登陆注册
15299900000106

第106章

He has not been so Successful in establishing a doctrine of his own as in opposing the errors of others.But his view of perception, whether we approve of it or not, can be understood by us.He maintains that there is first a sensation in the mind, and that this sensation suggests a perception.The word <suggestion> to denote the rise of a thought in the mind, was employed by earlier philosophers, but was adopted by Reid from Berkeley, who again took it from Locke.Reid maintains that there are natural suggestions; particularly that sensation suggests the notion of present existence, and the belief that what we perceive or feel does now exist; that memory suggests the notion of past existence, and the belief that what we remember did exist in time past; and that our sensations and thoughts do also suggest the notion of a mind, and the belief of its existence and of its relation to our thoughts.By a like natural principle it is, that a beginning of existence, or any change in nature, suggests to us the notion of a cause and compels our belief in its existence....And, in like manner, certain sensations of touch, by the constitution of our nature, suggest to us extension, solidity, and motion."(" Works," p.111.) Closely connected or rather identical with this theory of suggestion is his doctrine of natural language and signs, -- a phraseology also taken from Berkeley.He maintains that there are natural signs, "which, though we never had any notion or conception of the thing signified, do suggest it, or conjure it up, as it were by a natural kind of magic, and at once give us a conception and create a belief in it." He calls " our sensations signs of external objects." The operations are represented by him as " simple and original, and therefore inexplicable, acts of the mind."The whole account seems to me unsatisfactory, nearly as much so as the ideal hypothesis.There is no evidence that sensation comes before perception.The two are thus distinguished by Reid: " When I smell a rose, there is in this operation both sensation and perception.The agreeable odor I feel, considered by itself, without relation to any external object, is merely a sensation." The quality in the rose which {212} produces the sensation "is the object perceived, and that act of my mind by which I have the conviction and belief of this quality is what I call perception." (310.) These two seem to me to constitute one concrete act, and they can be separated only by a process of abstraction.There is not first a sensation of a colored surface, and then a perception of it; but we have the two at once.This does away with the necessity of signs and suggestions, which might be quite as troublesome intermediaries as ideas.It would be better to say that, upon certain affections of sense being conveyed to the mind, it <knows> (this is a better phrase than <conceive>, or than <believe in> at once the colored surface.

Hamilton, when he began to edit Reid, thought that Reid's doctrine was the same as his own.But, as he advances, he sees that it is not so; and he comes to doubt whether, after all, Reid held the doctrine to which he himself adhered so tenaciously, that of immediate perception.Reid does, indeed, represent perception as immediate; meaning that it is direct, and with out a process of reasoning.Yet he tells us that, " although there is no reasoning in perception, yet there are certain means and instruments, which, by the appointment of nature, must intervene between the, object and our perception of it; and by these our perceptions are limited and regulated." Surely Hamilton himself will admit that there are such means in the action of the senses, of the nerves, and the brain, without which there can be no perception.Reid indeed calls in more of such anterior processes than Hamilton does; in particular, he calls in signs and suggestions, and makes sensation come before perception.But, after all, the two agree in the main point.While both allow, as all men do, that there are processes prior to the perception, both agree that when the mind is perceiving, it is perceiving not an idea, or even a sensation or suggestion, but an external extended object.

On one point, however, and this not an unimportant one, Reid and his commentator do differ; and that is as to what should be represented as the object of perception.Locke means by idea, " whatever is the object of the understanding when it thinks." But the word <object>, in such a connection, may be as ambiguous as <idea>.Reid speaks of the stars as the objects before the mind when we look into the heavens.Hamilton {213} says that the object is the rays of light reaching the eye.He maintains that in perception the proper object is not a distant one, but is either the organism or the objects in contact with the organism.

Physiological research seems to show that in this respect Hamilton is right.But still it is true that, whatever be the immediate object, the distant star, and not the rays of light, does become, always by an easy process of observation and inference, the main object contemplated.The two are agreed that the object is an external extended one; is, in short, a natural object, and not an idea in the mind, or a modification of the mind.

Let us attend a little more carefully to the view which he gives of perception proper." If, therefore, we attend to that act of our mind which we call the perception of an external object, we shall find in it these three things:

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 无极掌控

    无极掌控

    江湖路,人生途。修五行,练阴阳;化混沌,筑乾坤。五行八卦在身侧混沌,阴阳皆归吾。
  • 我的帅逼男友

    我的帅逼男友

    莫名的一天我被老妈给卖了,和一个叫寒冰圣的定了婚约,被调到在A市的一家学校..........”新来的,记住了你给我离圣少远点““凭什么?“.........."我只爱诺,你离开吧,不要再打扰我们了".......
  • 贞空情缘

    贞空情缘

    这次的写作灵感居然源自一个搞笑视频,把西游记的一些片段和新白娘子传奇很好的结合到了一起,让我觉得为什么白素贞只能喜欢许仙呢?孙悟空就一定要和紫霞仙子在一起吗?于是我就突发奇想开始写这些文字了。让孙悟空和白素贞谈次恋爱又有有何不可呢?
  • 都市狂少之极限单兵

    都市狂少之极限单兵

    “扑通疼死了我了”一个少年从学校围墙上滑了下来,“唉,出来一趟真不容易,还有我要向学校反应一下围墙太高了,容易让同学受伤。”墨香自言自语道。
  • 情志蓝天

    情志蓝天

    本书较系统地阐述了李天院士的成长过程。李天院士是沈阳飞机设计研究所副总设计师、首席专家。1963年毕业于清华大学工程力学数学系。多年来从事飞机空气动力设计研究工作。他谦逊谨慎,执著求索。严谨求实,艰苦创新,为航空事业做出突出贡献。于2005年被选为中国科学院院士。为实现航空报国的远大理想,他一心扑在新机设计、试验、计算和研制工作上。在飞机气动力基础研究、风洞试验、国际合作,以及在先进气动布局、隐身技术、主动控制特别是在飞机总体综合设计等国家重点课题预研上做出了天创性的突出贡献。
  • 大丹直指

    大丹直指

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 逆战星空

    逆战星空

    亲眼目睹地球被毁灭的林峰在地球爆炸带来的强大冲击波的帮助下,速度超越光速,时间回溯到二十年前,那一年,地球刚刚走出大气圈,那一年土星人工生态系统刚刚建成,那一年土星古文明遗迹被发现,而就在那一年,林峰准备着他人生最重要的一件事--高考!掌握了超越现代二十年的古文明机甲科技和造成地球毁灭可以改变人基因排序的宝典《星辰诀》的林峰,要如何从一个普通的高中生走向巅峰,带着地球走出毁灭的命运!新书上传,求推荐,收藏!
  • 另类主神之穿越情缘

    另类主神之穿越情缘

    因为主神的一时疏忽,主神六面骰被盗,丢失六面骰的主神受到惩罚,和在小说、二次元、电影的几个人断绝了联系并失去大部分神力,再也无权进入小说、二次元、电影。只有重新重造六面骰才能弥补之前所犯的过错。可重造主神六面骰的东西在六个不同的世界。主神便托付于男女二人去这六个时空寻找这六种东西。此文轻松,不喜勿点。
  • 九幽王庭

    九幽王庭

    红尘劫,轮回苦;为红颜,神魔现...问天道,谁与争锋?且看一个重生少年强势崛起的征程......
  • 妒记

    妒记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。