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
Condensing all vital processes in the symbol Vitality, we may say
Vitality is requisite for every physiological process. A parallelism
may be noted on the subjective side: all the sentient processes may be
condensed in the one symbol Sensibility (Feeling), and we must then
say, No psychological process is possible as an isolated fact, but
demands the co-operation of others--it is a _resultant_ of all the
contemporaneous conditions of Sensibility in the organism. In ordinary
language this is what is meant by saying that no impression can become
a sensation without the intervention of Consciousness--an ambiguous
phrase, because of the ambiguity of the term Consciousness, but the
phrase expresses the fact that in Sensation a process in the organism
is necessary to the reaction of the organ.
32. Having recognized the distinction between the two processes
objective and subjective, physical and mental, we have recognized
the vanity of attempting to assign their limits, and to say where
Motion ends and Feeling begins, or how Feeling again changes into
Motion. The one does _not_ begin where the other ends. According to the
two-clock theory of Dualism, the two _agents_ move on parallel lines.
On the theory of Monism the two _aspects_ are throughout opposed. Both
theories explain the facts; which explanation is the most congruous
with experience? Against the first we may object that the hypothesis of
two Agents utterly unallied in nature wants the cardinal character of
a fertile hypothesis in its unverifiableness: it may be true, we can
never know that it is true. By the very terms of its definition, the
Spirit--if that mean _more_ than an abstract expression of sentient
states--is beyond all sensible experience. This is indeed admitted by
the dualists, for they postulate a Spirit merely because they cannot
otherwise explain the phenomena of Consciousness. Herein they fail to
see that even their postulate brings no explanation, it merely restates
the old problem in other terms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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