MA We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. PX

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A second feature of thought that Descartes’s description points us to concerns its scope. Whereas perception provides us with access to only a small range of things, the reach of thought is (practically) unlimited. The range of things that a creature can perceive is constrained by the features of its perceptual faculties. We cannot see objects that are very small, we cannot hear sounds that are very high in pitch, and we cannot detect odours that are very faint. But there is no such limit on the range of objects that we can think about. We can think about objects that are far removed from us in both space and time. Indeed, we can think about things that are imperceptible in principle, such as numbers or subatomic particles. As long as one has some way of locking on to an object one is able to think about it. All one needs is a name (‘Genghis Khan’; ‘Burkino Faso’) or a description (‘The barista at the cafe on the corner’; ‘the greatest Brazilian footballer’) and one can think about a thing. 
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