Reformed Logic: A System Based on Berkeley's Philosophy with an Entirely New Method of DialecticMcLachlan, D. B.
Philosophy
Reformed Logic: A System Based on Berkeley's Philosophy with an Entirely New Method of Dialectic
McLachlan, D. B.
Logic
Reason--let me repeat--is the imaginary extension of experience
by comparison with more complete experience of a similar kind. By
reasoning in inherence we complete single objects; by inference in
association we complete groups. These two categories demonstrate that
a natural group consists of fragments of objects, and fragments of
other natural groups which are possible but not yet developed. A hill
is partly concealed by a house, the house partly concealed by a tree,
the tree by a stone fence, the fence by a growth of ivy. A river
disappears at a curve and is lost to view; we know from experience of
other rivers that under certain conditions we might perceive the river
further on as a feature in several more landscapes. As we gaze at an
association of objects these possible completions occur to us--not
fully or definitely but sufficiently to convince us that the group
might be developed into many other groups, and into a multitude of
objects of forms different from those we actually perceive. By our
hypothesis the observer has always been stationary, the objects have
moved to and fro but not from near to far. Their real dimensions have
remained unaltered, and nothing has occurred to suggest that they
ever appear of other dimensions. In short we are gazing on a piece of
stage-scenery.
But there is another element in perception. We and all other real
(mental) beings are part of the cosmic force. We are co-creators of
what we perceive--limited gods, not machine-men as the scientific
people would have us believe. But for our power of affecting each
other and our readiness to receive impressions from other minds, there
would be no perception--no material objects. We (that is, all
sentient beings) could, by unanimous resolution, annul the material
creation--blot out the universe of objective things in a moment.
United to and implied in this general power is the particular power
of modifying our world without destroying it. We can redistribute the
active and passive forces so as to produce other perceptual effects
than those present at a given moment. And we habitually do this to
some extent. Within a limited scope our world is plastic as dough,
and we knead it to any form we please. For example, we exert energy
to change our place, and immediately the group before us breaks up
and undergoes metamorphosis. Some objects disappear altogether, and
entirely new objects present themselves. Some become smaller, others
larger; some fractional forms fill out to completion, some integers
undergo curtailment, others separate into several distinct objects. In
a few minutes the first group has dissolved into a second, which may
merge into a third, and so on indefinitely.
In contemplating these phenomena we discern a third form of
completeness and incompleteness, distinct from those that enter into
inherence and association. Hence a new type of reasoning--another
category: the Perspective.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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