Now, when we do this--when we judge "This is the _same_ part of the
same thing as I was seeing or touching just now," we, of course, do
not mean to exclude the possibility that the part in question may
have changed during the interval; that it is really different, on the
second occasion, either in shape or size or quality, or in all three,
from what it was on the first. That is to say, the sense of sameness
which we are here concerned with is one which clearly does not exclude
change. We may even be prepared to assert, on general grounds, in all
such cases, that the surface in question certainly must have changed.
But nevertheless there is a great difference in one respect, between
two kinds of such cases, both of which occur exceedingly commonly.
If I watch somebody blowing air into a child's balloon, it constantly
happens, at certain stages in the process, that I judge with regard
to the part of the surface which I am seeing at that stage, not only
that it _is_ larger than it was at an earlier stage, but that it is
_perceptibly_ larger. Or, if I pull the face of an india-rubber doll,
I may judge at a certain stage in the process that the patch of red
colour on its cheek not only is different in shape from what it was
at the beginning, but is _perceptibly_ so; it may, for instance, be a
perceptibly flatter ellipse than it was to start with. Or, if I watch
a person blushing, I may judge at a certain stage that a certain part
of the surface of his face not only is different in colour from what
it was, when I saw it before he began to blush, but is _perceptibly_
so--perceptibly redder. In enormous numbers of cases we do thus judge
of a surface seen at a given time that it is thus _perceptibly_
different in size, or in shape, or in colour, from what it was when we
saw it before. But cases are at least equally numerous in which, though
we might, on general grounds be prepared to assert that it _must_ have
changed in some respect, we should not be prepared to assert that it
had, in any respect whatever, changed _perceptibly._ Of this part
of this surface of this inkstand, for instance, I am certainly not
prepared to assert that it is now perceptibly different in any respect
from what it was when I saw it just now. And similar cases are so
numerous that I need not give further instances. We can, therefore,
divide cases, in which we judge, of a part of a surface which we are
seeing, "This is the same part of the surface of the same material
thing as the one I saw just now," into cases where we should also judge
"But it is perceptibly different from what it was then," and cases in
which, even though we might assert "It _must_ be different," we are
certainly not prepared to assert that it is _perceptibly_ so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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