The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
are said to be called into existence, we have a right to ask: Do you
mean, by this phrase, creation _ex nihilo_? Or do you mean, origin by
transformation? And if the latter, transformation of what?
Having thus opened up these several questions, all of like implication,
let us now endeavor to set forth the answer which seems most
philosophical and most closely in accordance with scientific analogies.
And to this end let us consider the living dog. His frame is pulsating
with life and restless activity, and somehow associated with the
transformations of energy in that brain of his there is consciousness—or
what in the dog is the analogue of that consciousness with which
alone I can claim any acquaintance at first hand, my own. Were his
skin and the walls of his skull as transparent as glass; did the
molecular vibrations of his brain lie open to the keenest scrutiny of
the physical investigator; could we trace in detail all the varied and
orderly transformations of energy of which that brain is the theatre;
the accompanying consciousness would still be beyond our reach. _We_
might follow the changes of energy; he alone would feel the states of
consciousness. But suppose that the dog dies. His body lies before us
stiff with the _rigor mortis_. If we had weighed it previous to death,
and if we were to weigh it again after death, the scales would give
us no information of the departure of anything material. All signs of
consciousness, however, are gone. And could we see through skin and skull
into the brain, which during life was the theatre of so complex and
orderly a sequence of transformations of energy, we should find that it
was still and motionless. It is true that we cannot actually do this. But
we know that, whereas, during life, the functional action of the brain
gives rise to certain material products, at death the production of these
substances ceases. We are therefore justified in saying that, omitting
minor qualifications, the orderly transformations of energy in the brain
and the concomitant consciousness cease together at death. Closely
associated during life, varying together in health and sickness, ceasing
together at death, what is the nature of their connection?
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