In the first case, the soldier-beetle is the centre of interest in the
situation. As the situation develops, the element of nauseousness is
introduced. As Dr. Stout puts it, this is what gives the soldier-beetle
meaning. Can it be doubted that, if there be any distribution, the
nauseousness, though it is altogether what we have learnt to call
a subjective affection, attaches itself to the soldier-beetle? The
plain man, unsophisticated by Berkeleyan discussion, says simply, in
such cases, “The thing is nauseous.” And this probably indicates the
naïve and primitive distribution. Turning now to our second example,
when the hen hears the courtship song the mate is the centre of a
situation suffused with pleasurable feeling. How is the joyousness,
again essentially subjective for our later thought, distributed?
Surely, if at all, on the mate who forms the centre of interest. This
it is which gives him meaning. The joy of the bearer is projected on
to the singer. Not entirely, perhaps; the hen literally, on Professor
James’s theory of the emotions, feels her heart-beat quickened by his
presence, and the delightful ruffling of her feathers. But our aim is
not to deny that the germs of the subjective arise in the midst of such
situations, but to contend that some at least of the joyous character
of the situation attaches to the song of the singer, that some of the
feeling is projected, and that this is what gives the mate meaning. In
our third case, the playful puppy bites his companion, and is sharply
bitten in return. Pain enters into the coalescent situation as a whole.
How is it distributed? In the phraseology of association, the nip he
gives is closely linked with the pain he receives. By coalescence
the pain and the nip form parts of the developed situation. But the
companion is the centre of interest. And part of the pain is probably
projected on this centre. That such projection actually occurs is
rendered probable by such cases as the following, which was told me
some years ago. A child, whose exact age I have forgotten if I then
ascertained, was pricked by a pin, and he said, “Pin ’urted; poor pin.”
It is, indeed, not unlikely that with animals the outward projection
of feeling is widely distributed over inanimate, as well as animate,
objects, and that its due restriction comes far later in development,
of which the so-called personification of lifeless things by savages
may be a relic. In any case, the give-and-take of play in young
animals, and the after-earnest of courtship and fighting, would seem to
afford ample opportunity for the external and internal distribution of
feeling which sows the seed in perceptual life of that which blossoms
into self and alter in the reflective life of ideational thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account