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Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science

Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science

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Bradley, however, may mean by his phrase "that which I feel, <strong>and</strong> which is<br />

not an object before me" what I terme a "negative prehension". Such a<br />

prehension is active via its contribution <strong>of</strong> its subjective form to the<br />

creative process, but it dismisses its 'object' from the possibility <strong>of</strong><br />

entering into the datum <strong>of</strong> the final satisfaction. This final complex<br />

datum will be what Bradley calls "that object that satisfies me". Again I<br />

agree.<br />

<strong>The</strong> doctrine <strong>of</strong> the 'living emotion' which necessarily clothes each<br />

concrete exhibition <strong>of</strong> the subject-object situation is far older than<br />

Bradley. We find its germ in Plato, who insists that the whole character<br />

is conformed to the adequate knowledge. He implicitly refuses to<br />

abstract the 'living emotion' from the bare intellectual perception, <strong>and</strong><br />

thereby identifies virtue with knowledge. <strong>The</strong> advance in psychology has<br />

added to our conscious discrimination, but it has not altered the fact<br />

that inevitably perception is clothed with emotion.<br />

<strong>The</strong> historical importance <strong>of</strong> the doctrine is stated by George Foot<br />

Moore: [In the Prefatory Note to Emotion as the Basis <strong>of</strong> Civilization, by<br />

J.H. Denison, New York, 1928 (Scribner's): a work <strong>of</strong> importance.] -<br />

"Civilization develops only where considerable numbers <strong>of</strong> men work<br />

106

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