (and what version is the right one)?
> *Nihil est in intellectu*, *quod ante non fuerit in sensu*
> or?
> ...quod non fuent in sensu
> ...quod prius non fuerit in sensu
> ...quod not prius fuerit in sensu
> ...quod non prius fuerit in sensu
> Was it  *Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz or Saint Thomas (Aquinas) or Aristoteles ?*
> Thank you, folks!


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## BabelleWeb

Leibniz added : "... nisi intellectus ipse". 
The  idea inspired the project of the VVIIIth century "Encyclopédie" from Diderot & d'Alembert.


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## exgerman

Wikipedia says that the exact words quoted occur in Aquinas _De veritate, q. 2 a. 3 arg. 19, _and are an adaptation of a Peripatetic axiom (i.e. school of Aristotle, not necessarily found in authentic Aristotle).


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