usually involuntary, for the stimulus forces one's attention, which is
not always voluntary; not all judgment then requires will, as Wundt
supposes. It requires no reference to reality beyond the sensible
pressure, because it is merely a belief that this exists without
inference of the external stimulus or any inference at all: not all
judgment then requires the reference of subjective to objective supposed
by Ueberweg, or the consciousness of logical necessity supposed by
Sigwart. It requires in addition to the belief that something exists, no
consideration as to whether the belief itself be true, because a man who
feels pressure believes in the thing without further question about the
belief: not all judgment then requires a decision of validity, as
Bergmann supposes. It requires nothing beyond the sensation and belief
in the given existence of the given pressure: not all judgment then
requires categories of understanding, or notions of identity, difference
and causality, or even of existence, such as Schuppe supposes. It
requires no comparison in order to express it in words, for a judgment
need not be expressed, and a sensory judgment of pressure is an
irresistible belief that a real pressure exists, without waiting for
words, or for a comparison which is wanted not to make a sensation a
judgment, but to turn a judgment into language: not all judgment then
requires comparison with a view to its expression, as supposed by
Hobhouse. Lastly, all the authors of the above-quoted theories err in
supposing that all judgment requires conception; for even Mill thinks a
combination of ideas necessary, and Brentano, who comes still nearer to
the nature of sensory judgment when he says, "Every perception counts
for a judgment," yet thinks that an idea is necessary at the same time
in order to understand the thing judged. In reality, the sensation and
the belief are sufficient; when I feel a sensible pressure, I cannot
help believing in its reality, and therefore judging that it is real,
without any _tertium quid_--an idea of pressure, or of existence or of
pressure existing--intervening between the sensation and the belief.
Only after sensation has ceased does an idea, or representation of what
is not presented, become necessary as a substitute for a sensation and
as a condition not of the first judgment that there is, but of a second
judgment that there was, something sensible. Otherwise there would be no
judgment of sensible fact, for the first sensation would not give it,
and the idea following the sensation would be still farther off. The
sensory judgment then, which is nothing but a belief that at the moment
of sense something sensible exists, is a proof that not all judgment
requires conception, or synthesis or analysis of ideas, or decision
about the content, or about the validity, of ideas, or reference of an
ideal content to reality, as commonly, though variously, supposed in the
logic of our day.
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