The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

mediately...through the mental modification which represents it:
Consciousness is co-extensive with our knowledge...our special faculties of
knowledge are only modifications of consciousness. All real knowledge is
an immediate knowledge. What is said to be mediately known, is, in truth,
NOT KNOWN to be, but only BELIEVED to be; for its existence is only
an inference, resting on the belief that the mental modification truly
represents what is in itself beyond the sphere of knowledge." Lect. XII.
Natural Realism.
The philosophical thinkers,whose leader we have just quoted, who
claim to be the school of "Common sense," and vindicate their position as
consonant with the popular interpretation of consciousness, are entitled by
Sir William Hamilton, "Natural Realists." It is evident, in the Lectures of
that illustrious philosophical scholar, that he started with one set of views,
and experienced at least three changes before he reached his final position;
and this final position is virtually a practical return to the first. These are as
follows: 1. The mind has no immediate knowledge except of its own states.
We only immediately know that of which we are conscious, and we can
only be conscious of our own mental states. Our knowledge of the external
world is therefore MEDIATED by our consciousness; it is an inference
based on intuition and irresistible processes--is, strictly speaking, belief, not
cognition. This is the first view, or Cosmothetic Idealism.
2. The popular impression of what consciousness affirms is the true
standard of consciousness. We are conscious of whatever the mass of
people think we are conscious of. But the mass of mankind suppose they
are conscious of the very objects themselves in the external world.
Therefore, we are conscious of the external verities themselves. This we
may call Vulgar Realism.
3. The objective causes of perception, which is a form of
consciousness distinct from self-consciousness, are only such parts of the
nonego as come in contact with the sensorium, or bodily organ of
perception. Of these the soul has immediate cognition. Organic Realism.