But, it may be asked: What is this common simple sense of the word
"exists"? For my own part, it seems to me to be so simple that it
cannot be expressed in other words, except those which are recognised
as its synonyms. I think we are all perfectly familiar with its
meaning: it is the meaning which you understood me to have throughout
this paper, until I began this discussion. I think we can perceive at
once what is meant by asserting that my perception of black marks on a
white ground is "real," and that no such perception as Sindbad's of a
Roc was ever "real": we are perfectly familiar with the property which
the one perception is affirmed to possess, and the other to be without.
And I think, as I have said, that this property is a simple one. But,
whatever it is, this, which we ordinarily mean, is what I mean by
"existence" or "reality." And this property, we have seen, is certainly
neither identical with nor inclusive of that complex one which we mean
by the words "is perceived."
I may now, then, at last approach the main question of my paper.
Which among the "contents" which I observe will give me reason to
suppose that my observation of some of them is generally preceded
or accompanied or followed by the existence of certain particular
perceptions, thoughts or feelings in another person? I have explained
that the "contents" which I actually observe may be divided into two
classes: on the one hand, those which, as we commonly say, we perceive
"through the senses"; and, on the other hand, my perceptions of these
last, my thoughts, and my feelings. I have explained that if any
of these observed contents are to give reason for a generalisation
about what exists, _they_ must exist. And I have explained that with
regard to both classes of "contents" I am using the word "exist" in
precisely the same sense--a sense, in which it is certainly not
self-contradictory to suppose that what _is_ perceived, does not exist,
and that what is _not_ perceived, does exist; and, in which, therefore,
the assumption that a red patch with gold letters on it exists, is a
_different_ assumption from the assumption that my _perception_ of
a red patch with gold letters on it exists; and the assumption that
my _perception_ of a red patch with gold letters on it exists, is a
_different_ assumption from the assumption that a red patch with gold
letters on it exists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account