The Philosophy of the ConditionedMansel, Henry Longueville
Religion
The Philosophy of the Conditioned
Mansel, Henry Longueville
Hamilton, William, Sir, 1788-1856; Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873. Examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy
[AG] _Reid's Works_, p. 839.
[AH] We have been content to argue this question, as Mr.
Mill himself argues it, on the supposition that Sir W.
Hamilton held that we are directly percipient of primary
qualities in external bodies. Strictly speaking, however,
Hamilton held that the primary qualities are immediately
perceived only in our organism as extended, and
inferred to exist in extra-organic bodies. The external
world is immediately apprehended only in its
secundo-primary character, as resisting our locomotive
energy. But as the organism, in this theory, is a
material _non-ego_ equally with the rest of matter, and as
to press this distinction would only affect the verbal
accuracy, not the substantial justice, of Mr. Mill's
criticisms, we have preferred to meet him on the ground
he has himself chosen. The same error, of supposing that
"presentationism" is identical with "noumenalism," and
"phenomenalism" with "representationism," runs through
the whole of Mr. Stirling's recent criticism of Hamilton's
theory of perception. It is curious, however, that the
very passage (_Lectures_, i., p. 146) which Mr. Mill cites
as proving that Hamilton, in spite of his professed
phenomenalism, was an unconscious noumenalist, is
employed by Mr. Stirling to prove that, in spite of his
professed presentationism, he was an unconscious
representationist. The two critics tilt at Hamilton
from opposite quarters: he has only to stand aside and let
them run against each other.
Under this explanation, it is manifest that the doctrine, that matter as
a subject or substratum of attributes is unknown and unknowable, is
totally different from that of cosmothetic idealism, with which Mr Mill
confounds it;[AI] and that a philosopher may without inconsistency
accept the former and reject the latter. The former, while it holds the
material substance to be unknown, does not deny that some of the
attributes of matter are perceived immediately as material, though, it
may be, modified by contact with mind. The latter maintains that the
attributes, as well as the substance, are not perceived immediately as
material, but mediately through the intervention of immaterial
representatives. It is also manifest that, in answer to Mr. Mill's
question, which of Hamilton's two "cardinal doctrines," Relativity or
Natural Realism, "is to be taken in a non-natural sense,"[AJ] we must
say, neither. The two doctrines are quite compatible with each other, and
neither requires a non-natural interpretation to reconcile it to its
companion.
[AI] _Examination_, p. 23.
[AJ] _Examination_, p. 20.
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