On the question of the material out of which the physical world is
constructed, the views advocated in this volume have, perhaps, more
affinity with idealism than with materialism. What are called "mental"
events, if we have been right, are part of the material of the physical
world, and what is in our heads is the mind (with additions) rather
than what the physiologist sees through his microscope. It is true
that we[Pg 388] have not suggested that all reality is mental. The positive
arguments in favour of such a view, whether Berkeleyan or German,
appear to me fallacious. The sceptical argument of the phenomenalists,
that, whatever else there may be, we cannot know it, is much more
worthy of respect. There are, in fact, if we have been right, three
grades of certainty. The highest grade belongs to my own percepts;
the second grade to the percepts of other people; the third to events
which are not percepts of anybody. It is to be observed, however,
that the second grade belongs only to the percepts of those who can
communicate with me, directly or indirectly, and of those who are known
to be closely analogous to people who can communicate with me. The
percepts of minds, if such there be, which are not related to mine by
communication—e.g. minds in other planets—can have, at best,
only the third grade of certainty, that, namely, which belongs to the
apparently lifeless physical world.
The events which are not perceived by any person who can communicate
with me, supposing they have been rightly inferred, have a causal
connection with percepts, and are inferred by means of this connection.
Much is known about their structure, but nothing about their quality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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