The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
Subdivisions, once discriminated, acquire definite relations of
position towards each other within the total space. These 'relations'
are themselves feelings of the subdivisions that intervene. When these
subdivisions are not the seat of stimuli, the relations are only
reproduced in imaginary form.
The various sense-spaces are, in the first instance, incoherent with
each other; and primitively both they and their subdivisions are but
vaguely comparable in point of bulk and form.
The _education_ of our space-perception consists largely of two
processes--reducing the various sense-feelings to a common _measure_,
and _adding them together_ into the single all-including space of the
real world.
Both the measuring and the adding are performed by the aid of _things_.
The imagined aggregate of positions occupied by all the actual or
possible, moving or stationary, things which we know, is our notion of
'real' space--a very incomplete and vague conception in all minds.
The _measuring_ of our space-feelings against each other mainly comes
about through the successive arousal of different ones by the same
_thing_, by our selection of certain ones as feelings of its _real_
size and shape, and by the degradation of others to the status of being
merely _signs_ of these.
For the successive application of the same thing to different
space-giving surfaces motion is indispensable, and hence plays a great
part in our space-education, especially in that of the eye. Abstractly
considered, the motion of the object over the sensitive surface would
educate us quite as well as that of the surface over the object. But
the self-mobility of the organ carrying the surface _accelerates_
immensely the result.
In completely educated space-perception, the present sensation is
usually just what Helmholtz (Physiol. Optik, p. 797) calls it, 'a sign,
the interpretation of whose meaning is left to the understanding.' But
the understanding is exclusively reproductive and never productive in
the process; and its function is limited to the recall of previous
space-sensations with which the present one has been associated and
which may be judged more real than it.
Finally, this reproduction may in the case of certain visual forms be
as vivid, or almost so, as actual sensation is.
The third dimension forms an original element of all our
space-sensations. In the eye it is subdivided by various
discriminations. The more distant subdivisions are often shut out
altogether, and, in being suppressed, have the effect of diminishing
the absolute space-value of the total field of view.[259]
HISTORICAL.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account