The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
[37] Physiological Psychology, 385, 387. See also such passages as that
in Bain; The Senses and the Intellect, pp. 364-6.
[38] "Especially must we avoid all attempts, whether avowed or
concealed, to account for the _spatial_ qualities of the presentations
of sense by merely describing the qualities of the simple sensations
and the modes of their combination. It is position and extension in
space which constitutes the very peculiarity of the objects as _no
longer_ mere sensations or affections of the mind. As sensations, they
are neither _out_ of ourselves nor possessed of the qualities indicated
by the word spread-out." (Ladd, _op. cit._ p. 391.)
[39] A. Riehl: Der Philosophischer Kriticismus, Bd. ii. Theil ii. p. 64.
[40] On Intelligence, part ii. bk. ii. chap. ii. §§ vii, viii. Compare
such statements as these: "The consequence is that when a sensation has
for its usual condition the presence of an object more or less distant
from our bodies, and experience has once made us acquainted with this
distance, we shall situate our sensation at this distance.--This, in
fact, is the case with sensations of hearing and sight. The peripheral
extremity of the acoustic nerve is in the deep-seated chamber of the
ear. That of the optic nerve is in the most inner recess of the eye.
But still, in our present state, we never situate our sensations
of sound or color in these places, but without us, and often at a
considerable distance from us.... All our sensations of color are thus
projected out of our body, and clothe more or less distant objects,
furniture, walls, houses, trees, the sky, and the rest. This is why,
when we afterwards reflect on them, we cease to attribute them to
ourselves; they are alienated and detached from us, so far as to
appear different from us. Projected from the nervous surface in which
we localize the majority of the others, the tie which connected them
to the others and to ourselves is undone.... Thus, all our sensations
are wrongly situated, and the red color is no more extended on the
arm-chair than the sensation of tingling is situated at my fingers'
ends. They are all situated in the sensory centres of the encephalon;
all appear situated elsewhere, and a common law allots to each of them
its apparent situation." (vol. ii. pp. 47-53.)--Similarly Schopenhauer:
"I will now show the same by the sense of sight. The immediate
_datum_ is here limited to the sensation of the retina which, it is
true, admits of considerable diversity, but at bottom reverts to the
impression of light and dark with their shades, and that of colors.
This sensation is through and through subjective, that is, inside of
the organism and under the skin." (Schopenhauer: Satz vom Grunde, p.
58.) This philosopher then enumerates _seriatim_ what the Intellect
does to make the originally subjective sensation objective: 1) it
turns it bottom side up; 2) it reduces its doubleness to singleness;
3) it changes its flatness to solidity; and 4) it projects it to a
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