There are several different classes of mental events, all of which,
owing to their intrinsic resemblance to one another in certain
respects, may, in a wide sense, be called "sensory experiences,"
although only some among them would usually be called "sensations."
There are (1) those events, happening in our minds while we are
awake, which consist in the experiencing of one of those entities,
which are usually called "images," in the narrowest sense of the
term. Everybody distinguishes these events from sensations proper;
and yet everybody admits that "images" intrinsically resemble the
entities which are experienced in sensations proper in some very
important respect. There are (2) the sensory experiences we have in
dreams, some of which would certainly be said to be experiences of
images, while others might be said to be sensations. There are (3)
hallucinations, and certain classes of illusory sensory experiences.
There are (4) those experiences, which used to be called the having
of "after-images," but which psychologists now say ought rather to
be called "after-sensations." And there are, finally, (5) that class
of sensory experiences, which are immensely commoner than any of the
above, and which may be called _sensations proper_, if we agree to use
this term in such a way as to exclude experiences of my first four
sorts.
Every event, of any one of these five classes, consists in the fact
that an entity, of some kind or other, _is experienced._ The entity
which is experienced may be of many different kinds; it may, for
instance, be a patch of colour, or a sound, or a smell, or a taste,
etc; or it may be an image of a patch of colour, an image of a
sound, an image of a smell, an image of a taste, etc. But, whatever
be its nature, the entity which _is_ experienced must in all cases
be distinguished from the fact or event which consists in its being
experienced; since by saying that it is experienced we mean that it
has a relation of a certain kind to something else. We can, therefore,
speak not only of _experiences_ of these five kinds, but also of the
entities which _are experienced in_ experiences of these kinds; and
the entity which is experienced _in_ such an experience is never
identical with the experience which consists in its being experienced.
But we can speak not only of the entities which _are_ experienced in
experiences of this kind, but also of _the sort_ of entities which are
experienced in experiences of this kind; and these two classes may
again be different. For a patch of colour, even if it were not actually
experienced, would be an entity _of the same sort_ as some which are
experienced in experiences of this kind: and there is no contradiction
in supposing that there are patches of colour, which yet are not
experienced; since by calling a thing a patch of colour we merely make
a statement about its intrinsic quality, and in no way assert that
it has to anything else any of the relations which may be meant by
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