The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.Lewes, George Henry
Philosophy
The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.
Lewes, George Henry
Mind and body; Psychophysiology
there are sensations without consciousness. In consequence of this,
psychologists often maintain that to have a sensation and be conscious
of it are two different states. We are said to hear a sound, and yet
not to be conscious of hearing it. The sound excites a movement, but
it does not excite our consciousness. Now although it is true that
there are roses which are not red, it is not true that there are
roses which have no color at all. Although it is true that there are
sensations which are not of the particular mode of Sensibility which
psychologists specially designate as Consciousness, it is not true
that there are sensations which are not modes of Sensibility.
80. And what is Sensibility which, on its subjective side, is
Sentience? In one sense it may be answered that we do not know. In
another sense it is that which we know most clearly and positively:
Sentience forms the substance of all knowledge. Being the ultimate of
knowledge, every effort must be vain which attempts to explain it by
reduction to simpler elements. The human mind, impatient of ultimates,
is always striving to pierce beyond the fundamental mysteries; and this
impatience leads to the attempts so often made to explain Sensibility
by reducing it to terms of Matter and Motion. But inasmuch as a clear
analysis of Matter and Motion displays that our knowledge of these is
simply a knowledge of modes of Feeling, the reduction of Sentience or
Sensibility to Matter and Motion is simply the reduction of Sensibility
to some of its modes. This point gained, a clear conception of the
advantages of introducing the ideas of Matter and Motion will result.
It will then be the familiar and indispensable method of explaining
the little known by the better known. The objective aspect of things
is commonly represented in the visible and palpable; because what we
can see we can also generally touch, and what we can touch we can
taste and smell; but we cannot touch an odor nor a sound; we cannot
see them; we can only connect the odorous and sonorous objects with
visible or palpable conditions. Everywhere we find sensations referred
to visible or palpable causes; and hence the desire to find this
objective basis for every change in Sensibility. The sensation, or
state of consciousness, is the ultimate fact; we can only _explain_ it
by describing its objective conditions.
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