Here the subject of the judgment appears as an element of a reality
_which the individual has constructed_ by identifying significant ideas
with that world of which he has assurance through his own perceptive
experience. But the very point with reference to the subject of the
judgment previously emphasized is that it is not and cannot be something
which the individual has constructed. The subject of the judgment must
be reality, and reality does not consist of ideas, even if it be
determined by them. It does not mend matters to explain that the
individual has constructed his real world by identifying significant
ideas with that world of which he has assurance through his own
perceptive experiences, because, as we have seen, "the individual's
perceptive experiences" either turn out to be merely similar mental
constructions made at a prior time, so that nothing is gained by
attaching to them, or else they mean once more the mere shock of contact
which is supposed to give assurance that some sort of reality exists,
but which gives no assurance of what it is. That and what, this and
thisness still remain detached. When he talks of _the real world for any
individual_ we are left entirely in the dark as to what the relation
between _the real world as it is for any individual_ and _the real
world as it is for itself_ may be, or how the individual is to gain any
assurance that _the real world as it is for him_ represents _the real
world as it is for itself_.
Another attempt at a reconciliation of these opposing views leaves us no
better satisfied. The passage is as follows:
The real world, as a definite organized system, is _for me_ an
extension of this present sensation and self-feeling by means of
judgment, and it is the essence of judgment to effect and sustain
such an extension. It makes no essential difference whether the
ideas whose content is pronounced to be an attribute of reality
appear to fall within what is given in perception, or not. We
shall find hereafter that it is vain to attempt to lay down
boundaries between the given and its extension. The moment we try
to do this we are on the wrong track. The given and its extension
differ not absolutely but relatively; they are continuous with
each other, and the metaphor by which we speak of an extension
conceals from us that the so-called "given" is no less artificial
than that by which it is extended. It is the character and quality
of being directly in contact with sense-perception, not any fixed
datum of content, that forms the constantly shifting center of the
individual's real world, and spreads from that center over every
extension which the system of reality receives from judgment. (P.
77.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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