Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2
Philosophy
Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2
Medicine -- Periodicals; Phrenology -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Man would be utterly unfit for the sphere that he occupies, if he had
not the opposite capacities required by innumerable opposite
conditions. Physiologically, he requires calorific powers to fit him
for cold climates, and cooling capacities to fit him for the torrid
zone. Morally, he requires warlike powers to meet enemies and dangers,
as well as affections for the sphere of domestic love. He requires the
conscious intellect to call forth and guide his powers in exertion,
and a faculty for repose and recuperation in sleep. He requires self
respect to sustain him in elevated positions, and humility to fit him
for humble duties and positions. We can conceive no faculty which has
not its opposite,--no faculty which would not terminate its own
operation, like a flexor muscle, if there were no antagonist.
Benevolence would exhaust the purse and be unable to give, if
Acquisitiveness did not replenish it; and Avarice unrestrained would
lose all financial capacity in the sordid stupidity of the miser. Each
faculty alone, without its antagonist, carries us to a helpless
extreme.
The antagonism of faculties is so self evident a law of nature that if
Dr. Gall had pre-arranged a psychic philosophy in his mind, instead of
being a simple observer of facts, he might have given a very different
aspect to the science. But he arranged no psychic philosophy, and he
did not carry his observations far enough to lead him into the law of
antagonism, and hence left a rude system, lacking in the symmetry and
completeness necessary to give it the position of a complete
philosophy.
But while the law of antagonism should control our psychic studies, it
is not always convenient to express this antagonism in our
nomenclature, or to group the functions of all regions of the brain in
such a manner that each group or organ shall exactly correspond to an
antagonism in another organ; for in expressing the functions of parts
of the brain we are limited by the structure of the English language,
and have to make such groups as will be conveniently expressed by
familiar English words,--the words of a language that has grown up in
a confused manner, and was not organized to express the faculties of
sub-divisions of the brain. Hence, for want of a pre-arranged
language, with words of accurate definition and exact antagonism, we
can only approximate a perfect nomenclature, and must rely more upon
description than upon classification and technical terms.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account