Ueberweg maintains that the subject of the impersonal is the actual
totality of present experience. When we ask, "What rains?" we must
understand a reference to our general environment, in which no special
element is singled out. Sigwart, on the other hand, maintains that the
subject can be construed only as the actual sense-impression. This
diversity of opinion might seem to indicate that, were it not for the
constraining power of theory, a subject would scarcely be thought of
for the impersonal. Still it must be admitted that when we examine the
impersonal expression closely we can discover a sense-impression,
whether definite or indefinite, combined with an idea. This would seem
to give the case to the orthodox logician, for he will at once claim the
sense-impression as the subject and the idea as the predicate of the
judgment. But we must have a care. Predication is usually held to
consist in a _reference_ of predicate _to_ subject. The factors of the
judgment are, as it were, held apart. In the impersonal no such thing as
this can be discovered. The meaning is so close a unity that impression
and idea are entirely fused. We may analyze the expression and find them
there, but by so doing we destroy the immediacy which is an essential
characteristic of the impersonal. In other words, the impersonal does
not analyze itself. It is entirely unconscious of its make-up. And yet
it is definite and applies itself with precision: If I am in a
lecture-hall and hear the fire-alarm, the thought "Fire!" which enters
my mind leads to an immediate change in my conduct. I arise, move
quietly out, and prepare for duty. If, on the other hand, I open the
street door and the rain strikes my face, I ejaculate "Raining!" turn,
reach for my umbrella, and pass out protected. In both cases I act
_knowingly_ and with _meaning_, but I do not analyze the movement either
of thought or of action. A correlate to the unreflective impersonal
judgment is found in early custom. Custom embodies social ideas and is
an instrument for the determination and control of action. Individuals
moved by custom know what they are about and act with precision
according as custom may demand. But it is notorious that custom is
direct and unreflective. It represents social instruments of control
which have grown up without method and which represent the slow
accretion of rule-of-thumb activities through many ages. So in the
impersonal judgment we have a type of intellectual instrument which has
been brought to a high degree of precision in use, but which still
retains the simplicity and certainty of an unquestioned instrument of
action. For this reason, whatever complexity of elements the impersonal
may present to a reflective view, it does not contain to itself.
Consequently it may be best to say that to the impersonal there is
neither subject, predicate, nor reference of the one to the other. These
are distinctions which arise only when the instrument of action has been
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