The idea which a word signifies is connected to the sign only by a habit of conceiving a certain object whenever the mind perceives the symbol

The first apparent contradiction arises because Arnauld maintains that we directly perceive extended objects and yet that we do so by means of ideas in our mind. The solution is that the perception, e.g., of the sun, is a real mode of thinking which essentially makes the sun present to the mind, and in virtue of which the sun deserves the extrinsic denomination ‘idea of the sun’ (p. 22). The second apparent contradiction arises from the Port-Royal theory of language. According to the Logic, lang