Mental Philosophy: Including the Intellect, Sensibilities, and WillHaven, Joseph
Philosophy
Mental Philosophy: Including the Intellect, Sensibilities, and Will
Haven, Joseph
Psychology
_Sensation as distinguished from Perception._--According to the view
now presented, _sensation_, as distinguished from _perception_, is
the _simple feeling_ which results from a certain affection of the
organism. It is known to us merely as feeling. Perception takes
cognizance of the feeling _as an affection of the organism_, and also
of the organism as thus affected, and consequently as external to the
me, extended, having parts, etc. It apprehends also objects external to
the organism itself limiting and affecting its movements. Sensation is
the indispensable condition of perception. If there were no sensation,
there would be no perception. The one does not precede, however, and
the other follow in order of time, but the one being given, the other
is given along with it. The two do not, however, coexist in equal
strength, but in the relation, as stated by Hamilton, of _inverse
ratio_; that is, beyond a certain point, the stronger the sensation,
the weaker the perception, and _vice versâ_.
_Sensation as an Affection of the Mind._--It has been common to speak
of sensation as lying wholly in the mind. Primarily, however, it is
an affection of the nervous organism, and through that organism, as
thus affected, an impression is made on the mind. If it were not for
the mind present with the organism, and susceptible of impression from
it, and thus cognizant of changes in it, the same changes might be
produced in the organism as now, but we should be entirely unconscious
of and insensible to them. In certain states of the system this
actually happens, as in sound sleep, the magnetic state, the state
produced by certain medicinal agents as ether, chloroform, opium, and
the intoxicating drugs of the East. In those cases, the connection
between the mind and the nervous organism seems to be in some manner
interrupted or suspended, and consequently there is for the time no
sensation. The nerves may be irritated, divided even, and still no pain
is felt.
It is not true, however, that the sensation is wholly in the mind.
It is in the living animated organism, as pervaded by the mind or
spiritual principle, mysteriously present in every part of that
organism, and cognizant of its changes; and neither the body alone, nor
the mind alone, can be said to possess this faculty, but the two united
in that complex mysterious unity which constitutes our present being.
§ III.--ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE QUALITIES OF BODIES.
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