The positive outcome of philosophyDietzgen, Joseph
Philosophy
The positive outcome of philosophy
Dietzgen, Joseph
Knowledge, Theory of; Logic; Philosophy
Referring back to the statement that seeing is limited to the visible
qualities of some object, hearing to its audible qualities, etc., while
the faculty of thought has everything for its object, we now understand
this to mean that all objects have certain innumerable, but concrete,
qualities which are perceptible by our senses, and in addition thereto
the general spiritual quality of being thought of, understood, in short,
of being the object of our faculty of thought.
This mode of classifying all objects applies also to the faculty of
thought itself. The spirit, or mind, is a bodily function connected with
the senses which appear in various forms. Mind is thought generated at
different times in different brains by different objects through the
instrumentality of the senses. We may choose this mind as the object of
special thought the same as all other things. Considered as an object,
mind is a manysided and sense-perceived fact which in connection with a
special function of the brain generates the general concept of "Mind" as
the content of this special thought process. The object of thought is
distinguished from its contents in the same way in which every object is
distinguished from its mental image. The different kinds of motion
perceived by the help of the senses are the object of a certain thought
process and supply to it the idea of "motion." It is easier to
understand that the mental image of some object perceived by the senses
has a father and a mother, being begotten by our faculty of thought by
means of some sense-perceived object, than it is to grasp the existence
of that trinity which is born when our present thought experiences its
own existence and thus creates a conception of its own self. This has
the appearance of moving around in a circle. The object, the content and
the function of thought apparently coincide. Reason deals with itself,
considers itself as an object and is its own content. But nevertheless
the distinction between an object and its concept, though less evident,
is just as actual as in other cases. It is only the habit of regarding
matter and mind as fundamentally different things which conceals this
truth. The necessity to make a distinction compels us everywhere to
discriminate between the object of sense perception and its mental
concept. We are forced to do the same in the case of the faculty of
thought, and thus we find it necessary to give the name of "Mind" to
this special object of our sense perceptions. Such an ambiguity of terms
cannot be entirely avoided in any science. A reader who does not cling
to words, but rather seeks to grasp the meaning, will easily realize
that the difference between being and thinking applies also to the
faculty of thought, that the fact of understanding is different from the
understanding of understanding. And since the understanding of
understanding is again another fact, it will be permitted to call all
spiritual things facts or sense perceptions.
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