The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
The present number of _The Monist_ contains a lucid presentation of the
transcendentalist position by Mr. F. C. Conybeare, an Oxford scholar and
a personal disciple of Professor Green, with special reference to the
views of Prof. William Kingdon Clifford. Mr. Conybeare, like Prof. F. Max
Müller, assumes a Self independent of the reality from which the idea of
self has been abstracted, and he attempts to prove the existence of this
self as follows:
“In truth there can be no relation of before and after between
the two terms except for a self which takes note of the one
disappearing and of the other appearing; and whenever we speak
of things following one another we tacitly presuppose a self
before whom the procession passes.”
The transcendentalist adopts, in the realm of psychology, the error
of atomism. If we accept the view that the world consists of isolated
atoms, we are at a loss how to bring the atoms into relations; the unity
of every group of atoms, every thing and every system of things will
become a mystery. And if we look upon feelings as unrelated things in
themselves, their connection becomes a deep problem. Mr. Conybeare solves
this problem of the connection that obtains among the feelings supposed
to be atomical, by postulating a relation-producing entity, called the
self. He says:
“No link is left, save a connecting self.”
And this assumed entity of a connecting self or ego is taken to be “the
heart and centre of reality.” Reality, that which we have to deal with
in real life and what is commonly called reality, appears as a second
class of reality in comparison with this assumed thing in itself of our
existence. The thing in itself is thus regarded as something realer than
real; it is conceived to be a reality of a higher degree.
Mr. Conybeare is very explicit in the explanation of his transcendental
“self.” He says:
“Feelings constitute a conscious self when they become the
feelings of a conscious self and not before, for except as
gathered up in the unity of a self which has [sic!] memory and
remains the same throughout its differences, feelings can be
neither new, nor repeated, nor joined by links.”
What does “self” mean? What can it mean? What is the “unity of the self”?
These are questions which have not been answered to our satisfaction
by the transcendentalists. Whenever they speak of the self, they lose
themselves in mysticism. Their “self” is an assumed entity which they
have carefully divested of everything real and actual. Their self is
transcendental and not a being of the world; it is a myth.
Let us describe the simplest possible instance of psychical activity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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