THE REACTION AGAINST THE SENSATIONAL SCHOOL.
1. When Locke's _Essay_ appeared, it was easily seen that its tendency
was to urge, in a much more rigorous sense than had previously been
usual, the ancient maxim of Aristotle, adopted by the schoolmen of
the middle ages, that "nothing exists in the intellect but what has
entered by the senses." Leibnitz expressed in a pointed manner the
limitation with which this doctrine had always been understood. "Nihil
est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu;--_nempe_," he added,
"_nisi intellectus ipse_." To this it has been objected[235], that we
cannot say that the intellect is _in_ the intellect. But this remark
is obviously frivolous; for the faculties of the understanding (which
are what the argument against the Sensational School requires us to
reserve) may be said to be _in_ the understanding, with as much justice
as we may assert there are _in_ it the impressions derived from sense.
And when we take account of these faculties, and of the Ideas to which,
by their operation, we necessarily subordinate our apprehension of
phenomena, we are led to a refutation of the philosophy which makes
phenomena, unconnected by Ideas, the source of all knowledge. The
succeeding opponents of the Lockian school insisted upon and developed
in various ways this remark of Leibnitz, or some equivalent view.
2. It was by inquiries into the foundations of Morals that English
philosophers were led to question the truth of Locke's theory. Dr.
Price, in his _Review of the Principal Questions in Morals_, first
published in 1757, maintained that we cannot with propriety assert
all our ideas to be derived from sensation and reflection. He pointed
out, very steadily, the other source. "The power, I assert, that
_understands_, or the faculty within us that discerns _truth_, and that
compares all the objects of thought and _judges_ of them, is a spring
of new ideas[236]." And he exhibits the antithesis in various forms.
"Were not _sense_ and _knowledge_ entirely different, we should rest
satisfied with sensible impressions, such as light, colours and sounds,
and inquire no further about them, at least when the impressions are
strong and vigorous: whereas, on the contrary, we necessarily desire
some further acquaintance with them, and can never be satisfied
till we have subjected them to the survey of reason. Sense presents
_particular_ forms to the mind, but cannot rise to any _general_ ideas.
It is the intellect that examines and compares the presented forms,
that rises above individuals to universal and abstract ideas; and
thus looks downward upon objects, takes in at one view an infinity of
particulars, and is capable of discovering general truths. Sense sees
only the outside of things, reason acquaints itself with their natures.
Sensation is only a mode of feeling in the mind; but knowledge implies
an active and vital energy in the mind[237]."
3. The necessity of refuting Hume's inferences from the mere sensation
system led other writers to limit, in various ways, their assent to
Locke. Especially was this the case with a number of intelligent
metaphysicians in Scotland, as Reid, Beattie, Dugald Stewart, and
Thomas Brown. Thus Reid asserts[238], "that the account which Mr.
Locke himself gives of the Idea of Power cannot be reconciled to
his favourite doctrine, that all our simple ideas have their origin
from sensation or reflection." Reid remarks, that our memory and our
reasoning power come in for a share in the origin of this idea: and
in speaking of reasoning, he obviously assumes the axiom that every
event must have a cause. By succeeding writers of this school, the
assumption of the fundamental principles, to which our nature in such
cases irresistibly directs us, is more clearly pointed out. Thus
Stewart defends the form of expression used by Price[239]: "A variety
of intuitive judgments might be mentioned, involving simple ideas,
which it is impossible to trace to any origin but to the power which
enables us to form these judgments. Thus it is surely an intuitive
truth that the sensations of which I am conscious, and all those I
remember, belong to one and the same being, which I call _myself_. Here
is an intuitive judgment involving the simple idea of _Identity_. In
like manner, the changes which I perceive in the universe impress me
with a conviction that some cause must have operated to produce them.
Here is an intuitive judgment involving the simple Idea of _Causation_.
When we consider the adjacent angles made by a straight line standing
upon another, and perceive that their sum is equal to two right angles,
the judgment we form involves a simple idea of _Equality_. To say,
therefore, that the Reason or the Understanding is a source of new
ideas, is not so exceptionable a mode of speaking as has been sometimes
supposed. According to Locke, _Sense_ furnishes our ideas, and Reason
perceives their agreements and disagreements. But the truth is, that
these agreements and disagreements are in many instances, simple
ideas, of which no analysis can be given; and of which the origin must
therefore be referred to Reason, according to Locke's own doctrine."
This view, according to which the Reason or Understanding is the source
of certain simple ideas, such as Identity, Causation, Equality, which
ideas are necessarily involved in the intuitive judgments which we
form, when we recognize fundamental truths of science, approaches very
near in effect to the doctrine which in several works I have presented,
of Fundamental Ideas belonging to each science, and manifesting
themselves in the axioms of the science. It may be observed, however,
that by attempting to enumerate these ideas and axioms, so as to
lay the foundations of the whole body of physical science, and by
endeavouring, as far as possible, to simplify and connect each group
of such Ideas, I have at least given a more systematic form to this
doctrine. I have, moreover, traced it into many consequences to which
it necessarily leads, but which do not appear to have been contemplated
by the metaphysicians of the Scotch school. But I gladly acknowledge
my obligations to the writers of that school; and I trust that in the
near agreement of my views on such points with theirs, there is ground
for believing the system of philosophy which I have presented, to be
that to which the minds of thoughtful men, who have meditated on such
subjects, are generally tending.
4. As a further instance that such a tendency is at work, I may make
a quotation from an eminent English philosophical writer of another
school. "If you will be at the pains," says Archbishop Whately[240],
"carefully to analyze the simplest description you hear of any
transaction or state of things, you will find that the process which
almost invariably takes place is, in logical language, this: that each
individual _has in his mind_ certain major premises or principles
relative to the subject in question;--that observation of what actually
presents itself to the senses, supplies minor premises; and that
the statement given (and which is reported as a thing experienced)
consists, in fact, of the _conclusions_ drawn from the combinations of
these premises." The major premises here spoken of are the Fundamental
Ideas, and the Axioms and Propositions to which they lead; and whatever
is regarded as a fact of observation is necessarily a conclusion in
which these propositions are assumed; for these contain, as we have
said, the conditions of our experience. Our experience conforms to
these axioms and their consequences, whether or not the connexion be
stated in a logical manner, by means of premises and a conclusion.
5. The same persuasion is also suggested by the course which the study
of metaphysics has taken of late years in France. In that country,
as we have seen, the Sensational System, which was considered as the
necessary consequence of the revolution begun by Locke, obtained a more
complete ascendancy than it did in England; and in that country too,
the reaction, among metaphysical and moral writers, when its time came,
was more decided and rapid than it was among Locke's own countrymen.
It would appear that M. Laromiguière was one of the first to give
expression to this feeling, of the necessity of a modification of the
sensational philosophy. He began by professing himself the disciple
of Condillac, even while he was almost unconsciously subverting the
fundamental principles of that writer. And thus, as M. Cousin justly
observes[241], his opinions had the more powerful effect from being
presented, not as thwarting and contradicting, but as sharing and
following out the spirit of his age. M. Laromiguière's work, entitled
_Essai sur les Facultés de l'Ame_, consists of lectures given to the
Faculty of Letters of the Academy of Paris, in the years 1811, 1812
and 1813. In the views which these lectures present, there is much
which the author has in common with Condillac. But he is led by his
investigation to assert[242], that it is not true that sensation is
the sole fundamental element of our thoughts and our understanding.
_Attention_ also is requisite: and here we have an element of quite
another kind. For sensation is passive; attention is active. Attention
does not spring out of sensation; the passive principle is not the
reason of the active principle. Activity and passivity are two facts
entirely different. Nor can this activity be defined or derived; being,
as the author says, a fundamental idea. The distinction is manifest
by its own nature; and we may find evidence of it in the very forms of
language. To _look_ is more than to _see_; to _hearken_ is more than
to _hear_. The French language marks this distinction with respect to
other senses also. "On _voit_, et l'on _regarde_; on _entend_, et l'on
_écoute_; on _sent_, et l'on _flaire_; on _goûte_, et l'on _savoure_."
And thus the mere sensation, or capacity of feeling, is only the
occasion on which the attention is exercised; while the attention is
the foundation of all the operations of the understanding.
The reader of my works will have seen how much I have insisted upon the
activity of the mind, as the necessary basis of all knowledge. In all
observation and experience, the mind is active, and by its activity
apprehends all sensations in subordination to its own ideas; and thus
it becomes capable of collecting knowledge from phenomena, since
ideas involve general relations and connexions, which sensations of
themselves cannot involve. And thus we see that, in this respect also,
our philosophy stands at that point to which the speculations of the
most reflecting men have of late constantly been verging.
6. M. Cousin himself, from whom we have quoted the above account
of Laromiguière, shares in this tendency, and has argued very
energetically and successfully against the doctrines of the Sensational
School. He has made it his office once more to bring into notice among
his countrymen, the doctrine of ideas as the sources of knowledge; and
has revived the study of Plato, who may still be considered as one of
the great leaders of the ideal school. But the larger portion of M.
Cousin's works refers to questions out of the reach of our present
review, and it would be unsuitable to dwell longer upon them in this
place.
7. We turn to speculations more closely connected with our present
subject. M. Ampère, a French man of science, well entitled by his
extensive knowledge, and large and profound views, to deal with the
philosophy of the sciences, published in 1834, his _Essai sur la
Philosophie des Sciences, ou Exposition analytique d'une Classification
Naturelle de toutes les Connaissances Humaines_. In this remarkable
work we see strong evidence of the progress of the reaction against
the system which derives our knowledge from sensation only. The
author starts from a maxim, that in classing the sciences, we must
not only regard the nature of the objects about which each science is
concerned, but also the point of view under which it considers them:
that is, the _ideas_ which each science involves. M. Ampère also gives
briefly his views of the intellectual constitution of man; a subject
on which he had long and sedulously employed his thoughts; and these
views are far from belonging to the Sensational School. Human thought,
he says, is composed of phenomena and of conceptions. Phenomena are
external, or _sensitive_; and internal, or _active_. Conceptions are
of four kinds; _primitive_, as space and motion, duration and cause;
_objective_, as our idea of matter and substance; _onomatic_, or those
which we associate with the general terms which language presents to
us; and _explicative_, by which we ascend to causes after a comparative
study of phenomena. He teaches further, that in deriving ideas from
sensation, the mind is not passive; but exerts an action which, when
voluntary, is called _attention_, but when it is, as it often is,
involuntary, may be termed _reaction_.
I shall not dwell upon the examination of these opinions[243]; but I
may remark, that both in the recognition of conceptions as an original
and essential element of the mind, and in giving a prominent place to
the active function of the mind, in the origin of our knowledge, this
view approaches to that which I have presented in preceding works;
although undoubtedly with considerable differences.
8. The classification of the sciences which M. Ampère proposes, is
founded upon a consideration of the sciences themselves; and is,
the author conceives, in accordance with the conditions of natural
classifications, as exhibited in Botany and other sciences. It is of
a more symmetrical kind, and exhibits more steps of subordination,
than that to which I have been led; it includes also practical Art as
well as theoretical Science; and it is extended to moral and political
as well as physical Sciences. It will not be necessary for me here
to examine it in detail: but I may remark, that it is throughout a
_dichotomous_ division, each higher member being subdivided into two
lower ones, and so on. In this way, M. Ampère obtains sciences of
the First Order, each of which is divided into two sciences of the
Second, and four of the Third Order. Thus Mechanics is divided into
_Cinematics_, _Statics_, _Dynamics_, and _Molecular Mechanics_; Physics
is divided into _Experimental Physics_, _Chemistry_, _Stereometry_,
and _Atomology_; Geology is divided into _Physical Geography_,
_Mineralogy_, _Geonomy_, and _Theory of the Earth_. Without here
criticizing these divisions or their principle, I may observe that
_Cinematics_, the doctrine of motion without reference to the force
which produces it, is a portion of knowledge which our investigation
has led us also to see the necessity of erecting into a separate
science; and which we have termed _Pure Mechanism_. Of the divisions of
Geology, _Physical Geography_, especially as explained by M. Ampère, is
certainly a part of the subject, both important and tolerably distinct
from the rest. _Geonomy_ contains what we have termed in the History,
_Descriptive Geology_;--the exhibition of the facts separate from the
inquiry into their causes; while our _Physical Geology_ agrees with M.
Ampère's _Theory of the Earth_. _Mineralogy_ appears to be placed by
him in a different place from that which it occupies in our scheme:
but in fact, he uses the term for a different science; he applies
it to the classification not of _simple minerals_, but of _rocks_,
which is a science auxiliary to geology, and which has sometimes been
called _Petralogy_. What we have termed _Mineralogy_, M. Ampère unites
with _Chemistry_. "It belongs," he says[244], "to Chemistry, and not
to Mineralogy, to inquire how many atoms of silicium and of oxygen
compose silica; to tell us that its primitive form is a rhombohedron of
certain angles, that it is called _quartz_, &c.; leaving, on one hand,
to Molecular Geometry the task of explaining the different secondary
forms which may result from the primitive form; and on the other hand,
leaving to Mineralogy the office of describing the different varieties
of quartz, and the rocks in which they occur, according as the quartz
is crystallized, transparent, coloured, amorphous, solid, or in sand."
But we may remark, that by adopting this arrangement, we separate from
Mineralogy almost all the knowledge, and absolutely all the general
knowledge, which books professing to treat of that science have
usually contained. The consideration of Mineralogical Classifications,
which, as may be seen in the _History of Science_, is so curious and
instructive, is forced into the domain of Chemistry, although many of
the persons who figure in it were not at all properly chemists. And we
lose, in this way, the advantage of that peculiar office which, in our
arrangement, Mineralogy fills; of forming a rigorous transition from
the sciences of classification to those which consider the mathematical
properties of bodies; and connecting the external characters and the
internal constitution of bodies by means of a system of important
general truths. I conceive, therefore, that our disposition of this
science, and our mode of applying the name, are far more convenient
than those of M. Ampère.
9. We have seen the reaction against the pure sensational doctrines
operating very powerfully in England and in France. But it was in
Germany that these doctrines were most decidedly rejected; and systems
in extreme opposition to these put forth with confidence, and received
with applause. Of the authors who gave this impulse to opinions in that
country, Kant was the first, and by far the most important. I have in
the _History of Ideas_ (b. iii. c. 3), endeavoured to explain how he
was aroused, by the skepticism of Hume, to examine wherein the fallacy
lay which appeared to invalidate all reasonings from effect to cause;
and how this inquiry terminated in a conviction that the foundations
of our reasonings on this and similar points were to be sought in
the mind, and not in the phenomena;--in the _subject_, and not in
the _object_. The revolution in the customary mode of contemplating
human knowledge which Kant's opinions involved, was most complete.
He himself, with no small justice, compares[245] it with the change
produced by Copernicus's theory of the solar system. "Hitherto," he
says, "men have assumed that all our knowledge must be regulated by
the objects of it; yet all attempts to make out anything concerning
objects _à priori_ by means of our conceptions," (as for instance their
geometrical properties) "must, on this foundation, be unavailing. Let
us then try whether we cannot make out something more in the problems
of metaphysics, by assuming that objects must be regulated by our
knowledge, since this agrees better with that supposition, which we are
prompted to make, that we can know something of them _à priori_. This
thought is like that of Copernicus, who, when he found that nothing
was to be made of the phenomena of the heavens so long as everything
was supposed to turn about the spectator, tried whether the matter
might not be better explained if he made the spectator turn, and left
the stars at rest. We may make the same essay in metaphysics, as to
what concerns our intuitive knowledge respecting objects. If our
apprehension of objects must be regulated by the properties of the
objects, I cannot comprehend how we can possibly know anything about
them _à priori_. But if the object, as apprehended by us, be regulated
by the constitution of our faculties of apprehension, I can readily
conceive this possibility." From this he infers that our experience
must be regulated by our conceptions.
10. This view of the nature of knowledge soon superseded entirely
the doctrines of the Sensational School among the metaphysicians of
Germany. These philosophers did not gradually modify and reject the
dogmas of Locke and Condillac, as was done in England and France[246];
nor did they endeavour to ascertain the extent of the empire of Ideas
by a careful survey of its several provinces, as we have been doing in
this series of works. The German metaphysicians saw at once that Ideas
and Things, the Subjective and the Objective elements of our knowledge,
were, by Kant's system, brought into opposition and correlation, as
equally real and equally indispensable. Seeing this, they rushed at
once to the highest and most difficult problem of philosophy,--to
determine what this correlation is;--to discover how Ideas and Things
are at the same time opposite and identical;--how the world, while it
is distinct from and independent of us, is yet, as an object of our
knowledge, governed by the conditions of our thoughts. The attempts
to solve this problem, taken in the widest sense, including the forms
which it assumes in Morals, Politics, the Arts, and Religion, as well
as in the Material Sciences, have, since that time, occupied the most
profound speculators of Germany; and have given rise to a number of
systems, which, rapidly succeeding each other, have, each in its day,
been looked upon as a complete solution of the problem. To trace the
characters of these various systems, does not belong to the business of
the present chapter: my task is ended when I have shown, as I have now
done, how the progress of thought in the philosophical world, followed
from the earliest up to the present time, has led to that recognition
of the co-existence and joint necessity of the two opposite elements
of our knowledge; and when I have pointed out processes adapted to
the extension of our knowledge, which a true view of its nature has
suggested or may suggest.
The latter portion of this task occupies the Third Book of the _Novum
Organon Renovatum_. With regard to the recent succession of German
systems of philosophy, I shall add something in a subsequent chapter:
and I shall also venture to trace further than I have yet done, the
bearing of the philosophy of science upon the theological view of the
universe and the moral and religious condition of man.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 235: See Mr. Sharpe's _Essays_.]
[Footnote 236: Price's _Essays_, p. 16.]
[Footnote 237: P. 18.]
[Footnote 238: Reid, _Essays on the Powers of the Human Mind_, iii. 31.]
[Footnote 239: Stewart, _Outlines of Moral Phil._ p. 138.]
[Footnote 240: Whately, _Polit. Econ._ p. 76.]
[Footnote 241: Cousin, _Fragmens Philosophiques_, i. 53.]
[Footnote 242: _Ibid._ i. 67.]
[Footnote 243: See also the vigorous critique of Locke's _Essay_, by
Lemaistre, _Soirées de St. Petersbourg_.]
[Footnote 244: Ampère, _Essai_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 245: _Kritik der Reinen Vernunft_, Pref. p. xv.]
[Footnote 246: The sensational system never acquired in Germany the
ascendancy which it obtained in England and France; but I am compelled
here to pass over the history of philosophy in Germany, except so far
as it affects ourselves.]