On Sameness and Identity: A Psychological Study: Being a Contribution to the Foundations of a Theory of Knowledge — John Shaqi
On Sameness and Identity: A Psychological Study: Being a Contribution to the Foundations of a Theory of KnowledgeFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
On Sameness and Identity: A Psychological Study: Being a Contribution to the Foundations of a Theory of Knowledge
Fullerton, George Stuart
Knowledge, Theory of
It still remained to consider a possible position; that of the man
who distinguishes between the formal and the material element in
consciousness, and identifies self or mind with the former. The formal
element of consciousness is not a part of consciousness as the word
part is commonly used, nor is it the whole of consciousness, in the
ordinary acceptation of the word whole. And though this view might
very well have been brought under a former head by stretching a little
the meaning of the word part, yet such is its importance that I chose
rather to omit it when discussing self as a part of consciousness
(there using the word part in a limited sense), and to take it up later
by itself.
It was insisted that if the formal element in consciousness is
enough of a thing to be distinguished from something else, and to
be discussed, it is enough of a thing to admit of distinctions and
differences much as other things do. After examination it appeared, as
a matter of fact, that there is no reason why the believer in "form"
should not attribute to it all of the seven kinds of sameness before
described--even (in the modified way described a moment ago) the sixth
kind. And it also appeared that no new kind of sameness is discoverable
in this field. With this closed the search for samenesses.
It will be observed that we have passed in review the self and the
not-self as immediately known, the self and the not-self as bundles of
"real" qualities out of consciousness, and the self and the not-self as
noumenon or substance. I know of no other field in which the search may
be prosecuted, unless such be invented gratuitously by increasing the
"layers" of being in a way no one seems inclined to increase them. And
in view of the fact that the samenesses found in any "layer" below the
first seem to be only repetitions of what we find in that one, we could
have no reason to hope that any such needless increase in strata could
add a single new kind of sameness to those described.
SEC. 19. Now that we have obtained a list of the different kinds of
sameness, we may pass our eye over it with a view to discovering what
the various kinds have in common, and what is the reason that we
express such diverse experiences by the use of the one word. Such an
examination reveals the fact that the common notion which unites them
is the idea of similarity. In some cases this notion lies more in the
foreground than in others, but in all cases it is present, and forms
the bond of union. I will run through the list and point this out,
beginning, however, with the second kind, and reserving the first for
discussion after the others.
II. A mere mention of the second kind of sameness is, in this
connection, sufficient. Two mental experiences are there avowedly
called the same to mark similarity.
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