What I have here called belief may be roughly distinguished into simple
and compound belief. By a simple belief I mean one which has to do with
a single event or fact. It includes simple modes of expectation, as well
as beliefs in single past facts not guaranteed by memory. A compound
belief, on the other hand, has reference to a number of events or facts.
Thus, our belief in the continued existence of a particular object, as
well as our convictions respecting groups or classes of events, must be
regarded as compound, since they can be shown to include a number of
simple beliefs.
A. _Simple Illusory Belief: Expectation._
It will be well to begin our inquiry by examining the errors connected
with simple expectations, so far as these come under our definition of
illusion. And here, following our usual practice, we may set out with a
very brief account of the nature of the intellectual process in its
correct form. For this purpose we shall do well to take a complete or
definite anticipation of an event as our type.[136]
The ability of the mind to move forward, forecasting an order of events
in time, is clearly very similar to its power of recalling events. Each
depends on the capability of imagination to represent a sequence of
events or experiences. The difference between the two processes is that
in anticipation the imagination setting out from the present traces the
succession of experiences in their actual order, and not in the reverse
order. It would thus appear to be a more natural and easy process than
recollection, and observation bears out this conclusion. Any object
present to perception which is associated with antecedents and
consequents with the same degree of cohesion, calls up its consequents
rather than its antecedents. The spectacle of the rising of the sun
carries the mind much more forcibly forwards to the advancing morning
than backwards to the receding night. And there is good reason to
suppose that in the order of mental development the power of distinctly
expecting an event precedes that of distinctly recollecting one. Thus,
in the case of the infant mind, as of the animal intelligence, the
presence of signs of coming events, as the preparation of food, seems to
excite distinct and vivid expectation.[137]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account