Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, By D. & J. Sadlier & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. 1. Having spoken of sensations, we come now to ideas. We must, however, before making this transition, inquire if there be in our mind ought else than sensation, if all the inward phenomena which we experience be ought else than sensations transformed. Man, when he rises from the sphere of sensations, from those phenomena which place him in relation with the external world, meets a new order of phenomena, of whose presence he is equally conscious. He cannot reflect upon sensations without being conscious of something more than sensation; nor on the recollection or the inward representation of sensations, without discovering something distinct both from the recollection and from the representation. 2. According to Aristotle, there is nothing in the understanding which has not first been in the senses; and the schools have for long ages re-echoed this thought of the philosopher: nihil est in intellectu quod prius non fuerit in sensu. The order, therefore, of human knowledge, is from the external to the internal. Descartes pretended that we ought to invert this order, and proceed from the internal to[Pg 4] the external. Malebranche, his disciple, went farther, and was of opinion that the understanding, enfolded in itself, should hold only the least possible intercourse with the external world. According to him, no atmosphere is so fatal to intellectual health as that of the world of the senses; sensations are an inexhaustible fountain of error, and the imagination is an enchantress only the more dangerous because she has fixed her dwelling at the very portal of the intellect, which, with her seductive beauty and gorgeous ornaments, she hopes to rule at her pleasure. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 49244
Author: Balmes, Jaime Luciano
Release Date: Jun 20, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Brownson, Henry F. (Henry Francis), 1835-1913