Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (of 2)Balmes, Jaime Luciano
Philosophy
Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Balmes, Jaime Luciano
Philosophy, Spanish
121. In order to make the connection between the two doctrines still
clearer, we shall make some further reflections on Kant's system. If
space is something purely subjective, a condition of the sensibility
and of the possibility of experience, it follows that the mind instead
of receiving any thing from the object, creates whatever is in the
object, or rather, whatever we consider as in it. Things in themselves
are not extended; extension is only a form with which the mind clothes
them. In the same manner, they are not colored, sonorous, tasteful,
or odorous, except inasmuch as we transfer to them that which is
in ourselves alone. Every thing being reduced to mere appearances,
there is in the external world not even the principle of causality of
subjective extension; the mind gives it to objects, does not receive
it from them. These objects are pure phenomena; and, consequently, the
soul only sees what it contains in itself, it knows no other world than
that which is its own creation. Thus, we see the real world spring from
the _me_; or, rather, the real world is only the ideal creation of the
mind. On this supposition, the laws of nature are only the laws of our
own mind, and instead of seeking for the types of our ideas in nature,
we ought to regard our ideas as the generative principle of all that
exists, or seems to exist; and the laws of the universe are merely the
subjective condition of the _me_ applied to phenomena.
122. Some of the disciples of Kant show no fear of his idealist
tendencies; in fact they accept them without any hesitation, as may be
seen by the comparisons which they use in explaining his doctrine. If
a seal be applied to a piece of soft wax, it will leave its impression
on the wax; if we suppose the seal to be capable of perception, it
would see its mark on the wax, and attribute to the object what it had
itself given it. If a vase full of water were capable of perception,
it would attribute to the water the form, which in reality is only the
form of the vase itself, and is communicated from it to the water. In
a similar manner the mind constructs the external world, giving to it
its impression and form, and then believing it has received from the
external world what it has itself communicated to it.
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