The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
[10] Such passages as the following abound in anti-sensationalist
literature: "Sense is a kind of dull, confused, and stupid perception
obtruded upon the soul from without, whereby it perceives the
alterations and motions within its own body, and takes cognizance
of individual bodies existing round about it, but does not clearly
comprehend what they are nor penetrate into the nature of them, it
being intended by nature, as Plotinus speaks, not so properly for
_knowledge_ as for the _use of the body_. For the soul suffering under
that which it perceives by way of _passion_ cannot master or _Conquer_
it, that is to say, know or understand it. For so Anaxagoras in
Aristotle very fitly expresses the nature of knowledge and intellection
under the notion of _Conquering_. Wherefore it is necessary, since
the mind understands all things, that it should be free from mixture
and passion, for this end, as Anaxagoras speaks, that it may be able
to _master and conquer_ its objects, that is to say, to _know and
understand_ them. In like manner Plotinus, in his book of Sense and
Memory, makes to _suffer_ and to _be conquered_ all one, as also to
_know_ and to _conquer_; for which reason he concludes that that which
suffers doth not know.... Sense that suffers from external objects
lies as it were prostrate under them, and is overcome by them....
Sense therefore is a certain kind of drowsy and somnolent perception
of that passive part of the soul which is as it were asleep in the
body, and acts concretely with it.... It is an energy arising from the
body and a certain kind of drowsy or sleeping life of the soul blended
together with it. The perceptions of which compound, or of the soul as
it were half asleep and half awake, are confused, indistinct, turbid,
and encumbered cogitations very different from the energies of the
noetical part,... which are free, clear, serene, satisfactory, and
awakened cogitations. That is to say, knowledges." Etc., etc., etc.
(R. Cudworth: Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, bk.
iii. chap. ii.) Similarly Malebranche: "THÉODORE.--Oh, oh, Ariste! God
knows pain, pleasure, warmth, and the rest. But he does not feel these
things. He knows pain, since he knows what that modification of the
soul is in which pain consists. He knows it because he alone causes
it in us (as I shall presently prove), and he knows what he does. In
a word, he knows it because his knowledge has no bounds. But he does
not feel it, for if so he would be unhappy. To know pain, then, is
not to feel it. ARISTE.--That is true. But to feel it is to know it,
is it not? THÉODORE.--No indeed, since God does not feel it in the
least, and yet he knows it perfectly. But in order not to quibble about
terms, if you will have it that to feel pain is to know it, agree at
least that it is not to know it clearly, that it is not to know it by
light and by evidence--in a word, that it is not to know its nature; in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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