登陆注册
5384300000077

第77章

IMAGINATION.

Sensations, once experienced, modify the nervous organism, so that copies of them arise again in the mind after the original outward stimulus is gone.No mental copy, however, can arise in the mind, of any kind of sensation which has never been directly excited from without.

The blind may dream of sights, the deaf of sounds, for years after they have lost their vision or hearing;

but the man born deaf can never be made to imagine what sound is like, nor can the man born blind ever have a mental vision.In Locke's words, already quoted, "the mind can frame unto itself no one new simple idea." The originals of them all must have been given from without.Fantasy, or Imagination, are the names given to the faculty of reproducing copies of originals once felt.The imagination is called 'reproductive' when the copies are literal; productive' when elements from different originals are recombined so as to make new wholes.

After-images belong to sensation rather than to imagination; so that the most immediate phenomena of imagination would seem to be those tardier images (due to what the Germans call Sinnesgedächtniss) which were spoken of in Vol.1, p.647, -- coercive hauntings of the mind by echoes of unusual experiences for hours after the latter have taken place.The phenomena ordinarily ascribed to imagination, however, are those mental pictures of possible sensible experiences, to which the ordinary processes of associative thought give rise.

When represented with surroundings concrete enough to constitute a date , these pictures, when they revive, form recollection.We have already studied the machinery of recollection in Chapter XVI.When the mental pictures are of data freely combined, and reproducing no past combination exactly, we have acts of imagination properly so called.OUR IMAGES ARE USUALLY VAGUE.

For the ordinary 'analytic' psychology, each sensibly, discernible element of the object imagined is represented by its own separate idea, and the total object, is imagined by a 'cluster'

or 'gang' of ideas.We have seen abundant reason to reject this view (see p.276 ff.).An imagined object, however complex, is at any one moment thought in one idea, which is aware of all its qualities together.If I

slip into the ordinary way of talking, and speak of various ideas 'combining,'

the reader will understand that this is only for popularity and convenience, and he will not construe it into a concession to the atomistic theory in psychology.

Hume was the hero of the atomistic theory.

Not only were ideas copies of original impressions made on the sense-organs, but they were, according to him, completely adequate copies, and were all so separate from each other as to possess no manner of connection.Hume proves ideas m the imagination to be completely adequate copies, not y appeal to observation, but by a priori reasoning, as follows:

"The mind cannot form any notion of quantity or quality, without forming a precise notion of the degrees of each," for " 'tis confessed that no object can appear to the senses, or in other words, that no impression can become present to the mind, without being determined in its degrees both of quantity and quality.The confusion in which impressions are sometimes involved proceeds only from their faintness and unsteadiness, not from any capacity in the mind to receive any impression, which in its real existence has no particular degree nor proportion.That is a contradiction in terms; and even implies the flattest of all contradictions, viz., that 'tis possible for the same thing both to be and not to be.Now since all ideas are derived from impressions, and are nothing but copies and representations of them, whatever is true of the one must be acknowledged concerning the other.Impressions and ideas differ only in their strength and vivacity.

The foregoing conclusion is not founded on any particular degree of vivacity.

It cannot therefore be affected by any variation in that particular.An idea is a weaker impression; and as a strong impression must necessarily have a determinate quantity and quality, the case must be the same with its copy or representative."

The slightest introspective glance will show to anyone the falsity of this opinion.Hume surely had images of his own works without seeing distinctly every word and letter upon the pages which floated before his mind's eye.His dictum is therefore an exquisite example of the way in which a man will be blinded by a priori theories to the most flagrant facts.It is a rather remarkable thing, too, that the psychologists of Hume's own empiricist school have, as a rule, been more guilty of this blindness than their opponents.The fundamental facts of consciousness have been, on the whole, more accurately reported by the spiritualistic writers.None of Hume's pupils, so far as I know, until Taine and Huxley, ever took the pains to contradict the opinion of their master.Prof.Huxley in his brilliant little work on Hume set the matter straight in the following words:

"When complex impressions or complex ideas are reproduced as memories, it is probable that the copies never give all the details of the originals with perfect accuracy, and it is certain that they rarely do so.No one possesses a memory so good, that if he has only once observed a natural object, a second inspection does not show him something that he has forgotten.Almost all, if not all, our memories are therefore sketches, rather than portraits, of the originals -- the salient features are obvious, while the subordinate characters are obscure or unrepresented.

同类推荐
  • 唯识开蒙问答

    唯识开蒙问答

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 青华秘文

    青华秘文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

    Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 塞下曲

    塞下曲

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大云经请雨品第六十四

    大云经请雨品第六十四

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 虚拟路漫

    虚拟路漫

    未来的若干年后,游戏界万众瞩目的七款虚拟现实游戏终于问世,末世废土,现代战争,星际迷航,西方魔幻,武侠仙侠,沙盒创造,主神空间。而我们的主角是一位稍微有点技术和自己的头脑,享受游戏的过程而不是结果的普通玩家。 在这部小说中,或许没有激动人心的巅峰对决,也没有精彩绝伦的智商交锋,我们要的只是乐趣。
  • 圣驾南巡日录

    圣驾南巡日录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 我的倒贴女友

    我的倒贴女友

    这么多年,林佳喻还是一直跟在我的屁股后面,我无数次想要甩开她,双手却无法忍心使上力。我怎么会遇上你这么傻的人,认准的东西即使碰到头破血流,遍体鳞伤也要咬牙坚持。不如,你别再倒贴我了?
  • 我本大圣

    我本大圣

    道是超脱者,是天、法、无的自然体。佛是觉悟者,是净、思、善的综合体。佛道本无相,是人给他们下了定义,就如同很多人会给他人,给自己下定义。所以才会有神、仙、佛、魔、鬼、妖、兽,其实归根到底,都是生灵,又都是人……
  • 靠自己成功

    靠自己成功

    《靠自己成功》是成功学之父奥里森·马登的代表作之一,也是国学大师林语堂推荐给青年们的一本励志经典。作者马登在该书中列举了很多经典案例,由细节入手,探讨了如何依靠自己取得成功。
  • 谁为爱情埋单

    谁为爱情埋单

    核电公司的英部长本该是在人生最得意的时期,可是老婆崔艳红却忽然提出了离婚,公司计划处的两位美女陈慧、陈小妍为了工作服的事与他纠缠不休,直至传出了他和陈小妍的流言。而英部长真正喜欢的人是冷却水厂的吴婧。陈小妍最近挺不顺:工作上因为手下人的不和而被领导误解,生活上同自己丈夫离婚的事传得沸沸扬扬,责任也归在了她的头上,英部长正打算公开自己与吴婧的恋情来澄清误会,却被回到家的老婆告知离婚只是一句玩笑话,本来奉行不婚主义的吴婧也同时开始催促英部长办理离婚手续。因为这些事被调换了职位的英部长十分不解,日子怎么突然就过成了这样……
  • 帝国老公别太猛

    帝国老公别太猛

    被军长老公扫黄扫到,送局子是种什么体验?宣笑笑表示很委屈,解释一句之后就理直气壮的说:“那就离婚吧!”“你婚后行为不检点,还敢跟我提离婚?!”军长大人勃然大怒,“我告诉你,门都没有!”以后宣笑笑就开启了苦逼的新婚生活,穿着军装道貌岸然的男人其实属狼,夜夜喂不饱。一二三四,二二三四,换个姿势,再来一次。“顾雷霆,你到底有完没完?”“没完,体能太差,预计再战999次才能把你训练出来。”宣笑笑终于是明白什么叫人不要脸,天下无敌!
  • 情天碧箫缘

    情天碧箫缘

    江湖传闻天下有剑如瑞雪春冰、清秋寒霜,薄如蝉翼,剑身出鞘乍现寒冽之气,声若龙吟虎啸名曰:霜之刃,堪称天下神刃。此剑因机缘巧合落于冷庄庄主冷暮之手,风声外漏一夜之间冷庄受强敌所致,屠戮殆尽,留一遗孤幼女冷若霜,后立誓报仇血恨,投身魔教—冥谷,拜师生死门。后成为冥谷八门中杀手,经苦心修习之后武学小成。因身受魔教所致不得以而为冥谷屠杀武林人世。几桩血案后武林大乱,武林盟主叶浩为査究原凶,遣子叶景轩前去查究。叶景轩孤身一人寻至冥谷与冷若霜相识,对此女渐生情愫,多次插手相助之后,冷若霜也渐钟情于他。二人多历波折后冲破正邪教条结为连理时,霜之刃再现,叶景轩生父却为冷家不共戴天之仇,冷若霜决绝而去,叶府大乱,江湖纷争再起,夺剑称霸,为情成魔,武林血雨腥风,为平杀戮,冷、叶携手共战江湖…
  • 实用幼儿家教入门

    实用幼儿家教入门

    这本书的实用,是指它的易于掌握的可操作性。怎么教两岁的孩子识字,怎么让幼儿更容易接受数和算术的概念,乃至要不要背唐诗,如何学英语、电脑等等,均娓娓道来。对普通家长而言,本书在幼儿家教方面所提供的行之有效的观念和方法,既有助于孩子健康成长,又能够应付残酷的应试教育。本书是作者本人早年教自己孩子的心得与经验。这孩子虽有种种弱处,但始终身心健康地成长着,眼下正以公派访问学者身份,在美国著名大学的一间实验室工作。
  • 客杭日记

    客杭日记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。