Res cogitans

The JC’s guide to pithy Latin adages →Go uptown Latin Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

What the Latins (and Enlightenment French, come to think of it) called what we think of as a derivative: things that exist only in the mind; hypotheticals; as opposed to the physical hard stuff you stub your toe on when you are in the real word. That’s res extensa.

• Cash brokerage: res extensa.
• Contracts for difference: res cogitans.

See also

• Second-order derivative
• Res extensa
• René Descartes