Matter, as defined at the end of Lecture V, is a logical fiction,
invented because it gives a convenient way of stating causal laws.
Except in cases of perfect regularity in appearances (of which we can
have no experience), the actual appearances of a piece of matter are not
members of that ideal system of regular appearances which is defined
as being the matter in question. But the matter is, after all, inferred
from its appearances, which are used to VERIFY physical laws. Thus, in
so far as physics is an empirical and verifiable science, it must assume
or prove that the inference from appearances to matter is, in general,
legitimate, and it must be able to tell us, more or less, what
appearances to expect. It is through this question of verifiability and
empirical applicability to experience that we are led to a theory of
matter such as I advocate. From the consideration of this question it
results that physics, in so far as it is an empirical science, not a
logical phantasy, is concerned with particulars of just the same sort
as those which psychology considers under the name of sensations. The
causal laws of physics, so interpreted, differ from those of psychology
only by the fact that they connect a particular with other appearances
in the same piece of matter, rather than with other appearances in the
same perspective. That is to say, they group together particulars having
the same "active" place, while psychology groups together those having
the same "passive" place. Some particulars, such as images, have no
"active" place, and therefore belong exclusively to psychology.
We can now understand the distinction between physics and psychology.
The nerves and brain are matter: our visual sensations when we look
at them may be, and I think are, members of the system constituting
irregular appearances of this matter, but are not the whole of the
system. Psychology is concerned, inter alia, with our sensations when we
see a piece of matter, as opposed to the matter which we see. Assuming,
as we must, that our sensations have physical causes, their causal laws
are nevertheless radically different from the laws of physics, since
the consideration of a single sensation requires the breaking up of
the group of which it is a member. When a sensation is used to verify
physics, it is used merely as a sign of a certain material phenomenon,
i.e. of a group of particulars of which it is a member. But when it is
studied by psychology, it is taken away from that group and put
into quite a different context, where it causes images or voluntary
movements. It is primarily this different grouping that is
characteristic of psychology as opposed to all the physical sciences,
including physiology; a secondary difference is that images, which
belong to psychology, are not easily to be included among the aspects
which constitute a physical thing or piece of matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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