The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
If the relations are mere products of the mind, all knowledge being
a knowledge of relations, knowledge becomes impossible. That last
consequence was drawn by Kant and is emphatically insisted upon by
agnosticism.
There is but one world-conception that can dispense with these
conclusions: it is that View which conceives of the All as a whole; and
of knowledge as a description of its parts, qualities, and relations,
ever mindful on the one hand that the parts are parts, that qualities
and relations are certain features only, not entire realities, or
isolated entities, and that the symbols thereof frequently overlap each
other; on the other hand that there is nothing absolute,[47] and that
there are no things in themselves.
The relativity of knowledge, whether we conceive of it as the relativity
of the object to the subject in general or as an appreciation of the fact
that all knowledge gives and can give information of relations only, does
not lead to the conclusion that knowledge is impossible. Relativity is a
fundamental feature of knowledge, and we shall understand that it must be
so if we consider that reality itself is a great system of relations.
* * * * *
The interconnection of all things with all things appears to be so
complete, that if we intended to explain or understand one single fact
fully and exhaustively in all its relations, past, present, and future,
we should be obliged to give a complete description of the universe. Says
Tennyson:
“Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.”
We might address in the same way anything else, an atom of hydrogen, a
grain of sand as well as the sun, the action of a tiny speck of irritable
protoplasm as well as the soul of man.
VII. IS THE EGO A THING IN ITSELF?
Prof. Lloyd Morgan in his excellent work “Animal Life and Intelligence”
uses repeatedly the word “mind” as if it were a thing in itself.
Professor Morgan is a monist and he does not intend the word to mean a
thing in itself; yet such is the influence of language that we, all of
us, unless we are constantly on our guard, will inadvertently slip into
dualistic expressions. Professor Morgan says, with reference to certain
sensations of animals (p. 309):
‘From these stippled sensations the mind in all cases
elaborates a continuum.’
The unity which arises out of stippled sensations and which through
their interaction becomes a continuum is called mind. To speak of
mind as working out the continuum is mythological language, it is the
transformation of the abstract idea “mind” into a real and independent
thing whose existence is conceived to be independent of the reality from
which it has been abstracted.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account