On the other hand, the "idea" could not operate as an idea, could not be
in consciousness, save as it involves some imagery, however old, dirty,
thin, and frayed. Take the statement, "The angles of a triangle are
equal to two right angles." If the statement means anything to a given
individual, if it conveys an idea, it must necessarily involve some form
of imagery, some qualitative or conscious content. But so far as the
_meaning_ is concerned, it is a matter of complete indifference as to
_what_ qualities are involved. These qualities may be in terms of
visual, auditory, tactual, kinæsthetic, or verbal imagery. The
individual may visualize a blackboard drawing of a triangle with its
sides produced, or he may imagine himself to be generating a triangle
while revolving through an angle of 180°. Any imagery anyone pleases may
be employed, so long as there goes with it somehow the _idea_ of the
relation of equality between the angles of a triangle and two right
angles. But the conceptualist does not stop here. The act of judgment
comes in to affirm that the "idea" is no mere idea, but is a quality of
the real. "The act [of judgment] attaches the floating adjective [the
idea, the logical meaning] to the nature of the world, and, at the same
time, tells one it was there already."[83] The "idea," the logical
meaning, begins where the "image" leaves off. Yet, somehow, the "idea"
could not begin, unless there were an "image" to leave off.
An "image" is not an "idea," says the conceptualist. An "idea" is not an
"image." (1) An "image" is not an "idea," because an "image" is a
particular, individual fragment of consciousness. It is so bound up
with its own existence that it cannot reach out to the existence of an
"idea," or to anything beyond itself. Chemically speaking, it is an
_avalent_ atom of consciousness, if such a thing is thinkable. Mr.
Bosanquet raises the question:
Are there at all ideas which are not symbolic?... The answer is
that _(a)_ in judgment itself the idea can be distinguished _qua_
particular in time or psychical fact, and _so far_ is not
symbolic; and _(b)_ in all those human experiences from which we
draw our conjectures as to the animal intelligence, when in
languor or in ignorance image succeeds image without conscious
judgment, we feel what it is to have ideas as facts and not as
symbols.[84]
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