Chapter 11 Volume 2 Knowledge-6

Elf: "But do different things occupy the same part of space, in your opinion?" Me: "Absolutely not; they are mutually exclusive. They are juxtaposed, one above the other, one behind the other: they are either closer to me or further away from me." Elf: "But how do you know their measurement and arrangement in space? By feeling?" Me: "How is this possible? Because space itself is never a feeling." Elf: "Or by intuition?" Me: "That's impossible. Intuition is direct and infallible. What is contained in intuition does not appear to be created, it cannot deceive people. But in casually estimating, measuring and considering the size of an object, its I may be mistaken when it comes to the distance and its position relative to other objects. Everyone who begins to intuit knows that at first we see all objects lined up on the same line, and we first have to learn to estimate their distance; An object at a distance acts as if it were directly before his eyes, as a man born blind would do if he had sight. The idea of ​​distance is therefore a judgment; I can also make mistakes in estimating size, distance; the so-called parallax is not at all an error of vision, but about the size of an object, the relative size of its parts, and the resulting object. The true shape of the object and the misjudgment of the distance between this object and me and other objects. In ordinary space, when I intuit an object, the object actually exists, and the color I see on the object is also what I actually see. Here There will be no illusions."

Elf: "Then, what should be the principle of judgment? Taking the most clear and understandable situation as an example, what should be the principle for judging the distance of an object? On what basis should you estimate this distance?" Me: "No doubt by the strength of otherwise similar impressions. I see before me two objects of the same red color. The color of the one object is clearer to me, and it is nearer to me; the other The fainter I see the color of an object, the farther it is from me, and the more dimly I see its color, the farther it is from me." Elf: "It can be seen that you judge the distance of the object according to the strength of the impression; but how do you judge the strength itself?"

Me: "Obviously, I can only judge the strength of an impression if I pay attention to such feelings of mine, and at the same time to the slightest nuances of these feelings. - You beat me! For everything other than me Consciousness depends on my clear and exact awareness of my own state, in which it is often possible to draw an inference from a result within me to grounds outside me." Genie: "You threw in the towel too quickly, and now I have to put myself in your shoes and continue the argument against myself. My proof, after all, applies only to those cases in which something happened about the object and you are aware that you are making such measurements and considerations. You will admit, however, that this is not the usual case; An undivided moment of the object, while being aware of the object's size, distance, etc."

Me: "If the distance of the object can be judged at a certain time only by the strength of the impression, then this rapid judgment is only the result of many past estimates. I have learned all my life to observe the speed of impressions strength, and judge the distance of the object based on it. It is the combination of feeling, intuition and previous judgment through labor that constitutes the starting point of my current concept, and what I realize is only the present I no longer grasp in general red, green, etc., outside me, but red or green at this or that distance, or at some other distance; A mere repetition of a considered judgment."

Elf: "So, have you not figured out at the same time now whether you intuit or think of things other than yourself, or both, and to what extent?" Me: "Quite clear; I think I now fully understand the origin of the idea of ​​an object outside me. "1. I am absolutely conscious of myself because I am the ego, specifically he says, and this ego is partly a practical being and partly an intellectual force. The first consciousness is sensation, the second consciousness is intuition, That is, infinite space. "2. I cannot grasp infinite things because I am finite. Therefore, I use my thinking to delineate a certain space in the general space, so that the certain space has a certain relationship with the general space.

"3. The measure of this limited space is the measure of my own sensations; and this follows from a principle which we may conceive and express thus: whatever makes me feel on such and such a scale, is in space with Something else that makes me feel must be related in this way. "The properties of things originate from the perception of my own state; the space filled by things originates from intuition. Thinking connects the two sounds, and the former is transferred to the latter. Of course, this is just as we have said before. It's like this: What was originally just my state is set in space, so it becomes a property of things for me. But it is set in space not by intuition, but by thinking, by being able to measure , adjustable thinking. This activity should not be regarded as a discovery or invention of thinking, but merely as a precise determination of sensations and intuitions independent of what thinking provides."

Elf: "Whatever makes me feel on such and such a scale should be placed in such and such a relationship; this is the conclusion you make when you limit and adjust objects in space. But you say something Doesn't the assertion that two things make you feel on a certain scale is based on the assumption that this thing can generally make you feel?" Me: "No doubt so." Genie: "But is there any idea possible about external objects that are not limited and adjusted in space in this way?" Me: "No; because no object exists in space generally, but every object exists in a specific space."

Genie: "Thus, whether you realize it or not, every external object is actually seen as capable of making you feel, because it is seen as occupying a certain space." Me: "Of course I will come to such a conclusion." Genie: "What kind of ideas are ideas about what makes you feel?" Me: "It is obviously thinking, that is, thinking based on the law of causality discussed earlier. I now see more clearly that the consciousness of objects seems to be attached to my self-consciousness in two ways. One is intuitive. , a kind of thinking based on the law of causality. No matter how strange it may seem, the object has a dual nature: it is both the direct object of my consciousness and something derived from it.”

Elf: "True, the two are in different respects. But must you be aware of this thinking about objects?" Me: "No doubt aware of it; though I'm usually not aware of it." Genie: "So, as you described the mind in terms of the law of causality, are you imagining that an activity outside you is attached to a passive state within you, that is, your feelings?" Me: "Yes." Elf: "And it has the same meaning, the same effect as what you have described before. You think so, and you must think so; you cannot change this thought. Except thinking this way, you won't you know anything?"

Me: "That's right. We've analyzed all of this already." Genie: "I say, you conceived the object; since it is conceived, is it merely a product of your thoughts?" Me: "Of course; because that is inferred from the above." Elf: "But, what is this conceived object, this object deduced according to the law of causality?" Me: "It's a force outside of me." Genie: "Did you neither feel nor intuit this power?" Me: "Absolutely not. I am always well aware that I do not grasp it directly at all, but only through its manifestations. , although I think it has an existence independent of me. I suppose that I get feelings, so there must be something that makes me feel after all."

Spirit: "So, anyway, what is visualized and what is conceived are two quite different things. It is what is visualized that really comes to you directly, and expands in space; The inner force in something that does not come to you at all, but whose existence you merely infer, is what is conceived." Me: "You said, the inner force in the thing that is visualized; I just now think carefully that you are right. I posit this force itself in space, and transfer it to the intuition that fills space. Materially." Elf: "According to your inevitable opinion, what should be the relationship between this power and this substance?" Me: "This matter and its properties are the result and manifestation of the action of an inner force. This force has two types of action: one is the action by which it preserves itself and provides itself with this particular form of expression; the other is that it What it does to me when it makes me feel in a certain way." Elf: "Besides the space containing these attributes, have you ever looked for another carrier of attributes before, and besides this space, have you ever looked for another persistent thing in alternation?" Me: "Yes, and this enduring thing has been found. It is the power itself. This force, which is never the same in any alternation, is precisely what bears and loads properties. " Genie: "Now, let's review everything we've discovered so far. You sense you're in a certain state, you call it red, smooth, and sweet, and so on. All you know about this thing is Do you just feel yourself and feel yourself this way, or do you know something more? Is there something else in mere feeling than mere feeling?" I do not." Elf: "Furthermore, space emerges in front of you. This is your own stipulation as a rational force. Or, do you know anything more about this space?" Me: "Absolutely don't know." Genie: "There is no connection between that felt state and this space that emerges before you, except that they both take place in your consciousness. Or, do you see another Contact?" Me: "I don't see any other connections." Genie: "But you can not only feel, you can intuit, you can also think. All you know about this is that you are. Not only do you feel your state, but you can think about it; but it doesn't give You furnish any complete thought; you have to add to it something else in thought, a ground outside of you, an alien power. You have nothing to do with this matter except that you happen to think and Besides having to think like this, do you know anything more?" Me: "I don't know any more about this matter. I can't think anything other than my thinking; and what I think, because I think about it, becomes my thinking and obeys it." inevitable law." Spirit: "Only through this kind of thinking can there be a connection between the state you feel and the space you intuit; the basis of your assumption of the former is in the latter. Or, things Not so," Me: "The thing is this. You have clearly proved that only through my own thinking can I produce in my consciousness the connection between the state I feel and the space I intuit, and this connection is both Can't be felt, can't be visualized. But I can't talk about a connection outside of my awareness, and I can't picture such a connection, because it's when I talk about it that I have to be aware of it, and Since this consciousness can only be a thought, I must be thinking about it; it is nothing but the connection which occurs in my usual natural consciousness. I cannot cross a single This step of consciousness, just as I cannot go beyond myself. All attempts to imagine such a connection in itself, a thing-in-itself connected with the self-in-itself, are nothing but ignorance of our own thinking. It is but a curious forgetting of the fact that we cannot have any thought unless we think our own. That thing in itself is a thought, and it is said to be a magnificent thought, but none Man was willing to imagine it." Elf: "Therefore, I need not fear your objection to the firm establishment of the principle that consciousness of things other than us is absolutely nothing but a product of our own powers of representation; What is given to it, that is, what we know no more than what we already know, established by our consciousness, which we generally have, and a very definite consciousness subject to definite laws. something." Me: "I can never object to the establishment of such a principle; it is so." Genie: "I need not be afraid of your objection to this bolder formulation of the principle: In that activity which we call knowing and considering things, we are always only knowing and considering ourselves, and in our Of all consciousness, we know only ourselves and our own regulations. "I say you can't object to this statement either, because if what is outside of us is generally produced only through our consciousness, surely the unique and varied things of this outer world cannot be in any other way. If this relation of things outside us to ourselves is only that of our thoughts, surely the mutual relation of things in themselves is not any other relation. As I have now As clearly as in your own thinking I can show you the origin of objects in general and of their connection with yourself, so I can show you in your own thinking a law by which it arises in you. Objects of all kinds, which after all are related to each other and determine each other with iron necessity, and thus constitute a world-system such as you have described so well yourself. I did not do this work only because I perceived that even if I do not In doing so, you will also agree with the only conclusion I have to draw." Me: "I understand all this, and I should agree with everything you say." Elf: "With this view, O mortal, you are free, free forever from the fears that have demeaned you and tormented you. No longer will you tremble at the necessities that exist only in your mind, no No longer will you be afraid of being oppressed by things that are but your own products, and you will no longer confuse you, the thinking subject, with thoughts that you have produced yourself. As long as you still think that such a system of things is as you have described. In that way, independent of you, truly existing outside of you, and yourself only a link in the chain of such a system, then the fear is justified. And now, after you have understood that it is all just Having existed within and through yourself, there is no doubt that you will not be afraid of that which you have considered to be your own creation. "It is from this fear that I am going to free you. You are free from it now, and I will leave you to your own devices!" Me: "Wait, deceitful spirit! Is this all the wisdom you want me to ask for? Do you boast that you have freed me in this way? It is true that you have freed me; but you have freed me from all dependencies , you have reduced myself to nothing, and everything around me on which I can depend. You have annihilated and annihilated all existence, and thus necessitated." Elf: "Is the danger really that great?" Me: "Are you still joking? According to your system—" Genie: "My system? What we have agreed on, we have created together; we two have studied these things, and you, like myself, have understood everything; but guess my true, complete The way of thinking, maybe it is still difficult for you to do it now.” Me: "Call your thoughts whatever you like; in short, from all that has been said, there is nothing in the world, absolutely nothing, except appearances, a determination of consciousness as mere consciousness. But appearance is for me only an image of reality, a shadow; it does not satisfy me in itself, and is worthless to me. I can satisfy myself that this world of objects outside me is transformed into pure appearance, Become a shadow, on which my senses do not depend; but in view of all that has been said, myself, like the world, will disappear, and I myself will become a mere appearance without meaning and purpose .Or tell me, did things go the other way?" Elf: "In my own name, I have nothing to say. Explore it yourself, help yourself." Me: "I present myself before myself as an object in space with sense organs and motor organs, as an inner body force that can be controlled by the will. About all this, you will speak as you have before in my mind. Like every object other than the subject, it is said that all these are the products of my feeling, intuition and thinking.” Genie: "I will undoubtedly say so. If you want, I will even show you, step by step, the laws by which you gradually become in your consciousness an organic body with such sensibility , physical strength, etc., and you're going to have to admit that I'm totally right." Me: "I foresaw this. I have to admit that things that are sweet, red, hard, etc. are nothing but my own inner states, only transferred from myself into space by intuition and thinking , to be regarded as a property of a thing that exists independently of me; just as I would have to admit that my body and its various organs are nothing more than myself, the inner thinking subject, in a given space. and I shall have to admit that the ego as a spiritual entity, a purely intellectual force, and the ego as this body in the world of objects are exactly the same thing, but viewed from two sides, in two Different abilities—the former uses pure thinking, the latter uses external intuition—to grasp.” Elf: "A discussion that has been made will of course lead to such a result." Me: "That thinking, spiritual substance, that intellectual force that passes from intuition into an earthly body, according to these fundamental principles, whatever it may be, is always the product of my thinking, some mere imagination. What comes out—because I have to invent exactly this according to a law that I cannot understand, starting from nothing and returning to nothing.” Elf: "That's possible." Me: "You have become timid and not talkative. This is not only possible, but also inevitable according to our basic principles. "The entity that can represent, think, will, reason, or whatever you want to call it, that has the capacity to represent, think, etc., or whatever you want to express the thought, the entity that contains these capacities , how on earth do I realize it? Am I directly aware of it? How can I? I am only directly aware of those actual, specific representations, thoughts, and wills within me that are a events of a particular kind, but I was never directly aware of such abilities, much less of entities that even contained them. What I directly intuited was whether this particular thought I was engaged in at this moment, or that other That particular thought in which I was engaged at that moment; this inward intellectual intuition, this immediate awareness ceases. I now think again this inwardly intuited thought; The laws which are obeyed are to my thinking imperfect and incomplete, just as before thinking about my purely sensory state was only an incomplete thought. As before I gave the passive state Insensibly I have attached an activity to thinking, so I now attach to thinking a determinable state (infinite variety, possible thoughts or wills) ), because I had to do it, and for the same reason I was not aware of such an additional role of mine. I further understood this possible thinking as a definite whole; again because I had to , [and I have to do so], because I cannot grasp anything uncertain, so that this possible thinking becomes for me a limited thinking faculty, and even because it allows me to imagine some A being that exists independently of thought, that is, a being and an entity capable of doing so. "However, from higher principles it can be seen more clearly how this thinking entity is created by its own thinking alone. My thinking is generally original, that is to say, it can postulate a creation directly The function of the given object is capable of describing it. Intuition gives nothing but the bare fact. Thought interprets this fact and connects it with another fact, which Facts do not exist in intuition at all, but are created purely by thought itself, so it (this fact) also arises from thought. This is the case here. I am conscious of definite thought; what intuitive consciousness tells me, And that's all. I think about this definite thought, that is to say, I let it arise out of an indeterminate, but determinable thought. I treat every definite thought that presents itself to immediate consciousness in this way. mind, and thus produced in me a set of capacities and a set of entities which I assumed to have these capacities." Genie: "Thus, even from your own intentions, you are merely aware that you feel this or that particular state, that you intuit or think in this or that particular way." Me: "The self is feeling, the self is intuiting, the self is thinking, and the self is the basis of reality, producing sensation, intuition, and thinking? No! Your basic principles have not even left me with this." Elf: "It's certainly possible!" Me: "It is even necessary, because you can see for yourself: All I know is my consciousness itself. Any consciousness is either direct or indirect. The first kind of consciousness is self-consciousness, the second kind of consciousness is self-consciousness. The second kind of consciousness is the consciousness of the non-self. Therefore, what I call the self is only a certain change of consciousness. The reason why this change is called the self is that it is a direct consciousness that returns to itself and does not point to the outside. Since any consciousness is possible only under the condition of immediate consciousness, it is evident that this consciousness called ego accompanies all my ideas and is necessarily contained in them, though it is not always clear to me aware of this, and I would say at every moment of the development of my consciousness: Self, self, self, always self; In this way, this self disappears and reappears to me at every moment; every new idea arises, a new self arises; this self may never mean something else, But only non-things. "This dispersed self-consciousness is now united, I say, by mere thinking, through thought--mere thought--and is expressed in the unity of fictional faculties. All the ideas that accompany my immediate self-consciousness of representational activity, according to Such fictions must all arise from the same power contained in the same substance. Thus, in me, the thought of the identity and individuality of my self, of the effective actual force of the man; Thought is necessarily a fiction, since that power and reality are themselves mere fictions."