An Introduction to PhilosophyFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
An Introduction to Philosophy
Fullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
It is very important to remark that in all this no new meaning has been
given to the word "concomitance." The plain man remarks that
sensations and their changes must be referred to the body. With the
body disposed in a certain way, he has sensations of a certain kind;
with changes in the body, the sensations change. He does not perceive
the sensations to be in the body. As I recede from a house I have a
whole series of visual experiences differing from each other and ending
in a faint speck which bears little resemblance to the experience with
which I started. I have had, as we say, a series of sensations, or
groups of such. Did any single group, did the experience which I had
at any single moment, seem to me to be _in my body_? Surely not. Its
relation to my body is other than that.
And when the man of science, instead of referring sensations vaguely to
the body, refers them to the brain, the reference is of precisely the
same nature. From our common experience of the relation of the
physical and the mental he starts out. He has no other ground on which
to stand. He can only mark the reference with greater exactitude.
I have been speaking of the relation of sensations to the brain. It is
scarcely necessary for me to show that all other mental phenomena must
be referred to the brain as well, and that the reference must be of the
same nature. The considerations which lead us to refer ideas to the
brain are set forth in our physiologies and psychologies. The effects
of cerebral disease, injuries to the brain, etc., are too well known to
need mention; and it is palpably as absurd to put ideas in the brain as
it is to put sensations there.
Now, the parallelist, if he be a wise man, will not attempt to
_explain_ the reference of mental phenomena to the brain--to _explain_
the relation between mind and matter. The relation appears to be
unique. Certainly it is not identical with the relation between two
material things. We explain things, in the common acceptation of the
word, when we show that a case under consideration is an
exemplification of some general law--when we show, in other words, that
it does not stand alone. But this does stand alone, and is admitted to
stand alone. We admit as much when we say that the mind is immaterial,
and yet hold that it is related to the body. We cannot, then, ask for
an _explanation_ of the relation.
But this does not mean that the reference of mental phenomena to the
body is a meaningless expression. We can point to those experiences of
concomitance that we all have, distinguish them carefully from
relations of another kind, and say: This is what the word means,
whether it be used by the plain man or by the man of science.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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