In this passage by the "given" he evidently means the content of sensory
experience, the thisness, the what. It is, as he says, of the same stuff
as that by which it is extended. Both the given and that by which it is
extended are artificial in the sense of not being _real_ according to
Bosanquet's interpretation of reality; they are ideas. But if all this
is admitted, what becomes of the possibility of knowledge? Bosanquet
undertakes to rescue it by assuring us again that it is the character
and quality of being directly in contact with sense-perception, not any
fixed datum of content, that forms the center of the individual's real
world and gives the stamp of reality to his otherwise ideal extension of
this center. Here again we find ourselves with no evidence that the
_content_ of our knowledge bears any relation to reality. We have merely
the feeling of vividness attached to sensory experience which seems to
bring us the certainty that there is some sort of a reality behind it,
but this is not to give assurance that our ideal content even belongs
rightfully to that against which we have bumped, much less of _how_ it
belongs--and only this deserves the title "knowledge."
In the chapter on "Quality and Comparison," in which he takes up the
more detailed treatment of the simplest types of judgment of perception,
he comes back to the same contradiction, and again attempts to explain
how both horns of his dilemma must be true. The passage is this:
The Reality to which we ascribe the predicate is undoubtedly
self-existent; it is not _merely_ in my mind or in my act of
judgment; if it were, the judgment would only be a game with my
ideas. It is well to make this clear in the case before us, for in
the later forms of the judgment it will be much disguised. Still
the reality which attracts my concentrated attention is also
within my act of judgment; it is not even the whole reality
present to my perception; still less of course the whole
self-existent Reality which I dimly presuppose. The immediate
subject of the judgment is a mere aspect, too indefinite to be
described by explicit ideas except in as far as the qualitative
predication imposes a first specification upon it. _This_ Reality
_is_ in my judgment; it is the point at which the actual world
impinges upon my consciousness as real, and it is only by judging
with reference to this point that I can refer the ideal content
before my mind to the whole of reality which I at once believe to
exist, and am attempting to construct. The Subject is both in and
out of the Judgment, as Reality is both in and out of my
consciousness. (Pp. 113, 114.)
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