Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (of 2)Balmes, Jaime Luciano
Philosophy
Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Balmes, Jaime Luciano
Philosophy, Spanish
But even such an imaginary division does not serve to explain the
phenomenon; for the part of the sound perceived by A will not be
perceived by B; never, therefore, will there result a complete
sensation.
Shall we suppose A and B to be in relation, and to mutually communicate
their corresponding parts? But then A perceives all its own part and
also what B communicates to it: of what use, then, is B, if A perceives
the whole? Why not place the whole primitive sensation in A? We here
see that such a communication is an absurd hypothesis, since it
would make a successive and mutual communication of the parts, and a
perception by each of its own part, and also of that transmitted to it
by the others, indispensable to the formation of an entire sensation.
Thus we should have not one sensation only, but as many as there are
parts; not one sensitive being only, but as many such beings as there
are parts.
This hypothesis of communication of the parts paves the way for our
system, since it recognizes the necessity of unity to constitute
sensation. Why do the parts mutually communicate what they have
respectively perceived? Because an entire sensation could not otherwise
be formed, and so each part must receive what it has not of itself. The
object of this is, that each one may perceive the whole; the sensation,
therefore, must be wholly in only one subject; therefore, at the very
time that unity is denied, it is acknowledged to be necessary.
14. These parts, A and B, either are simple or they are not; if they
are simple, why persist in advocating materialism, when we must finally
return to simple beings? It is a manifest contradiction to say that
sensation is an effect of organization, and yet place it in a simple
being, for the simple cannot be organized; there is no organization
where there are no parts organized. If we admit the simple being,
and place the sensation in it, the organization will then be, if
you choose, a medium, a conduit, an indispensable condition to the
realization of the phenomenon; then not it, but the simple being will
be the subject. If these parts are not simple, they are composed of
others; and of these we may argue the same as of the former; for we
must come to simple beings, or else proceed to infinity. If we admit
such a process, the sensible being will not be one, but infinite;
the difficulties encountered with only two parts, A and B, will be
multiplied even to infinity, and so the sensible being will be not one
but infinite, and every sensation infinite.
15. Here we find a very serious difficulty. If matter be incapable of
perceiving, the soul of brutes is not material; if immaterial, it is a
spirit, which cannot be admitted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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