The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and WrongBrentano, Franz
Philosophy
The Origin of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong
Brentano, Franz
Ethics
[20] (_p. 13_). The question of the grounds of this division
is discussed in more detail in my _Psychologie vom empirischen
Standpunkte_ (1874, Bk. ii. chap. vi.; cf. also chap. i. section 5).
The statements there made regarding this division I still consider to
be substantially correct in spite of many modifications respecting
points of detail.
[21] (_p. 13_). Meditat. iii. “Nunc autem ordo videtur exigere, ut
prius omnes meas cogitationes (all psychical acts) in certa genera
distribuam.... Quaedam ex his tanquam rerum imagines sunt, quibus
solis proprie convenit _ideae_ nomen, ut cum hominem, vel chimaeram,
vel coelum, vel angelum, vel Deum cogito; aliae vero alias quasdam
praeterea formas habent, ut cum volo cum timeo, cum affirmo, cum nego,
semper quidem aliquam rem ut subjectum meae cogitationis apprehendo,
sed aliquid etiam amplius quam istius rei similitudinem cogitatione
complector; et ex his aliae _voluntates_ sive _affectus_ aliae autem
_judicia_ appellantur.”
Strangely enough this clear passage has not prevented Windelband
(_Strassb. philos. Abhandl._ p. 171) from ascribing to Descartes the
view that the judgment is an act of volition. What led him astray
is a discussion in the fourth Meditation on the influence of the
will in the formation of judgment. Even scholastics like Suarez had
ascribed too much to this influence, and Descartes goes so far in
exaggeration of this dependence that he considers every judgment (even
the self-evident judgments) as the work of the will. But to “produce
the judgment” and “to be the judgment” are yet manifestly not one
and the same. And, therefore, although Descartes, in the passage
cited, allows his view as to the influence of the will to appear, and
probably it is only on this account that he assigns to the judgment
the third place in the fundamental classification of psychical
phenomena, yet none the less he says without contradiction: _aliae_
voluntates--_aliae_ judicia appellantur.
More illusive are a couple of passages in his later writings, i.e.
in his _Principia Philosophiae_ (i. 32), published three years after
the Meditations, and in a work also written three years later: Notae
in Programma quoddam, sub finem Anni 1647 in Belgio editum, cum
hoc Titulo: Explicatio mentis humanae sive animae rationalis, ubi
explicatur quid sit, et quid esse possit.” Particularly might the
passage in the _Principles_ lead to the opinion that Descartes must
have changed his view, and it is astonishing that Windelband has not
appealed to this passage rather than to that in the Meditations. We
read here:--Ordines _modi cognitandi_ quos in nobis experimur, _ad
duos generales_ referri possunt; quorum unus est, _perceptio sive
operatio intellectus_; alius vero _volitio sive operatio voluntatis_.
Nam sentire, imaginari, et pure intellegere, sunt tantum diversi modi
percipiendi; _ut et cupere, aversari, affirmare, negare, dubitare,
sunt diversi modi volendi_.
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