Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Philosophy -- History
That is to say, my object is not a thought. But sensuous perception and
recollection are thought, and thought is truth.[220] Locke, however,
places the reality of the understanding only in the formal activity of
constituting new determinations from the simple conceptions received
by means of perception, through their comparison and the combination
of several into one; it is the apprehension of the abstract sensations
which are contained in the objects. Locke likewise distinguishes (Bk. II.
chap. xi. § 15-17) between pure and mixed modes. Pure modes are simple
determinations such as power, number, infinitude; in such expressions as
causality we reach, on the other hand, a mixed mode.
Locke now explains in detail the manner in which the mind, from the
simple ideas of experience, reaches more complex ideas; but this
derivation of general determinations from concrete perception is most
unmeaning, trivial, tiresome and diffuse; it is entirely formal, an empty
tautology. For instance we form the general conception of space from the
perception of the distance of bodies by means of sight and feeling.[221]
Or in other words, we perceive a definite space, abstract from it,
and then we have the conception of space generally; the perception of
distances gives us conceptions of space. This however is no deduction,
but only a setting aside of other determinations; since distance itself
is really space, mind thus determines space from space. Similarly we
reach the notion of time through the unbroken succession of conceptions
during our waking moments,[222] _i.e._ from determinate time we
perceive time in general. Conceptions follow one another in a continual
succession; if we set aside the particular element that is present we
thereby receive the conception of time. Substance (which Locke does not
accept in so lofty a sense as Spinoza), a complex idea, hence arises
from the fact that we often perceive simple ideas such as blue, heavy,
etc., in association with one another. This association we represent to
ourselves as something which so to speak supports these simple ideas, or
in which they exist.[223] Locke likewise deduces the general conception
of power.[224] The determinations of freedom and necessity, cause and
effect, are then derived in a similar way. “In the notice that our senses
take of the constant vicissitude of things, we cannot but observe, that
several particulars, both qualities and substance, begin to exist; and
that they receive this their existence from the due application and
operation of some other being. From this observation we get our ideas
of cause and effect,” for instance when wax is melted by the fire.[225]
Locke goes on to say: “Every one, I think, finds in himself a power to
begin or forbear, continue or put an end to several actions in himself.
From the consideration of the extent of this power of the mind over the
actions of the man, which every one finds in himself, arise the ideas of
liberty and necessity.”[226]
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