"Our conclusion is that at bottom the distinction between image
and percept, as respectively faint and vivid states, is based on a
difference of quality. The percept has an aggressiveness which does not
belong to the image. It strikes the mind with varying degrees of force
or liveliness according to the varying intensity of the stimulus. This
degree of force or liveliness is part of what we ordinarily mean by
the intensity of a sensation. But this constituent of the intensity of
sensations is absent in mental imagery"(p. 419).
This view allows for the fact that sensations may reach any degree of
faintness--e.g. in the case of a just visible star or a just audible
sound--without becoming images, and that therefore mere faintness cannot
be the characteristic mark of images. After explaining the sudden shock
of a flash of lightning or a steam-whistle, Stout says that "no mere
image ever does strike the mind in this manner"(p. 417). But I believe
that this criterion fails in very much the same instances as those in
which Hume's criterion fails in its original form. Macbeth speaks of--
that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature.
The whistle of a steam-engine could hardly have a stronger effect than
this. A very intense emotion will often bring with it--especially
where some future action or some undecided issue is involved--powerful
compelling images which may determine the whole course of life, sweeping
aside all contrary solicitations to the will by their capacity for
exclusively possessing the mind. And in all cases where images,
originally recognized as such, gradually pass into hallucinations, there
must be just that "force or liveliness" which is supposed to be always
absent from images. The cases of dreams and fever-delirium are as
hard to adjust to Professor Stout's modified criterion as to Hume's. I
conclude therefore that the test of liveliness, however applicable in
ordinary instances, cannot be used to define the differences between
sensations and images.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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