One has only to survey the field of dogmatic religion to see how
curiously astray it may be led. It is only by holding fast to the high
rare moments when the apex-thought attains its consummation that
we are able to keep such isolated acts of faith in their place and
prevent the element of the "impossible" becoming the element of the
absurd. The philosophy of the complex vision, though far more
sympathetic to much that is called "materialism" than to much that
is called "idealism," certainly cannot itself be regarded
as materialistic. And it cannot be so regarded because its
central assumption and implication is the concrete basis of
personality which we call the "soul." And the "soul," when we think
of it as something real, must inevitably be associated with what
might be called "the vanishing point of sensation." In other words
the soul must be thought of as having some kind of "matter" or
"energy" or "form" as its ultimate life, and yet as having no kind of
"matter" or "energy" or "form." The soul must be regarded as
"something" which is living and real and concrete, and which has a
definite existence in time and space, and which is subject to
annihilation; but the stuff out of which the soul is made is not
capable of analysis, and can only be accepted by such an act of faith
as that which believes in "the impossible."
The fact that the philosophy of the complex vision assumes as its
only axiom the concrete reality of the "soul" within us which is so
difficult to touch or handle or describe and yet which we feel to be
so much more real than our physical body, justifies us in making an
experiment which to many minds will seem uncalled for and
ridiculous. I mean the experiment of trying to visualize, by an
arbitrary exercise of fancy, the sort of form or shape which this
formless and shapeless thing may be imagined as possessing.
Metaphysical discussion tends so quickly to become thin and
abstract and unreal; words themselves tend so quickly to become
"dead wood" rather than living branches and leaves; that it seems
advisable, from the point of view of getting nearer reality, to make
use sometimes of a pictorial image, even though such an image be
crudely and clumsily drawn.
Pictorial images are always treacherous and dangerous; but, as I
have hinted, it is sometimes necessary, considering the intricate and
delicately balanced character of man's complex vision, to make a
guarded and cautious use of them, so as to arrive at truth
"sideways," so to speak, and indirectly.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account