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VIII.
Vol.
October,
THE
I.
No.
1897.
MONIST.
OF EXPERIENCE.
THE REALITIES
IN MANY
REAT
an essayist.
To
for
essentials,
eye
?an
WAYS,
had provided
his
in
special branch of science. Wide
edge
reading and a ten
acious memory furnished him with abundant material for apt and
He knew the public whom he addressed and
forcible illustration.
research
felt its pulse with admirable skill. He had a mission and a mes
sage. He stood forth as the champion of science and of a negative
It is one aspect of that philosophy
philosophy founded thereon.
I propose to consider.
the close
Towards
Method
**
The
reconciliation
upon
nature
are
both
sides
of physics
by metaphysics
pr?table
servance
by both metaphysical
to no proposition
and metaphysics
; in the confession
in their ultimate
the admission
on Descartes's
on
Discourse
said i1
Huxley
faults
of the essay
the matter
analysis
known
by physics
and physical
of which
of
of
the phenomena
are, practically,
; and, finally,
thinkers of Descartes's
is not so clear
and distinct
; in
inter
in the ob
maxim?assent
that it cannot
be
doubted."
In two subsequent
essays, and elsewhere
interpreted and fully accepted the Berkeleyan
1Collected
Essays,
I. p.
incidentally, Huxley
analysis of sensation
194.
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THE
MONIST.
and perception.
Starting with the prick of a pin, which subtly
transforms itself on the next page into a needle, and passing to the
of the orange, without which,
smell, taste, and visible appearance
as part of his stock in trade, no one who has a due respect for tra
attempt to deal with the problem,
Locke
thus summarised :l
which
position
''
Flame
white
and
is denominated
sweet,
the same
to be
thought
of
fect resemblance
be
the same
that
warmth,
pain,
ought
which
was
to bethink
whiteness
can
and
pain
that will
yet, he
in us
he has
of
the sensation
sensation
of
idea of warmth
is not
are
Why
the one
it produces
not, when
do neither
And
the per
by most men
it would
in him
in snow,
coldness
in us ; and
idea
other
produce
; and manna,
are commonly
in us ; the one
; and
produces
in us
cold
qualities
ideas are
say otherwise.
distance
reason
what
; which
in a mirror
produced
and
those
should
approach
himself
which
they are
if one
at a nearer
does
as
that
that at one
fire
in us
they produce
the other
and
in these bodies
very extravagant
judged
consider
and
hot
leads up to the
he
dition would
and
the
and motion
figure, number,
?"
therefore
but
particular
are
snow
really
bulk,
pain
is in manna.
colors,
nor
all colors,
cease,
Take
one's
any
away
sounds
motion
senses
because
real qualities
the sensation
of
sounds,
to their causes,
not
i. e., bulk,
in Collected
VI.
Essays,
Vol. VI.
pp.
in those bodies;
taste nor
particular
or
light or
smell
ideas, vanish
; and
and
of parts."
Vol.
of fire and
as Huxley,
interpreting Berkeley,
orous extension of the logic which disposes
1
Quoted
2
Quoted
the parts
perceives
really
But
of
had said :2
no more
are
or coldness
and
figure, and
number,
in them, whether
Locke
qualities."
253-254.
p. 255.
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THE
''
are
and motion
conceived
and motion,
or known
Berkeley
to us only as
known
OF
replies
forms of consciousness
is a contradiction
in terms.'
(P. 279.)
thinking mind,
"
our pains, and the [relations
Our sensations, our pleasures,
the sum total of positive,
and
these sensations
thinking;
and
unquestionable
knowledge.
experience
We
and motion;
that there
is a
call
(P.
is to be
from a
apart
of
a
them make
up
section
large
the rest we
constant
are resolv
call matter
; their being
of a state of consciousness,
the existence
; and
EXPERIENCE.
affirms
If the materialist
into matter
able
REALITIES
of
term mind
and
order of succession
be
318.)
Now, when having closed the book and looking up, one sees a
bunch of purple violets, delicately formed, sweetly scented, in the
vase out there on the table, one is tempted to wonder whether, in
following the lead of Locke and Berkeley, the high priest, or if it
be preferred the proctor, of modern science, took the line most
That end was first the de
suitable for the end he had in view.
limitation of scientific knowledge, and secondly the disclosure of
the foundations on which that knowledge is securely based.
Both
the range and the basis may be summarised, on the principles he
adopts, in the single word Experience.
Beyond experience we are
not to stray; and the clear
with absolute confidence.
''
The memorable
said Huxley,
cal criticism
investigation
entertained,
ence
; and
"consisted
by his
rendered
started by Descartes,
should
(VI.
to the cause
of sound
thinking by Descartes,
inquiry
for he who
service
if all other
of certainty.
to doubt
consciousness
kinds of certainty
of modern
It is a clear
thing of which
itwould
are merely
philosophi
result of the
no doubt
thereby prove
we call a present
more
'
can be
its exist
thought or feeling;
or
less probable
65, 6.)
For my own part I confess that when, having closed the book,
reverie it has suggested, I see
or awakened
from the metaphysical
before me the bunch of violets, nothing in the whole range of my
experience appears to be more certain and clear than the reality in
If I
all its details, of this present item of immediate perception.
am to accept the Cartesian maxim, here and now is my opportun
ity.
Suppose
to show that
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THE
4
what
MONIST.
is explicable
; I listen with respectful attention.
and motion
in terms of matter
and motion
of Berwick
have
to me that
it appears
tance, and become but pleasant memories,
though we have taken many more steps and journeyed further from
our starting-point, and though what we see at John o' Groat's (with
a good
of metaphysical
pair
is our bunch
real, yet,?there
passed from the realities of immediate perception to the realities of
physics and thence to the realities of Berkeleyan
thought : but
don't try and persuade us that these realities of abstraction carry
with them more certitude than the immediate experience with which
we started.
I profess that, being but a plain man, the reality of
as I look at the bunch of violets, carries with it the
And it appears
to me that, on the
of conviction.
my experience,
very maximum
foundations
of this belief.
common
sense
tells
us
long chain
Mr. Balfour,
as follows :
of causes
particular
seek
for example,
to undermine
it goes,
of objects
is immediate
the
interprets
us
provides
and
direct,
experience
is itself but
the final
link
in a
beginning
is lost amid
the complexities
of
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THE
REALITIES
OF EXPERIENCE.
number
world,
the most
of their veracity
sources
of the causal
tions of objects.
ual
But
eous.
tion produced
which
become
reflecting ethereal
perceived
color
solely
undulations.
are
thing is possible,
The
in the mind
feelings produced
possessing
Tweed.
creed,
But we must
thus
to be
interpreted,
their power
of brightness
and
extension,
brightness
alone
to optics,
of the percipient
to attribute
he assumes
degrees
of
percep
of objects
are vis
and
no part of
by the complex
to which
but
1
or color."
: it is a sensa
of uncolored
of either
particles,
or
producing
the qualities
any visual
erron
to science,
according
mass
The
immediate
are, according
exception,
as
to which
according
upon our
experiences
is not a property
in virtue of which
therefore
emerge
but habitually
inaccurate,
occasionally
immediate
in consequence
terial molecules,
without
in us by that thing.
visible
fact
in order
is thrown wholly
of our
nine-tenths
knows,
. . .The
inherent guarantee
experiences,
As everybody
of
results,
the ultimate
them no
to object.
are dealing,
We
at all.
experienced
carry with
movement
as psychological
regarded
of information,
mendacious.
experiences
never
from perception
leap
our perceptions
are
which
immediate
is, however,
from a comparison
nitive
causes
intermediate
of
that even
of color
perception
of the
are
of ma
incor
that he
is merely
experiences
at
the
interpreting
to this
According
Land's
end
were
view at Berwick.
We
of Belief*
pp.
108, in,
112.
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THE
MONIST.
We
such.
be
true
'
that,
not
'Anything which
in the same
indistinguishable
Balfour
would
as
pattern
a like modification
of the cerebral
interpretation
The
same message
would
Be
it would
it
true
tissues, would
an
give
peculiarity
in the same
of being wholly
It
it but
incorrect
or
false,
as
however,
real. We
a message,?as
either have
an
it or do not.
author
experience
If we have
of this much
it, it is real in the only intelligible meaning
as
in the affairs of practical
life. We have
word
applied
real
lished our asylums for those whose
terribly
experiences
that is to say messages which
ually deliver false messages,
is of course
produce
in itself quite
be false."
it is unquestionably
you and me
the eyes
that would
experience
the unfortunate
be delivered,
It may
green
a message.
:
similar
distribute
as
experience
says
that produced
our
ity, but
the
regarding
as Mr.
to some
people
one
unverifiable
to elaborate
the
abused
estab
habit
are for
and incorrect.
thesis
that we
are
all mad, and that this world inwhich we live is a glorified Bedlam.
If so all we can do is to clap him into an asylum for the sane, and
treat him kindly.
that
It is on the validity of normal experience
we
must
take
Perhaps
our
it may
stand.
seem
somewhat
arbitrary
to
select
certain
ex
immediate
experience
could make
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THE
REALITIES
OF EXPERIENCE.
by others
is it not only
This
diate
for you.
For
whence
ence,
is an orderly realm,?orderly
you
emerges
I can
and
natural
notes
compare
to our
experi
knowledge.
quite
That
common
independent
is mere
sense
common
is a subtle
of experience
things,?our
consciousness
sense.
it must
But
compound
of
be
practical
is the result of
and
the
remembered
experience
tree.
that
and
The assumption
crude metaphysics.
that the unity of experience
is the product of two independent
factors, the tree and con
is a metaphysical
sciousness,
assumption, and one which leads to
all sorts of difficulties.
the experience be
You will perhaps begin, with Locke, by
admitting that the color, and the sweetness, and the pain are in
while matter and extension are in the tree.
your consciousness,
tween the two existences.
Then
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THE
MONIST.
of the percipient mind. And you may end with the conviction that
"what we are conscious of as properties of matter, even down to
its weight and resistance, are but subjective affections produced by
objective agencies which are unknown
be enfolded at last with the lambs
and unknowable
and may
feeds with
Heaven
the metaphysical
the mind
Distinguishable,
yes?like
But it does not follow that they
the scent and color of my violets.
are separable.
In experience they are inseparable ; and ifwe pos
Let us
tulate independence, we do so on metaphysical
grounds.
go back to the immediate experience which I describe as a green
tree in the field. This is our starting point.
Now what we do is
And as the result of
to analyse this bit of practical experience.
our analysis we distinguish
in thought what philosophers
have
agreed to call an objective aspect, the green tree, and a subjective
In experience
the two are inseparable.
aspect, our perception.
a system of science which is founded on experience
should
leave
to
and
limitations
its
outstanding problems
frankly accept
Ifwe do this ; ifwe hold firmly, as students of science,
metaphysics.
And
mind,
from science,
has a bearing on
; it, as unquestionably,
interpretation of experience, and from this point of
and physical
the subjective
science
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THE
REALITIES
OF EXPERIENCE.
of analysis.
science both aspects, objective and subjective, are abso
It is just
lutely co-equal and co-ordinate in the matter of reality.
as absurd to deny objective reality as to deny the reality of experi
ence ; the one implies the other.
Science, I repeat, takes its stand
For
sense
apart
conviction
anything
tion or of verifiable
beyond
the
range
or possible
of actual
that it does.
observa
I cannot discover
and
the reiterated
begets expectations,
Experience
verification of such expectations does carry with it a sort of convic
I am convinced that if I reach forthmy hand to the violets
tion.
and carry them to my nose, I shall experience
their fragrance.
I
do not wish in any degree to minimise the force and value of such
They are our guides in the practical conduct of life.
them we could make no advances in science. At the same
convictions.
Without
founded.
Experientia
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IO
THE
erit cannot
perientia
Now,
MONIST.
the same
be asserted with
absolute
confidence as Ex
est.
metaphysics,
goes
the
beyond
knowledge,
assertion
that
apart from
experience,
ac
tual or possible,
It
is, was, or will be, of such and such a kind.
asserts on the evidence of Geology
that Ichthyosauri lived in the
seas of Liassic
men been living then, there
had
and
times,
that,
It asserts that in the
would have been such and such experiences.
experience of the future, as in that of to-day, sunrise and sunset
will continue so long as the solar system shall endure.
All past
all
the
for
the
it
form of
in
future,
presents
history,
anticipations
actual or possible experience.
not admit of answers couched
assumptions.
is
apt
to
assume,
for
instance,
that
because
my
is not
is to enable
us to communicate
sults of experience
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REALITIES
THE
II
EXPERIENCE.
OF
Absolute
independence is a metaphys
practical or metaphysical.
that
differs
from
and
ical implication,
practical independence which
is a matter
of common
one
If some
experience.
on the Dover
are mile-stones
tells me
that
there
that if I care
to journey
first a fact of experience, and
road, and
does
of
which generates or is the occasion of the several experiences
those who journey along the Dover
road, I am certainly not pre
pared to deny the statement ; but it belongs to the domain of met
To the question,
aphysics, not to that of practical knowledge.
cause
is the
What
of the experience in which you trust? practical
is outside my
from
replies : That
metaphysics,
knowledge, apart
information I have is entirely based on observa
province. What
I can offer no opinion on matters which lie behind and be
yond it.
I conceive that science, in so far as it is founded on practical
tion.
should
experience,
ence has
carried
make
the
precisely
same
answer.
No
further afield.
sci
doubt
in
It deals
Indeed
in comparison
From
the domain
with
few observations
cope, an astronomer
and
in like manner,
we make
of the senses,"
the vast
ourselves
of a comet when
can calculate
by means
at home
asTyndall
its path
of data
said,
"is
it comes within
in regions which
furnished
infinitely small
almost
to thought which
region accessible
lies beyond
no telescope
which
them.
can
be
can reach
of the senses,
traversed
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by
12
THE
MONIST.
from
constructed
construct
the vast
rately measured
single
survey of a whole
world
extra-sensible
base-line
measured
accurately
of
continent may be
so may
base-line,
science
from
of sensible
the
we
accu
does but
experience.
the process of inference which
in dealing with daily affairs. And
Science
of experience is
the gold of valid inference distinguishable
from the false coinage
and spurious notes of fallacy.
There
is, however, another feature of scientific knowledge
It is founded on se
which is perhaps more frequently overlooked.
lected experience.
Although from the subjective aspect abnormal
experience forms an important field for investigation, yet, in its ob
And not
jective aspect, science is forced to exclude it altogether.
only is abnormal experience necessarily
cial validity), but all observations which
of accuracy
and
son excluded.
exactness
which
science
imposes,
for
rea
that
soever seems
There
to be discordant
with
our scheme
of scientific
inter
which
place
edge.
The
the material
universe.
The
chemistry, concerning
of the solar system, the rocks of the carboniferous age, the
and
pencillings
on
the guinea-fowl's
plumage,
the chasing
on
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THE
the minutest
diatom,
REALITIES
are
in no
OF EXPERIENCE.
sense
less
real,
13
for experience,
than
each
does
actions
and motives
in one dramatic
represen
tation.
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THE
14
MONIST.
in these Berkeleyan
But
essays
''
His
honor
And
If he wished
No
rooted
in dishonor
faith unfaithful
stood
to make
true."
of philosophic
peace should commence her blessed reign,
he adopted a strangely ill-advised method of realising his desires.
:
Hear again the words in which he summarises his conclusions
Astrsea
''
Our
total of positive,
these sensations
and
our pains,
unquestionable
their relations
; and experience
thinking
some
our pleasures,
sensations,
the sum
shows
and
the relations
knowledge.
matter
and motion
We
of these make
call a large
; the rest we
term mind
order of succession
up
section
of
and
between
I venture
homogeneous,
let that
pass.
every
The
item presents
passage
is open
to
to a more
analysis
serious
two
aspects.
criticism.
But
Bear
ing inmind the way in which Huxley hunts down the objectivities,
hounding first the secondary qualities, and then those once termed
primary, until they take refuge in the safe haven of the subjective,
as follows? Only the
to paraphrase
his conclusions
subjective aspect of experience can make good at the bar of reason
its title to reality : the objective universe is at best but an orderly
is it unjust
mental
phantasmagoria.
Now
professed mental
sided conclusion.
exercised
this conclusion
It was
elaborated
sphere
It established triumph
opment
thought.
philosophic
as
in
the
all
aspect
present
subjective
experience throughout
antly
itswhole range. And if in its vivid realisation of this aspect it
of modern
to minimise
the value of the correlative objective aspect,
the
With Huxley
the fault may well be condoned?in
Berkeley.
case is different. What was seemly, nay admissible,
in the Bishop
seemed
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THE
REALITIES
OF
EXPERIENCE.
IS
I have
of Cloyne may scarcely befit the proctor of modern science.
But when,
a sincere admiration of Huxley's work and genius.
on
the
enviable
with
discoursed
lucidity
physical basis of
having
accompany
all
other
sorts
of consciousness."
The
ideal
it professes
ism of the explanation is as absurd as the materialism
to explain.
Does any true soldier of science believe that his cap
tain here spoke wisely and well ? I for one must protest, even if I
be drummed out of the service for sowing the seeds of disaffection
to a superior officer whose memory is justly revered.
But before I
am
when
in times of attack
walls
and
force us
the enemy's
to beat a retreat.
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i6
THE
MONIST.
comments
Balfour
to the field-glasses
of nat
uralism.
Choosing
and selecting
affords to onlookers
"
Naturalism
tension,
(as commonly
the primary
tion between
so forth) being
and
solidity,
upon
dent being."
he says,
held),
the secondary
and
organism,
(Foundations
; the former
supposed
and apart
to the distinc
committed
of matter
qualities
are due
and color)
is deeply
a view of some
to the action
of
the primary
(ex
while
qualities
no indepen
have
%p. 42.)
of Belief
to be wrong
ated and
title can we
possible
(P.
immediate
reality of something
when
colored."
the same
proclaim
right when
to be
experience
and
solid
extended,
reality of something
illumin
113.)
on one more
this position and advanced
captured
closely resembling that strengthened and fortified by Huxley, he
places a telling shot when he says that?
Having
'1
It involves
a complete
iology
what
with
its own
about material
is ultimately
...
things.
be
singular
spectacle
though
in theory
beneficent
accurate,
accident,
in its gradual
inferential.
since
premises,
perience
in particular,
the proposition
So
the system
it can
only be
turns out
development
a conclusion
is quite
on which,
as a matter
of a creed which
thought
is believed
justified
to be
are
account
by another
of
of historical
the nature
for one
of error and
and
but
of ex
the
presents
set of reasons,
; and which,
its origin
that
of phys
out of harmony
by science
in practice
phys
to hold
states of mind,
about
represented
true, though
the product
us
requires
founded
its theory.
of mental
facts, and
Such
and
of science
are mental
experienced
and
the practice
between
"to
of sense-perception
is but mediate
verity, science
stage
and
is immediately
ical facts
divorce
he continues,
through
each
some
subsequent
illusion."
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THE
Finally
surveying
to speak
my whole
progeny?a
yet been
mind?is
most
to agree,
able
more
is more
both
degree
resembling
than
absurd
distinguished
fort,Mr. Balfour
in which
in spite of all
is essentially
can be rationally
the existing
astonishing,
the way
race?have,
that experience
remotest
17
"Nothing
and
OF EXPERIENCE.
exclaims
sophic
REALITIES
system
of
extracted
Hume's
philo
their differences,
as Hume
anything
the natural
I am
nothing?if
described
even
sciences."
it,
in the
(Pp.
96, 97.)
himself was
If he have
the future.
It deals with
sequences
which,
under
the
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i8
the
monist.
And
conditions, it finds to be practically invariable.
appropriate
if it commonly speaks of the causes of events, when it should be
content with describing their antecedents, it is but borrowing, con
the language of metaphysics.
sciously or unconsciously,
Experi
ence of past sequences enables us to predict the future in similar
terms. There its guidance ceases.
In presence of the problem of
causation
of agnosticism.
And beyond the babble of experience all is silence!
men of thought in all ages have regarded as the deepest
of existence
no
answers!
we
are
I,
to ask
for one,
I do indeed contend
no
am
questions,
unable
or
at any
to assent
to
rate
these
are
On what
problems
to expect
propositions.
I have no hesitation
the
in replying that I am not. Behind
a
which
realities
of
causal
I
believe
in
sequential
reality
experience
makes
that experience possible and explicable.
But, as Mr. Rud
able,
yard Kipling
would
Bristol,
Lloyd
Morgan.
England.
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