An Introduction to PhilosophyFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
An Introduction to Philosophy
Fullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
We have seen that, in walking towards the tree, we have a long series
of visual experiences, each of which differs more or less from all of
the others. Nevertheless, from the beginning of our progress to the
end, we say that we are looking at the same tree. The images change
color and grow larger. We do not say that the tree changes color and
grows larger. Why do we speak as we do? It is because, all along the
line, we mean by the real tree, not what is given to the sense of
sight, but something for which this stands as a sign. This something
must be given in our experience somewhere, we must be able to perceive
it under some circumstances or other, or it would never occur to us to
recognize the visual experiences as _signs_, and we should never say
that in being conscious of them in succession we are looking at the
same tree. They are certainly not the same with each other; how can we
know that they all stand for the same thing, unless we have had
experience of a connection of the whole series with one thing?
This thing for which so many different visual experiences may serve as
signs is the thing revealed in experiences of touch. When we ask: In
what direction is the tree? How far away is the tree? How big is the
tree? we are always referring to the tree revealed in touch. It is
nonsense to say that _what we see_ is far away, if by what we see we
mean the visual experience itself. As soon as we move we lose that
visual experience and get another, and to recover the one we lost we
must go back where we were before. When we say we see a tree at a
distance, we must mean, then, that we know from certain visual
experiences which we have that by moving a certain distance we will be
able to touch a tree. And what does it mean to move a certain
distance? In the last analysis it means to us to have a certain
quantity of movement sensations.
Thus the real world of things, for which experiences of sight serve as
signs, is a world revealed in experiences of touch and movement, and
when we speak of real positions, distances, and magnitudes, we are
always referring to this world. But this is a world revealed in our
experience, and it does not seem a hopeless task to discover what may
properly be called real and what should be described as merely
apparent, when both the real and the apparent are open to our
inspection.
Can we not find in this analysis a satisfactory explanation of the
plain man's claim that under certain circumstances he sees the tree as
it is and under others he does not? What he is really asserting is
that one visual experience gives him better information regarding the
real thing, the touch thing, than does another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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