In spite of these complications, the general nature of the formal
correspondence which makes truth is clear from our instances. In the
case of the simpler kind of propositions, namely those that I call
"atomic" propositions, where there is only one word expressing a
relation, the objective which would verify our proposition, assuming
that the word "not" is absent, is obtained by replacing each word
by what it means, the word meaning a relation being replaced by this
relation among the meanings of the other words. For example, if the
proposition is "Socrates precedes Plato," the objective which verifies
it results from replacing the word "Socrates" by Socrates, the word
"Plato" by Plato, and the word "precedes" by the relation of preceding
between Socrates and Plato. If the result of this process is a fact,
the proposition is true; if not, it is false. When our proposition is
"Socrates does not precede Plato," the conditions of truth and falsehood
are exactly reversed. More complicated propositions can be dealt with on
the same lines. In fact, the purely formal question, which has occupied
us in this last section, offers no very formidable difficulties.
I do not believe that the above formal theory is untrue, but I do
believe that it is inadequate. It does not, for example, throw any
light upon our preference for true beliefs rather than false ones. This
preference is only explicable by taking account of the causal efficacy
of beliefs, and of the greater appropriateness of the responses
resulting from true beliefs. But appropriateness depends upon purpose,
and purpose thus becomes a vital part of theory of knowledge.
LECTURE XIV. EMOTIONS AND WILL
On the two subjects of the present lecture I have nothing original to
say, and I am treating them only in order to complete the discussion of
my main thesis, namely that all psychic phenomena are built up out of
sensations and images alone.
Emotions are traditionally regarded by psychologists as a separate
class of mental occurrences: I am, of course, not concerned to deny
the obvious fact that they have characteristics which make a special
investigation of them necessary. What I am concerned with is the
analysis of emotions. It is clear that an emotion is essentially
complex, and we have to inquire whether it ever contains any
non-physiological material not reducible to sensations and images and
their relations.
Although what specially concerns us is the analysis of emotions, we
shall find that the more important topic is the physiological causation
of emotions. This is a subject upon which much valuable and exceedingly
interesting work has been done, whereas the bare analysis of emotions
has proved somewhat barren. In view of the fact that we have defined
perceptions, sensations, and images by their physiological causation, it
is evident that our problem of the analysis of the emotions is bound up
with the problem of their physiological causation.
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