The English Utilitarians, Volume 2 (of 3): James Mill
John Stuart Mill · en
are considered to be a flock because they are seen to be like. To do
James Mill justice, he drops the argument as soon as he has struck it
out. It is only worth notice as showing his aim. 'Likeness' seems to
imply a relation dependent on the ideas themselves; not purely
external and arbitrary. If we could get rid of likeness, all
association would ultimately be 'contiguity.' 'The fundamental law of
association,' as he says elsewhere,[522] 'is that when two things have
been frequently found together, we never perceive or think of the one
without thinking of the other.' The two ideas are associated as two
balls are associated when they are in the same box. So far as they are
themselves concerned, they might be separated without any alteration
in their own properties. What, then, corresponds to the 'box'?
Association depends upon relations of time and space. Things are
associated by occurring in succession or together; the red colour of a
rose is in the same place with the shape of the leaf; the scent is
perceived at the same time with the colour. The thunder follows the
lightning. What, then, he might ask, are 'time' and 'space'? Are they
'ideas' or 'sensations' or qualities of the objects? or, in any case,
as supplying the ultimate principle of association, do they not
require investigation? Before coming to that problem, however, we have
to settle other knotty points. We must clear away illusions which seem
to introduce something more than association. Elements of thought not
at first sight expressible simply in terms of sensations and ideas
must be analysed to show that they are only disguises for different
combinations of the facts. Reasoning, according to most logicians,
supposes, first, concepts, and therefore some process of
classification of the objects of thought; and, secondly, some process
of combining these concepts to bring out hitherto unknown truths.
What, then, is the meaning of the general or abstract symbols employed
in the process? Mill's provision of raw materials consists so far of
sensations and ideas, which are worked up so as to form 'clusters'
(the word is taken from Hartley) and 'trains.' This corresponds to
synchronous and successive associations. How does the logical
terminology express these 'clusters' and 'trains'? Mill answers by a
theory of 'naming.' Language fulfils two purposes; it is required in
order to make our ideas known to others; and in order to fix our own
ideas. Ideas are fluctuating, transitory, and 'come into the mind
unbidden.' We must catch and make a note of these shifting crowds of
impalpable entities. We therefore put marks upon the simple
sensations or upon the 'clusters.' We ticket them as a tradesman
tickets bundles of goods in his warehouse, and can refer to them for
our own purposes or those of others. As the number of objects to be
marked is enormous, as there are countless ideas and clusters and
clusters of clusters of endless variety to be arranged in various