The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
To begin with, there is no reason to suppose that the several
sense-spaces of which a sentient creature may become conscious, each
filled with its own peculiar content, should tend, simply _because
they are many_, to enter into any definite spatial intercourse with
each other, or lie in any particular order of positions. Even in
ourselves we can recognize this. Different feelings may coexist in us
without assuming any particular spatial order. The sound of the brook
near which I write, the odor of the cedars, the comfort with which my
breakfast has filled me, and my interest in this paragraph, all lie
distinct in my consciousness, but in no sense outside or alongside
of each other. Their spaces are interfused and at most fill the
same vaguely objective world. Even where the qualities are far less
disparate, we may have something similar. If we take our subjective and
corporeal sensations alone, there are moments when, as we lie or sit
motionless, we find it very difficult to feel distinctly the length of
our back or the direction of our feet from our shoulders. By a strong
effort we can succeed in dispersing our attention impartially over our
whole person, and then we feel the real shape of our body in a sort
of unitary way. But in general a few parts are strongly emphasized
to consciousness and the rest sink out of notice; and it is then
remarkable how vague and ambiguous our perception of their relative
order of location is. Obviously, for the orderly arrangement of a
multitude of sense-spaces in consciousness, something more than their
mere separate existence is required. What is this further condition?
_If a number of sensible extents are to be perceived alongside of
each other and in definite order they must appear as parts in a vaster
sensible extent which can enter the mind simply and all at once_. I
think it will be seen that the difficulty of estimating correctly
the form of one's body by pure feeling arises from the fact that it
is very hard to feel its totality as a unit at all. The trouble is
similar to that of thinking forwards and backwards simultaneously. When
conscious of our head we tend to grow unconscious of our feet, and
there enters thus an element of time-succession into our perception
of ourselves which transforms the latter from an act of intuition to
one of construction. This element of constructiveness is present in a
still higher degree, and carries with it the same consequences, when
we deal with objective spaces too great to be grasped by a single
look. The relative positions of the shops in a town, separated by many
tortuous streets, have to be thus constructed from data apprehended in
succession, and the result is a greater or less degree of vagueness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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