The other principle, which we can lay down to start with is (_β_) that
my knowledge of all the five propositions (_a_) to (_e_), is based,
in the last resort, on experiences of mine consisting in the direct
apprehension of sensibles and in the perception of relations between
directly apprehended sensibles. It is _based_ on these, in at least
this sense, that I should never have known any of these propositions
if I had never directly apprehended any sensibles nor perceived any
relations between them.
What, in view of these two principles, can be the sense in which my
five propositions are true?
(1) It seems to me possible that the only _true_ interpretation which
can be given to any of them is an interpretation of a kind which I
can only indicate rather vaguely as follows: Namely, that all of them
express only a kind of fact which we should naturally express by saying
that, _if_ certain conditions were fulfilled, I or some other person,
_should_ directly apprehend certain other sensibles. For instance
the only _true_ thing that can be meant by saying that I really see
_coins_ may be some such thing as that, _if_ I were to move my body in
certain ways, I should directly apprehend _other_ sensibles, _e.g._
tactual ones, which I should not directly apprehend as a consequence
of these movements, if these present visual experiences of mine were
mere hallucinations or experiences of "images." Again, the only true
thing that can be meant by saying that the upper sides of the coins
are _really_ approximately circular may be some such thing as that,
_if_ I were looking straight at them, I should directly apprehend
circular sensibles. And similarly, the only true interpretation of
(_c_) may be some such fact as that, _if_ I were to turn the coins
over, or break them up, I _should_ have certain sensations, of a sort I
can imagine very well; of (_d_) that _if_ I were at an equal distance
from the half-crown and the florin, the sensible, I should then see
corresponding to the half-crown would be bigger than that corresponding
to the florin, whereas it is now smaller; of (_e_) that, _if,_ when
my eyes were closed, they had been open instead, I should have seen
certain sensibles.
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