The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
That something in the stone which corresponds to man’s consciousness,
viz. the stone’s subjectivity, is not mind, but it is potential mind.
And potential mind is not as Mr. Conybeare expresses it “mind diluted,”
potential mind is no mind at all.
The world-substance as it exists in inorganic matter is not mind. But
the universe taken as a whole, the All, is for that reason not less than
mind. On the contrary, it is infinitely more than mind. The All is not
brute force and inert matter only, the universe is a cosmos, and its
subjectivity necessarily develops, according to the laws of form which
characterise the cosmos throughout, into mind. We disagree with Professor
Clifford most emphatically when he describes the mind-stuff of which
according to his terminology the world consists, as not rational.
The world it is true is not rational in its elements, but the world as
a whole, the entire cosmos with its laws and especially in its formal
order, is the prototype of all rationality. Human reason is rational
only in so far as it conforms with, as it reflects, as it describes the
order of the cosmos. The human mind is a microcosm. We do not call the
macrocosm, in whose image the microcosm has been created, a mind, because
we understand by the term mind not reality itself but reality pictured in
symbols of feeling. We understand by mind the individual conception of
the world as it is mapped out in the brain of a sentient being, and not
the universe itself, not the all-being. We understand by mind a creature
and not the creator, a soul and not God.
The cosmos, the All, God, that which creates the mind, is not dead, not
irrational, and not inferior to mentality. It is the source of all life,
it is the condition of all order, it is the standard of all morality. All
the minds that exist are but parts of it. In it, with it, and through it
we live and shall live forever. For although we shall die, our being can
never be blotted out. Existence knows no annihilation and life knows no
death. What we call death is a dissolution of life in a special part,
but the contents of a life, the thoughts, the ideas, and the ideals are
preserved and transmitted, they are implanted into other minds; the soul
continues to live. And this continuance of the life of the soul is not
a mere dissolution in the All, it is not the immortality of force and
matter; it is the preservation of its special existence, of its most
characteristic and individual features for an immeasurably long period
hence, which will last as long as the conditions of life remain favorable
upon earth. Yet even if a whole solar system were broken to pieces, life
will reappear; mind will be born again to struggle for truth and to
aspire to live in conformity with truth.
VI. THINGS AND RELATIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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