carried along in the stream of consciousness. But logic is concerned,
not with these states of consciousness _per se_, least of all with the
flotsam and jetsam of the stream, but with its reference to reality; not
with the true, but with truth; not even with what consciousness does,
but with how consciousness is to outdo itself, transcend itself, in a
rational and universal whole. Even an empirical logic has to arrange
somehow the way to get from one sense-impression to another.
In drawing this distinction between logic and psychology--a distinction
which virtually amounts to a separation--two things are overlooked:
first, that the distinction itself is a logical distinction, and may
properly constitute a problem falling under the province of logical
inquiry and theory; and, second, that the rather arbitrary and official
setting apart of psychology to look after the task of studying states of
consciousness does not carry with it the guarantee that psychology will
confine itself exclusively to that task. This last point in particular
must be my excuse for discussing the question of image and idea from the
psychological rather than from the logical standpoint. The logic of
ideas derived from sense-impressions has had its day. But even the very
leavings of the past may have been gathered up and reconstructed by
psychology in such a way as to anticipate some of the newer developments
of logical theory and meet some of its difficulties. One can hardly hope
to justify in advance a discussion based on such a sheer possibility.
Let us begin, rather, by noting down from the standpoint of logic some
of the distinctions between image and idea, and the estimate of the
logical function and value of mental imagery, and see in what direction
they take us and whether they suggest a resort to an analysis from the
standpoint of psychology.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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