The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thoughtDewey, John
Philosophy
The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, and other essays in contemporary thought
Dewey, John
Evolution; Philosophy; Pragmatism
[35] Of course there are internal historic connections between
experience as effective “memory,” and experience as “observation.”
But the motivation and stress, the problem, has quite shifted. It
may be remarked that Hobbes still writes under the influence of the
Aristotelian conception. “Experience is nothing but Memory” (“Elements
of Philosophy,” Part I., Chapter I., § 2), and hence is opposed to
science.
[36] There are, of course, anticipations of Hume in Locke. But to
regard Lockeian experience as equivalent to Humian is to pervert
history. Locke, as he was to himself and to the century succeeding him,
was not a subjectivist, but in the main a common sense objectivist.
It was this that gave him his historic influence. But so completely
has the Hume-Kant controversy dominated recent thinking that it is
constantly projected backward. Within a few weeks I have seen three
articles, all insisting that the meaning of the term experience must
be subjective, and stating or implying that those who take the term
objectively are subverters of established usage! But a casual study of
the dictionary will reveal that experience has always meant “_what_
is experienced,” observation as a source of knowledge, as well as the
act, fact, or mode of experiencing. In the Oxford Dictionary, the
(obsolete) sense of “experimental testing,” of actual “observation
of facts and events,” and “the fact of being consciously affected by
an act” have almost contemporaneous datings, viz., 1384, 1377, and
1382 respectively. A usage almost more objective than the second, the
Baconian use, is “what has been experienced; the events that have taken
place within the knowledge of an individual, a community, mankind at
large, either during a particular period or generally.” This dates back
to 1607. Let us have no more captious criticisms and plaints based
on ignorance of linguistic usage. [This pious wish has not been met.
J. D., 1909.]
[37] The relationship of organization and thought is precisely that
which we find psychologically typified by the rhythmic functions of
habit and attention, attention being always, _ab quo_, a sign of the
failure of habit, and, _ad quem_, a reconstructive modification of
habit.
[38] Compare, for example, Dr. Stuart’s paper in the “Studies in
Logical Theory,” pp. 253-256. I may here remark that I remain
totally unable to see how the _interpretation_ of objectivity to
mean controlling conditions of action (negative and positive as
above) derogates at all from its naïve objectivity, or how it
connotes cognitive subjectivity, or is in any way incompatible with a
common-sense realistic theory of perception.
[39] For this suggested interpretation of the esthetic as surprising,
or unintended, gratuitous collateral reinforcement, see Gordon,
“Psychology of Meaning.”
[40] This, however, is not strictly true, since Locke goes far
to supply the means of his own correction in his account of the
“workmanship of the understanding.”
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