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Literary notes about Multiplicity (AI summary)

The word “multiplicity” has been used in literature to capture a range of ideas—from the surprising and diverse nature of everyday impressions to the complex interplay between unity and variation in both thought and reality. In Edith Wharton’s work, for example, it evokes the manifold appeals and unexpected contrasts that enrich our sensory experiences [1]. In philosophical texts, especially in Arthur Schopenhauer’s writings, multiplicity is employed to describe the myriad phenomena that emerge within the conditions of time and space, standing in contrast to an underlying, unified will [2, 3, 4]. Plato's discussions further deepen this exploration by debating whether the world should be understood as a unity of ideas or as a multiplicity of appearances [5, 6, 7]. Meanwhile, other authors such as John Dewey, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jane Austen use the term to illustrate societal discord, the diversity of cultural elements, or the layered manifestations of individual experience [8, 9, 10, 11]. Overall, “multiplicity” serves as a versatile concept that bridges aesthetic, philosophical, and social realms, highlighting the rich complexity of both human perception and the world at large.
  1. The multiplicity of its appeals—the perpetual surprise of its contrasts and resemblances!
    — from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
  2. But this multiplicity does not concern the will as thing-in-itself, but only its phenomena.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  3. For this multiplicity is directly conditioned by time and space, into which the will itself never enters.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  4. Further, it is free from all multiplicity , although its manifestations in time and space are innumerable.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  5. Then, I said, if these and these only are to be used in our songs and melodies, we shall not want multiplicity of notes or a panharmonic scale?
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  6. Think of all this and ask yourself whether the world is more likely to be a believer in the unity of the idea, or in the multiplicity of phenomena.
    — from The Republic by Plato
  7. Then, I said, if these and these only are to be used in our songs and melodies, we shall not want multiplicity of notes or a panharmonic scale?
    — from The Republic by Plato
  8. The former secures unity, order, and law; the latter signify multiplicity and discord, irrational fluctuations from one estate to another.
    — from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
  9. what a multiplicity of sects and nations!
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe
  10. There is such a thing as too much thinking, as when action is paralyzed by the multiplicity of views suggested by a situation.
    — from How We Think by John Dewey
  11. They took a slight survey of all; and Catherine was impressed, beyond her expectation, by their multiplicity and their convenience.
    — from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

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