To restate the point in regard to the psychological function of imagery.
Imagery functions in representing control as ideal, not as fact. It
represents a possible process of reconstructing adjustments and habits;
it is not an actual and complete readjustment. It arises normally in a
stress, in the presence of fresh demands and new problems. It looks
forward in every possible direction, because it is important and
difficult to foresee consequences. But suppose the new adjustment to be
made with reasonable success--reasonable, note. Suppose the ideal to be
realized. With practice the adjustment becomes less problematic, more
under control--that is, it comes to require less conscious attention to
bring it about. The image loses some of its sensuous content. It becomes
worn away, more remote, until at last it becomes respectably vague and
abstract enough to be classed as a concept. Imagery is the stimulus of
the reconstructive process between habit and habit, concept and concept,
idea and idea.
We now return to the original question regarding the logical function of
imagery. There is only one condition, I believe, on which we can accept
the assumption of both empiricist and conceptualist that imagery is on
the same level with sense-perception, and that is the assumption that
meaning, logical meaning, is on the same level with habit, habit naming
the more obvious, overt forms of response to stimuli, logical meaning
naming the more internal forms of response or reference. Psychical
response and logical reference thus become equivalent terms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account