Principles of literary criticismRichards, I. A. (Ivor Armstrong)
Philosophy
Principles of literary criticism
Richards, I. A. (Ivor Armstrong)
Criticism
Artificial mysteries are as prevalent in unreflecting and even
in elaborately excogitated opinion upon communication as elsewhere.
On the one hand are some who define communication as the actual
transference of experiences in the strictest possible sense of
transference—the sense in which a penny can be transferred from
one pocket to another—and are led to most fantastic hypotheses.
Blake seems sometimes to have believed that one single, the same,
identical state of mind, imagined as a being or power, can occupy
now one mind, now another, or many minds at once. Other thinkers,
in less picturesque manners, have fallen back upon no less transcendental
considerations as necessities in the explanation of communication.
We must suppose, it is alleged, that human minds are wider than
we ordinarily believe, that parts of one mind may pass over to
become parts of another, that minds interpenetrate and intermingle,
or even that particular minds are merely an illusory appearance
and the underlying reality one mind whose facets or aspects are
many. In this way it is easy to enter the maze. Probably some
wanderings in it are unavoidable for all speculative persons
at some period of their mental development. The only escape from
it is by the original entrance.
For communication defined as strict transference of or participation
in identical experiences does not occur. This is not a heart-breaking
conclusion. No general theory, in fact, as to the nature or conditions
of experiences can affect their value. For value is prior to
all explanations. If actual transference and participation did
occur we should of course be compelled to adopt a transcendental
theory. It does not occur[56] and no arguments which assume it
have the least weight.
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