saying that it is experienced. In speaking, therefore, of _the sort
of_ entities which are experienced in experiences of the five kinds I
have mentioned, we do not necessarily confine ourselves to those which
actually _are_ experienced in some such experience: we leave it an open
question whether the two classes are identical or not. And the class
of entities, whose status I wish to discuss, consists precisely of all
those, whether experienced or not, which are _of the same sort_ as
those which are experienced in experiences of these five kinds.
I intend to call this class of entities the class of _sensibles_; so
that the question I am to discuss can be expressed in the form: What
is the status of sensibles? And it must be remembered that images and
after-images are just as much "sensibles," in my sense of the term, as
the entities which are experienced in sensations proper; and so, too,
are any patches of colour, or sounds, or smells, etc, (if such there
be), which are not experienced at all.
In speaking of sensibles as _the sort of_ entities which are
experienced in sensory experiences I seem to imply that all the
entities which are experienced in sensory experiences have some
common characteristic other than that which consists in their being
so experienced. And I cannot help thinking that this is the case,
in spite of the fact that it is difficult to see what intrinsic
character can be shared in common by entities so different from one
another as are patches of colour, sounds, smells, tastes, etc. For,
so far as I can see, some non-sensory experiences may be exactly
similar to sensory ones in all intrinsic respects, except that what
is experienced in them is different in kind from what is experienced
in any sensory experience: the relation meant by saying that in them
something _is experienced_ may be exactly the same in kind, and so may
the experient. And, if this be so, it seems to compel us to admit that
the distinction between sensory and non-sensory experiences is derived
from that between sensibles, and non-sensibles and not _vice versâ._ I
am inclined, therefore, to think that all sensibles, in spite of the
great differences between them, have some common intrinsic property,
which we recognise, but which is unanalysable; and that, when we call
an experience sensory, what we mean is not only that in it something
is experienced in a particular way, but also that this something has
this unanalysable property. If this be so, the ultimate definition of
"sensibles" would be merely all entities which have this unanalysable
property.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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