" But, on
the face of the matter, it is not obvious why the impression we call a
relation should have a better claim to the title of knowledge, than that
which we call a sensation or an emotion; and the restriction has this
unfortunate result, that it excludes all the most intense states of
consciousness from any claim to the title of "knowledge."
For example, on this view, pain, so violent and absorbing as to exclude
all other forms of consciousness, is not knowledge; but becomes a part
of knowledge the moment we think of it in relation to another pain, or
to some other mental phenomenon. Surely this is somewhat inconvenient,
for there is only a verbal difference between having a sensation and
knowing one has it: they are simply two phrases for the same mental
state.
But the "pure metaphysicians" make great capital out of the ambiguity.
For, starting with the assumption that all knowledge is the perception
of relations, and finding themselves, like mere common-sense folks, very
much disposed to call sensation knowledge, they at once gratify that
disposition and save their consistency, by declaring that even the
simplest act of sensation contains two terms and a relation--the
sensitive subject, the sensigenous object, and that masterful entity,
the Ego. From which great triad, as from a gnostic Trinity, emanates an
endless procession of other logical shadows and all the _Fata Morgana_
of philosophical dreamland.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] "Consciousnesses" would be a better name, but it is awkward.
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