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
4. The second class, while exhibiting both physical and chemical
properties, is markedly distinguished by the addition of properties
called vital. Their peculiarity consists in this: they undergo
molecular changes of composition and decomposition which are
simultaneous, and _by this simultaneity preserve their integrity of
structure_. They change their state, and their elements, yet preserve
their unity, and even when differentiating continue specific. Unlike
all other bodies, the organized are born, grow, develop, and decay,
through a prescribed series of graduated evolutions, each stage being
the indispensable condition of its successor, no stage ever appearing
except in its serial order.
5. The third class, while exhibiting all the characteristics of the
two preceding classes, is specialized by the addition of a totally
new property, called Sensibility, which subjectively is Feeling. Here
organized substance has become animal substance, and Vegetality has
been developed into Animality by the addition of new factors,--new
complexities of the elementary forces. Many, if not most, philosophers
postulate an entirely new Existence, and not simply a new Mode, to
account for the manifestations of Mind; they refuse to acknowledge
it to be a vital manifestation, they demand that to Life be added a
separate substratum, the Soul. This is not a point to be discussed
here. We may be content with the assertion that however great the
phenomenal difference between Humanity and Animality (a difference we
shall hereafter see to be the expression of a new factor, namely, the
social factor), nevertheless the distinctive attribute of Sensibility,
out of which rise Emotion and Cognition, marks the inseparable
_kinship_ of mental with vital phenomena.
Thus all the various Modes of Existence may, at least in their
objective aspect, be ranged under the two divisions of Inorganic and
Organic,--Non-living and Living,--and these are respectively the
objects of the cosmological and the biological sciences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account