Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human MindMill, James
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
Mill, James
Psychology
The primary importance to men, of being able to make known to one
another their SENSATIONS, made them in all probability begin with
inventing marks for that purpose; in other words, making Names for
their SENSATIONS. Two modes presented themselves. One was to give a
name to each single sensation. Another was to bestow a name on a
cluster of sensations, whenever they were such as occur in a
cluster. Of this latter class, are all names of what are called
External Objects; rose, water, stone, and so on. Each of these names
is the mark of as many sensations (sight, touch, smell, taste,
sound) as we are said to derive from those objects. The name rose,
is the {135} mark of a sensation of colour, a sensation of shape, a
sensation of touch, a sensation of smell, all in conjunction. The
name water, is the mark of a sensation of colour, a sensation of
touch, a sensation of taste, and other sensations, regarded not
separately, but as a compound.[41]
[Findlater's footnote 41: It is not intended to be understood that
all this complex meaning entered into the names as originally given.
The process of naming seems to have been this: Each object was
designated by a term expressive of some one prominent quality, and
of that only. Thus _rose_ is referred with every probability to the
same root as the adjective _red_ (compare Greek [Greek: r(o/don], a
rose, [Greek: e(ruthro\s] red, German _roth_, Latin _rutilus_), and
thus meant "the ruddy" (flower). Other objects would doubtless also
be called "ruddy," and would dispute the epithet with the rose; but
by a process of natural selection, each would settle down in
possession of the term found best suited to distinguish it; which
would thus cease to be an attributive, and become a name substantive
with a complex connotation derived from association. All names of
objects whose origin can be traced are found to be thus simple in
their primary signification. The stars (Sans. _staras_) were so
called because they were "strewers" (of light).--_F._]
There is a convenience in giving a single mark to any number of
sensations, which we thus have in clusters; because there is hence a
great saving of marks. The sensations of sight, of touch, of smell,
and so on, derived from a rose, might have received marks, and have
been enumerated, one by one; but the term rose, performs all this
much more expeditiously, and also more certainly.
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