Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical InquiryCurtis, George Ticknor
Religion
Creation or Evolution? A Philosophical Inquiry
Curtis, George Ticknor
Creation; Evolution
Thus, then, criticisms like this of Mr. Martineau, often recurring in
one shape or other, and now again made by Mr. Harrison, do not show
the invalidity of my argument, but once more show the imbecility of
human intelligence when brought to bear on the ultimate question.
Phenomenon without noumenon is unthinkable; and yet noumenon can not
be thought of in the true sense of thinking. We are at once obliged
to be conscious of a reality behind appearance, and yet can neither
bring this consciousness of reality into any shape, nor can bring into
any shape its connection with appearance. The forms of our thought,
molded on experience of phenomena, as well as the connotations of our
words formed to express the relations of phenomena, involve us in
contradictions when we try to think of that which is beyond phenomena;
and yet the existence of that which is beyond phenomena is a necessary
datum alike of our thoughts and our words. We have no choice but to
accept a formless consciousness of the inscrutable.
Some definitions must now be given. The word "phenomenon" has become
naturalized in our English tongue. Derived as a noun from the Greek
verb Φαίνομαι, _to appear_, it means anything visible; whatever
is presented to the eye by observation or experiment, or what is
discovered to exist; as the phenomena of the natural world, the
phenomena of the heavenly bodies, of terrestrial substances, the
phenomena of heat and color.[95] In this application the word denotes
what appears to us, or what we discover by our senses. It is also used,
in the plural, more loosely, to denote occurrences or things which we
observe to happen; as when, speaking of physical occurrences, we mean
physical facts the happening of which we observe. Moral phenomena, on
the other hand, are the appearances exhibited by the action of mind.
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