13.02.2013 Views

Download (PDF, 23.58MB) - Plurality Press

Download (PDF, 23.58MB) - Plurality Press

Download (PDF, 23.58MB) - Plurality Press

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

08 THE WILL IN NATURE.<br />

deducted from them tlie incomparably larger share of the<br />

cerebral function, which includes precisely what Locke<br />

calls primary qualities. But all I have done here has<br />

been to show why all this must necessarily be as it is,<br />

by indicating the place occupied by the intellect in the<br />

nexus of Nature, when we start realistically from the<br />

objective as given, but, in doing so, take the only thing of<br />

which we are quite directly conscious, the will that true<br />

TTOV arS) of Metaphysics for our support, as being what<br />

is primarily real, everything else being merely its phe<br />

nomenon. What now follows serves to complete this.<br />

I have mentioned already, that where knowledge takes<br />

place, the motive which appears as representation and the<br />

act of volition resulting from it, remain the more clearly<br />

separated one from the other, the more perfect the intellect ;<br />

that is, the higher we ascend in the scale of beings. This<br />

calls for fuller explanation. As long as the will s activity<br />

is roused by stimuli alone, and no representation as yet<br />

takes place that is, in plants there is no separation at<br />

all between the receiving of impressions and the being<br />

determined by them. In the lowest order of animal in<br />

telligence, such as we find it in radiaria, acalepha,<br />

acephala, &c., the difference is still small ; a feeling of<br />

hunger, a watchfulness roused by this, an apprehending<br />

and snapping at their prey, still constitute the whole con<br />

tent of their consciousness; nevertheless this is the first<br />

twilight of the dawning world as representation, the back<br />

ground of which that is to say, everything excepting the<br />

motive which acts each time still remains shrouded in<br />

impenetrable darkness. Here moreover the organs of the<br />

senses are correspondingly imperfect and incomplete, having<br />

exceedingly few data for perception to bring to an under<br />

standing yet in embryo. Nevertheless wherever there is<br />

sensibility, it is always accompanied by understanding,<br />

i.e. with the faculty for referring effects experienced to

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!