And similarly
in the case of two sense-data which are presented to me simultaneously,
I do not know the one _only_ as a thing which has a certain relation to
the other. But in the case of this sense-datum and this inkstand the
case seems to me to be plainly quite different. If there be a thing
which is this inkstand at all, it is certainly _only_ known to me as
_the_ thing which stands in a certain relation to this sense-datum. It
is not given to me, in the sense in which this sense-datum is given.
If there be such a thing at all, it is quite certainly only known to
me by description, in the sense in which Mr. Russell uses that phrase;
and the description by which it is known is that of being _the_ thing
which stands to this sense-datum in a certain relation. That is to
say, when I make such a judgment as "This inkstand is a good big one";
what I am really judging is: "There is a thing which stands to _this_
in a certain relation, and which is an inkstand, and that thing is
a good big one"--where "_this_" stands for this presented object. I
am referring to or identifying the thing which is this inkstand, if
there be such a thing at all, only as the thing which stands to this
sense-datum in a certain relation; and hence my judgment, though in
one sense it may be said to be a judgment about the inkstand, is quite
certainly also, in another sense, a judgment about this sense-datum.
This seems to me so clear, that I wonder how anyone can deny it; and
perhaps nobody would. But I cannot help thinking that it is not clear
to everybody; partly because, so far as I can make out, nobody before
Mr. Russell had pointed out the extreme difference there is between a
judgment about a thing known only by description to the individual who
makes the judgment, and a judgment about a thing not known to him only
in this way; and partly because so many people seem still utterly to
have failed to understand what the distinction is which he expresses in
this way. I will try to make the point clear, in a slightly different
way. Suppose I am seeing two coins, lying side by side, and am not
perceiving them in any other way except by sight. It will be plain to
everybody, I think, that, when I identify the one as "This one" and
the other as "That one," I identify them only by reference to the two
visual presented objects, which correspond respectively to the one and
to the other. But what may not, I think, be realised, is that the sense
in which I identify them by reference to the corresponding sense-data,
is one which involves that every judgment which I make about the one
is a judgment about the sense-datum which corresponds to it, and every
judgment I make about the other, a judgment about the sense-datum which
corresponds to _it_: I simply cannot make a judgment about either,
which is not a judgment about the corresponding sense-datum. But if the
two coins were given to me, in the sense in which the two sense-data
are, this would certainly not be the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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