Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Walsh
Philosophy
Collection
PRESENTED
LIBRARIES
to the
of the
UNIVERSITY o/TORONTO
With
HUMAN IMMORTALITY.
tions to the Doctrine.
CO.
New York.
Co.
1892.
POPULAR
PHILOSOPHY.
Green
& Co. 1897.
Longmans,
IN
New
York:
HUMAN IMMORTALITY
TWO SUPPOSED OBJECTIONS
TO THE DOCTRINE
BY
WILLIAM JAMES
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
INGERSOLL LECTURER FOR 1898
AND
1898
BY WILLIAM JAMBS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
COPYRIGHT,
1898,
day of December, on
HUMAN IMMORTALITY
T
much
remark, that
when
a living
of
way of the
itself.
We
of justice;
we
see
it
in
we
see
it
courts
in ecclesiasticisms
arts, in
even see
Too
it
we
to
Human
Immortality
its service.
moment when
me
versity invited
last
Immortality is one of
The
the great spiritual needs of man.
churches have constituted themselves the
Ingersoll
official
lecture.
sult that
some
of
them
accord or to withhold
re-
actually pretend to
it
from the
individ-
ual
withhold
which
now
it
shape in
And
Its
by
much
less
trammeled by
impossibilities
persons.
And
in
is
a body
traditions
and
regard to choice of
first
things
Human
man
like
Immortality
to appoint a
is
thusiastic
he
is
known
cer-
as an en-
life,
Thinking
official.
if
my own
fess that
my mind
solicitude, this
hereafter
is
for
whom
life
Some
mystery of
no one
it
can
known
Human
4
to me.
They
Immortality
And
official,
surely,
in goatskins,
if
and
should be called to
would seem
Office, at
to
any
rate,
spiritual calling.
And
which
yet, in spite of
I
here to-night,
I
am.
these reflections,
am
all
uninspired and
am
official
as
men
Meanwhile,
all
negative
mere
of a
may
they
will give,
tion, that
am
those
sure,
vital lessons
upon mature
reflec-
responsibility
Human
Immortality
bound
to let the
are in duty
kinds of
official
as well.
The
mous
'
most various
At the back
subject.
of Mr. Alger's
than
it is
five
thousand
more
a bibliography of
is
titles of
Fu-
books in which
treated.
only of
of the
be enough.
The
must remedy
lectures
emerge a
collective literature
of the importance of
worthy
This
the theme.
turned over in
all
possible
dation
calls for
labor.
har-
Seen
in
Ingersoll foun-
nothing so
minute division of
so
aspects,
much
as for
Orators must
Human
Immortality
but narrow
specialists as well.
Theologians of every
creed, metaphysicians, anthropologists, and
psychologists must alternate with biologists
his
remain and
by the
others,
his will
offering
what
my
seem to me
appointment by
two such grains
of truth,
other lecturers
may
bring.
of
them
its
difficul-
old notion of a
that
in the
old
am
hereafter,
difficulties
power
tifically
life
to
draw
cultivated
audience belong.
belief,
circles
to
in the
much
of
in the scien-
which
this
Human
The
Immortality
of these difficulties
first
to the absolute
dependence
we know
relative
is
of our spiritual
upon the
brain.
life,
as
One
bers of laymen
it
here,
who
How
us,
we
can
believe in
for
all
sci-
about
hereafter
life
attained to
all
our inner
mous
ter
'
life
a function
is
the
material,
of
that
'gray mat-
so-called
How
Thus
is
fa-
physiological psychology
is
its
what
faith.
And
it
now
is
psychologist that
me
question with
as a
physiological
more
closely.
indeed true that physiological science has come to the conclusion cited ;
It is
common
belief
of
in so
little
mankind.
doing she
farther the
Every one
Human
knows
Immortality
occasion
imbecility,
that
on
blows
the
The
physiologists,
shown
this
dependence to be
What
anatomists,
detailed
and minute.
but
functions,
that
the
various
special
heard,
that are
it
it is
are think-
active
when
of
things
is
poral lobes
it is
When we
when
of things to be spoken,
Pro-
made the
in
to
have
Human
Immortality
take place.
of
the
regions
if
brain. 1
regions, accounts,
an unbalanced
feeling,
firmly established
worked out by the anatomists, physiologists, and pathologists of the brain appear,
that the youth of our medical schools are
The assurance
is
contemporary research.
of our
to
be-
that observa-
the inspirer of
And
all
almost any
Human
io
sibly
Immortality
psychical
researcher, can
still
phenomena might
be found hold-
talking as
as
exist
if
mental
independent
of
my
argument, now,
possibility of restriction.
During
this
hour
tablished or not
me
with
so I
psycho-physiological formula
Thought
is
The
question
logically
tality
is,
then,
compel us
Ought
it
Does
this doctrine
to disbelieve in
immor-
Human
Immortality
wise,
it
If
At one hour
scientists, at
Christians or
common
burning hot in their breasts and, holding thus the two ends of the chain, they
live
makes the
sacrifice, and,
This, then,
ity;
is
to try to
lieve that
it
rent power.
consequence
make
plain to
has in strict
I
in order for
is
that,
below
me
is
fatal
com-
revealed to
Human
12
us)
may be
Immortality
it is
not at
all
the brain
the
may
life
itself is
The supposed
still
continue
when
dead.
impossibility of
its
contin-
The moment we
more
inquire
closely into
how many
kinds
of functional
after at
all.
The
fatal
conclusion of the
hand another kind of functional dependence, and treating it as the only imaginable kind. 3
When
the physiologist
pronounces the
who
thinks that
hope of immortality
phrase,
"
Thought
is
Human
"Steam
"
Light
cuit,"
"
is
is
13
Immortality
Power
is
a function of the
cir-
moving
waterfall."
Just
brain.
its interior,
so,
he thinks,
it
Engendering con-
much
as
it
our soul's
life
must
also
when
tion can
4
ception of the facts.
But
We
we
are
familiar.
sive function.
Human
14
The
Immortality
ing function
it
its
falls
bow
fly
back
natural shape.
By
knocking out the inner molecular obstructions, it lets the constituent gases resume
their normal bulk,
ex-
how
The energy
produced,
and limited
is
in color,
of
light,
no mat-
They
The
But the
air is
not engen-
The organ
distinguished from
its air-chest, is
proper, as
only an
Human
Immortality
15
it
loose
shapes.
My
thesis
now
is
this
that,
we
is
when we
a function
we
are entitled
And
function.
the furniture of
should turn
realities.
genuine
foreign neither to
philosophy.
realities
tiously
common
Common
behind the
and
Such a supposition
sense nor to
sense believes in
veil
idealistic
is
philosophy declares
we
get
it,
to
which
is
Human
Immortality
known
to
Life, like a
dome
of many-colored glass,
opaque enough
places
grow
less so,
and
let certain
and
beams
But
however
finite
Glows
Admit now
and
float
Human
and
half
What
Immortality
transparent
ly
the
in
places
veil.
in its force
and quality of
by the peculiarities
which form its gate
into
of egress
the
reality,
vibrations
my personal voice,
matter of
its
and shape
it
of souls as
it
is
break through our several brains into this world in all sorts of
in its fullness, will
restricted forms,
tions
and with
finite individualities
here below.
full
the imperfec-
all
itself,
may
the barrier of
also
which the
its
be supposed to
It sinks so low,
activity,
in
obstrucrise
is
or
in
spiritual
And when
Human
Immortality
or
ness which
from
it
subserved
will
vanish entirely
would
be intact
still
and
more
in that
continuous,
ways unknown
You
see that, on
our soul's
none the
life,
as
all
was
might, in
still.
these suppositions,
we here know
it,
the brain.
function of
be
to us, continue
it
real
The
be the
brain would
would
it.
the
mind
But such
impossible,
after.
As
I said,
is
sided
way
of taking the
word
'function.'
Human
19
Immortality
And, whether we care or not for immortality in itself, we ought, as mere critics doing
police
duty
among
based on the
alternative.
flat
ignoring of a palpable
How much
more ought we
when
to
the denial
mankind
My words
drawn.
profit
by the permission or
this
is
will
help
its
But, as
not.
effect to say a
think
it
word or two
sound unreal
restricting
What
Human
20
is it,
you may
Immortality
metaphor ?
how can such a function be ima-
And
gined
the
Is n't
common
not conscious-
Is
materialistic
Is
it
own
its
function of production
The immediate
reply
that,
is,
if
we
are
function can
When
concomitant variation.
the brain-
activities
change
in
rents
the
lower
frontal
etc.
region,
goes to sleep,
occipital
when through
consciousness
when they
In
lobes,
stop, she
strict science,
we
can only write down the bare fact of concomitance and all talk about either pro;
mode
of
Human
taking place,
is
21
Immortality
details
on the one
the other.
Ask
for
alternative
than on
any indication
of
of the
transmission
or
exact process
either
of production,
imagination to be bankrupt.
She
has, so
far,
Ignoramus,
metaphor or pun to offer.
ignorabimtts, is what most physiologists, in
the words of one of their number, will say
here.
The production
of such a thing as
duction of steam in
conjectural
insight,
Into the
for
the
terms
that
Human
22
Immortality
Thought
'
is
'
spontaneously generated,' or
The theory
of
production
is
therefore
itself
It is
only a
need
little
more
do, therefore,
popular.
if
how
is
to retort with
plain
it
But
if
we
we
see that
it
has
Human
certain
from
23
Immortality
apart
its
question.
how
Just
may be
ble
the process
carried
of
transmission
on, is indeed
unimagina-
Con-
sciousness in this
to
The
trans-
it
puts
way
itself in
It
puts
itself also in
ception of a
'threshold,'
a word with
logy
has rung.
new Psycho-
Fechner imagines
as the
movement, as he terms
Human
24
Immortality
it.
activity in the
tain degree of
must be reached.
is
'
called the
threshold
cumstances
falls,
as
it
in
may
states
grow conscious
when
of
'
it
rises, as in
ness sinks
in
under different
rise or
things
at
cir-
When
fall.
of great
be unconscious
should
movement
it
we
which we
lucidity,
of
other times
drowsiness, conscious-
amount.
manent obstruction
of consciousness,
in our brains,
less.
grow
alternately greater or
The
in
the transmission
to
class
of
itself
experi-
all
times throughout
which the
'
psychical
human
history,
researchers,'
with
Human
Immortality
25
ap-
of
still
sible things.
If all
our
human thought be
and to
facts,
are facts,
if
my
we may
of
how
is
knit
brain-
due to
Such
26
Human
knowledge
transmissionists,
Immortality
we
be the condition of
Sense-action
must admit
this to
all
is
My
rier.
also
As
veil.
phenomena
to
which
I allude, it is
can come
in.
show knowledge
fairs
which
it
is
now dying
hundreds of miles away. On the production - theory one does not see from what
sensations such odd bits of knowledge are
produced.
On
the transmission
ready-
made
in
theory,
'
produced,'
they
the transcendental
Hitman Immortality
world, and
that
all
mal lowering
is
needed
27
is
an abnor-
them through.
In cases of conversion, in
ings, etc.,
it
selves
the experience as
of
a power
if
ordi-
came
into their
life,
as
if
the
latter
life
'influx,'
used in Swedenborgian
new
a tide.
willingness,
circles, well
new
insight,
sweeping over us
like
mother
exceptional waves
Of
Human
28
Add, then,
this
mission-theory,
well aware that
Immortality
some
of
you
many
will
agree with
me
that
it
familiar theory.
has
more
theory which, in
after death,
it is
said,
the soul
but
is
set free,
intellectual
and non-
appetitive being.
in terms that
of our transmission-theory.
may
The
death of
beginning
body," he continues, "would thus be, not
the cause of our thinking, but merely a
Human
2g
Immortality
sciousness,
it
may be regarded
life.
as an im8
And
in
serves,
by Mr.
mean
F. C. S.
'
But
is
Schiller of
Oxford, late
the transmission-
still,
way does
de-
of Cornell University,
theory
it
you
will ask, in
what positive
immortality in imagination
wish to keep
is
What we
all
ers,
identity, so called.
limitations
seem
to
be
finiting
spirits
Human
jo
Immortality
lecturers
foundation.
upon
hope, for
my
this
Ingersoll
part, that
more
will penetratingly
discuss
ity,
tell
us
should be changed
finiting outlines
its
determination
If all
it
losophers say,
loss of
some
is
But
into these
scendental matters
this occasion
and
I
I
ond
is,
my
sec-
point.
as
my
Human
Immortality
31
My
must believe
be
ity
true.
this, too, is
my
to
I
be immortal,
immortal-
if
a stumbling-block to
present audience.
bling-block which
And
it
is
many
of
a stum-
to clear away.
It
I fancy,
is,
a stumbling-block of alto-
consequent
them,
upon
have
and
of
it
affair.
and
Six
In
he-
saints stood
but
all
who were
Human
32
Immortality
These prominent personages and their associates were the nucleus of the immortal
group the minor heroes and saints of
minor sects came next, and people with;
and
filling in.
the
concerned
in
it)
overwhelmingly
crowded
large
or
inconveniently
One might
stage.
call this
view of immortality
aristocratic
an
the im-
now concern
were always an
select and manageable number.
us
new
own
quantitative
now
generation, an entirely
imagination
elite,
has swept
The theory
of
numbers
Human
33
Immortality
Human
history
From
emerged
in-
For
have been made sympathetic by the evolutionary perspective. Bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh are these half -brutish pre-
historic brothers.
immense darkness
we
to fearful crime
are,
in the
that existence in
any form
is
cued trimphantly from the jaws of ever-imminent destruction the torch of life, which,
34
Human
Immortality
thanks to
them,
now
How
for us.
ual
the world
lights
when we
distinctions
back on
look
human
of
pressure
inessential
in
vital
want
the eyes of
And how
God must be
swamped
as
common
merit of mankind,
it is
dumbly and
ble
prodigious spectacle.
and
distinctions,
common
we
Not our
feel
differences
must be what
An
An
im-
fill
the
inconceivable
billions
of
fellow
strivers
refinement
or
in
religious
in per-
creed
Human
Immortality
35
messmates
at life's banquet,
them torment
and for
is
to be considered serious.
for us,
any rate
And
at all times.
life
modern mind,
ex-
by the great
tion,
evolutionist vision
of
even at man.
forever,
why
tient brutes
ity, if
we
not
any creature
If
all
why
So that a
are to indulge
nowadays a scale
lives
faith in immortalit,
demands
of us
of representation so stu-
task.
is
The
supposition
we
it
starts.
We
give up
Human
36
our
that
believe
all
tralians that
should share
Life
Immortality
is
ous scale
we
Having myself,
scientific culture,
it.
as a recipient of
must
also have
many, perhaps
to
my
that
words.
it
modern
sure that
of most, of
But
feel
you who
listen
and,
own mind
my
wonder
is
all
the
It is
the
that
it.
Human
37
Immortality
we
an insensibility
suffer,
own
and
inca-
Our
puny needs.
own
creatures,
Deity to
as
they were,
felt
our forefathers
heathen,'
their Creator
fuel
human
for
the
made them
fires
much mere
Our culture
as so
of hell.
we cannot
yet conceive
them
as our
com-
We have,
as
it
Take, for
Which
of
instance,
all
you here,
my
the
Chinamen.
friends, sees
any
Human
38
duced in numbers
Immortality
surpassing numbers,
in
only imagine
what comes
rest,
humanin
such
this
summary
God
individual preciousness.
think, can have
you
himself,
An
im-
it
to you.
is
So,
you drift
doubting that the mass can be
nausea,
all
assurance in the
immortality of your
own
precious as you
all
to be.
particular person,
This, I
some
am
of
real-
sure, is
you before
me.
But
is
Human
veriest lack
tion
You
kinsmen
39
Immortality
and dearth
of
your imagina-
as they are
As
confusion.
its
vastness and
no
there
while,
call for
is
are.
beyond
externality which
this
is
thrills of life.
'Tis
whole
of him. 10
Not a being
Human
40
Immortality
tinued
life is
not called
for,
whose con-
and
called for
by the consciousness that animates the being's form. That you neither
intensely,
realize
it,
circumstance.
irrelevant
call for
it,
that
an absolutely
That you have
is
The
Universe,
with every
same time a
call
nowhere
the entity
entity
living
and an
creates
it,
else, at least
It is
absurd to suppose,
itself.
simply because our private power of sympathetic vibration with other lives gives
out so soon, that in the heart of infinite
being
itself
plethora,
is
not as
or glut, or supersaturation.
if
It
in
possession
had to
Human
mind brings
its
Immortality
own
habit
41
its
own room
to in-
the space of
other,
example, in no
way
The
of
amount
my
imagination, for
consciousness
possible
When one
ergy in the material world.
man wakes up, or one is born, another does
not have to go to sleep, or die, in order to
his
Professor
System
Wundt,
of Philosophy,'
in
has
ergy, and
limit
respects
whenever
it
and since
spiritual being,
comes, affirms
expands
justly and
itself,
the defects of
Human
42
our
own
Immortality
however
become,
exceed the
mand
immeasurable
beings
itself
supplied
may
demand.
the supply
it
is
there
demand
their
for the
own
con-
tinuance.
I
of
all
izing
real-
istence.
we
We
stop there.
are pantheists,
we can
own
we can go
result.
But
infinite life.
and
we
if
realizes
are theists,
farther
say,
has so
in-
and need
is
for a
mulation of created
faint or
literally
lives.
grow weary,
as
we
endless accu-
He
can never
should, under
His scale
is infinite
Human
in all things.
know
43
Immortality
satiety or glut.
Heaven
is
creed.
lift
thine eye
Was
God ?
The Deity
we
ourselves
are here
at
we may be
all.
sure,
can suffer many another queer and wondrous and only half-delightful thing.
For
goes, I
grew
my own
am willing
and rustled
in
Human
44
Immortality
It is
so, or
reduplication of things so
much
ing;
manners
of our finite
and, considered
alike,
For
big-
similarity
way of
in itself
have
think-
and apart
from our imagination, one scale of dimensions and of numbers for the Universe is
no more miraculous or inconceivable than
another, the
moment you
Non-entity that
grant to a uni-
all,
in place of the
reigned.
The
The
all
little
inner significance of
pathy and insight. If we feel a significance in our own life which would lead us
spontaneously to claim its perpetuity, let
us be at least tolerant of like claims made
Human
by other
lives,
unideal they
Immortality
45
may seem
to us to be.
Let
own
claim,
whose grounds we
feel directly,
lay
all.
That would be
letting
to sight.
blindness
NOTES
Note
The gaps between
i,
page
9.
the centres
recognized as
first
in
man two
are thus
positively interpreted
by Flechsig
und
Seele, 2te
ture;
and the
month
fibres
Gehirn
They
p. 23.]
have,
When
common
his
[Compare
Ausgabe, 1896,
he considers, a
as intellectual
Already Wernicke
compare
his
asso-
circum-
symptoms
in general par-
more poste-
Where
it
is
Notes
48
is
Where
objective relations.
tive regions suffer,
is
it is
there
cit.
is
pp. 89-91).
In car-
Only
exceed the
association -centres
in volume.
do we begin to
find
Gesundheit tind Krankheit, Leipzig, 1896, Flechsig ascribes the moral insensibility which is found
certain criminals
in
a diminution of internal
to
extensive
fuhlsphare,' that
so
named by Munk,
all
the emotions
[Gehirn u?id
in
of the
anterior
'
Korper-
region
Seele, pp.
I
first
62-68
self
made
out.
Note
So widespread
circles,
is
2,
page
11.
so abundantly
is it
expressed in conversa-
Notes
tion,
written, that
when
confess that
came
4g
my
surprise
was great
to look into
denying
grounds, which I might quote to make my text
more concrete.
I was unable to find
anything
blunt and distinct enough to serve.
I looked
explicitly
through
all
and
ous psychological colleagues. And yet I should almost have been ready to take oath that I had read
several such passages of the most categoric sort
many others.
many a writer's pages
involve them
Very
yet, if
logically
you wish
presuppose and
to refer a student
to an express
employ as a text
to
comment
on,
you
find almost
mind
tion,
is
explicitly
The
denies
best one
the
possibility
have found
is
of
immortality.
perhaps this
"
:
Not
only consciousness, but every stirring of life, depends on functions that go out like a flame when
nourishment
is
cut
off.
The phenomena
of
Notes
jo
The
of the vital
operations
life
proposition
carries with
it
an expression of
This fundamental
the denial of the
a question.
The
function
fills
its
That
being.
is all
Sensation has
and
the
time,
its
whole
its definite
life, it is
quite
when
\_E.
Note
The
that
3,
page
12.
have
all
and
of
common
sense.
Notes
5/
An
another.
ism
to
some
be ultimate,
possibly end
may
by solving
pounded
when
pro-
in dualistic terms.
on the ordinary
since absolute
articulate
dualistic plane of
phenomenism has
proper that
my
it
is
wish, to transcend
me
leaving
thought, and
make an
free, of
attempt,
different cate-
gories.
Now, on
The
dependence
Either
of consciousness of
or
else
(2)
mind
it its
two ways of
human
form.
It
may
In disseminated particles
stuff of
it
the spe-
exist
;
Notes
52
Or
form.
may
it
exist
(b)
something
less);
for separating
it
soul,' or
form.
2b.
The
theory of separation.
more
is
also leave
it
already considered
lished
forms of
it
it,
may seem
to call
for,
in
my
W.
'
mind-stuff,' considers
and
and
T ait's
book,
Notes
"
53
also a
is
complex thing
message
Consciousness
it is
is
not a
the combination
It exists at
the
same
a stream.
If individual feeling
individual nerve-message,
if
combination or stream
it
the stream of
nerve-messages
will
when
sciousness
is
Does
it
when
the mes-
sages themselves are broken up, the individual feelings will be resolved into still simpler elements?
The
by any number of
is
spiritual
not to be weakened
bodies.
Inexorable
we know
parts of
it
body that
brain-action.
If
there
it
is
spirit-
Notes
54
body must
ual
ral one."
Compare
die at the
and
[Lectures
Essays,
vol.
i.
p. 247-49.
ii.
pp. 65-70.]
Note
The
4,
page
13.
ory,
tinctly.
banis
"
is
To
itself
very dis-
Perhaps the following passage from Caas explicit as anything one can find
:
which thought
results,
we must
just as the
rotid
juices.
force
it
The
impressions,
filter bile,
the pa-
arriving in the
brain,
movements which
The
own
result in their
first
juice,
organ
is
it
to
and to
solution.
that of re-
attaching signs to
it,
is
to act
whose presence
upon
excites
it,
Notes
to dissolve them,
and
to
55
our nature.
11
Do
known
by which the
action
nerves of the stomach determine the different operations which constitute digestion, and the
manner
in
tiny.
We
stomach
is
really
emits [renvoie]
it
acts
them metamorphosed
into
it
ideas,
We
expression.
pressions
that
it
tion of thought."
Moral, 8th
it
[Rapports du Physique
et
du
may seem
to have.
More
56
Notes
duction-theory have
shown a tendency
'
thought to a force
'
state
'
which
into
'
it
to liken
exerts, or to a
passes.
instance, writes
" The law of
metamorphosis,
:
sciousness
how
which
it
rise
is
How
this
to
metamor-
force existing as
mo-
of con-
it is
we
call
by chemical changes
forces liberated
give
become a mode
to
how a
emotion,
these
impossible to fathom.
in the brain
are
mysteries
2nd Edition,
So Biichner says
each other."
\First
p. 217.]
"
is
of
the universal-ether.
be a mode of motion
logic,
is
That thinking
is
is
and must
thought that
we
Notes
57
[Force a?id
Matter,
New
Heat and
York,
phorescence
and
891, p. 241.]
light,
'
incandescence
'
'
are
'
phos-
phenomena
(sic), to
and develope, as
rises,
light,
its
temperature
cells, in
white,
heat and
presence of
number
superheated to a red-white."
same
sensibility
Luys
[J.
Cer~
le
veau, p. 91.]
When we
have, as
we
say,
an
idea,
what happens
the
the cortical
cells.
When
it
at
last
The
cur-
overcoming
this
and
in
Notes
5<5
resistance
it
we
is
This white-
Con-
call consciousness.
probably nerve-glow."
[Oc-
Note
The
transmission
page
23.
theory connects
naturally
known
5,
itself
tendency of
very
thought
as transcendentalism.
organs of
when we
its
activity.
discern truth,
But
it is
When we
discern justice,
we do nothing
beams."
its
of ourselves,
[Self-Reliance,
tran-
might lead
The
in that direction.
of transcendental Idealism
is
absolute
Mind
single World-mind.
ture,
is
which
thus
come from
is
larger
Notes
Note
Fechner's
subjoin
it,
cally
'
psychically one
accordingly
is
the physically
many
contract psychi-
cally into
Otherwise expressed
ple.
to English readers.
in his
many
'
known
The
24.
of
conception
is little
"
page
6,
psycho physical
as connected with his
wave-scheme
'
threshold
59
"
The
of light or sound in us
is
The
simplest sensation
we
.
.
of the separate phases and oscillations.
" It is
certain, then, that some unified or sim.
depend on physical
it
is
multipli-
equally certain
60
Notes
when
ertheless
nev-
resultant is
is
"
For
brevity's
other.
a physical manifold gives a unified or simple psychic resultant discontinuity, so far as it gives a
;
asmuch, however,
as,
general consciousness or
ness, there
maybe
still
In-
phenomenon
of conscious-
a multiplicity distinguished,
phenomena.
"
One
of the
of Psycho-physics
now
is this
to determine the
organisms have
separate consciousnesses, although their bodies
are just as
much connected by
general Nature
and these
latter give
a single conscious
re-
61
Notes
sultant
tion
Of course we can say that the connecmore intimate between the parts of an
is
Can an absolute
difference of result
depend
And does not Nature as
on anything so relative ?
a whole show as strict a connection as any organism
And the
does,
yea, one even more indissoluble ?
we
distinguish
points,
different space-
distinguish nothing,
much
We may
fibre?
again
the more intimate, but then the same sort of question will arise again.
"
view for
laid
its
down
in
what we
particular
phenomena
of
consciousness."
earlier
[The
essential
passage
is
principle is this
here inserted
:
"
:]
The
waking consciousness
at all to occur,
and
Notes
62
that during the
waking
state
due
to stimulation),
which
is
capable of occasion-
ing no picture)
may be made
clearer
need-
by an image
of.
limit,
which we
sciousness
is
to exist at
waking con-
all.
wave the
total
threshold.''''
some
in
long,
some
in short periods],
"we may
and
wave
Notes
63
its
summit.
If
we
movements of
lets
over-waves.
call these
They
will
cause
sorts of
all
wave
will
waves.
"The
greater,
oscil-
rise above,
them
And
we may
call
the
So
far
"
[pp. 454-456].
now
as
of psy-
of a total
wave
'threshold,'
single
we have a means
psycho-physical systems
above a certain
of schematizing in a
solidarity of all these
throughout
-
by the image
physical
Nature,
to-
discontinuity.
Notes
64
all
above
it
be
low.
" In this
figure
a, b, c
or rather for the total waves of psycho-physical activity of three organisms, whilst
threshold.
AB
represents the
the threshold
is
is
Whatever
conlies
it
is still
the
means
of physical connection.
" In
general terms wherever a psycho-physical
:
total
wave
is
continuous with
threshold, there
we
itself
above
the
psychical
of
corresponding consciousness
nection between
briefly
its
is
consciousness
is
More
continuous or discontinu-
Notes
65
continuous
threshold.
"
If,
or
are them-
it
above
discontinuous
the
in the diagram,
we should
great continuous
We of course
cannot bring
We
might also squeeze the wave together so that the valleys should be pressed up,
and the crests above the threshold flow into a line
this about.
become a
singly
feeling organism.
This, again,
Man
number
show
of segments of radiates
and
and
articulates
more than two parts can be thus psychoOne need only cut them
physical^ conjoined.
that
asunder,
i.
e.
i860,
vol.
ii.
pp. 526-
530.]
One
66
Notes
a world-soul
may be
being continuous
sical activity
old,'
uous
'
The
the waves.
all
All psycho-phy-
expressed.
in general
is,
become
enough
contin-
uncover
to
it is
Note
See the long
7,
page
series of articles
25.
by Mr. Myers
in the
and ending
in
Mr. Myers's theory of the whole range of phenomena is, that our normal consciousness is in continuous connection with a greater consciousness
of which
we do
he gives, in
its
not
know
name
Note
8,
page
29.
edition,
p. 809.
Note
I
9,
page
29.
work; "Matter
is
Mr.
Schiller's
Notes
ery for regulating,
limiting,
consciousness which
rial
67
...
encases.
it
If the mate-
lower organisms,
it
permits only a
to permeate through
leaves
it
plex,
it
if it
little
intelligence
delicate
is
exits,
and com-
as
mals are
we may say
it
.
were,
.
On
answer to Materialism
in detail
it
that Materialism
consists in showing
a hysteron prote-
is
may be
which
and confines
it,
:
its
its
it
permits.
Thus
it
will
fit
the facts
Notes
68
It explains the
'
supernatural.'
Spirit, instead of
an explanation
which is ultimately tenable, instead of one which
And it is an explanation the
is ultimately absurd.
vice versa,
and thereby
attains to
possibility of
For
if,
e.
g, a man
is clearly
as
destroyed the
the other hand, there
On
seat of consciousness.
it
e.g.,
time,
more or
less,
that
chanism
And
again,
if
as a substitute
the
body
is
a me-
ing the
full
Notes
6g
be during
It will
ory.
cup of Lethe,
it
life
that
we drink
mem-
the bitter
will
and beyond
don,
recall."
Swan Sonnenschein,
Mr.
is
1891, p. 293
Schiller's conception
plex in
its
transmission
justice to
it
relations
'
is
ff.]
postulated in
my
lecture,
'
theory of
and
to
do
work.
Note
I
little
page
39.
to peruse R.
L. Stevenson's
essay entitled
'The Lantern
magnificent
10,
The
that we
the Plains.
the fact
truth is that
after, to
are doomed,
to,
and
to the
whole inner
Our opinion
by
are
look
we
sig-
is
abso-
Notes
yo
lutely
unfit to
be counted
at
all.
Note
W. Wundt:
ii,
System
Engelmann, 1889,
page
cCer
41.
Philosophie,
p. 315.
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