The Psychological Empiricism of John Stuart MillColumbia University, 1928 - 80 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A. N. Whitehead actual analysis antecedent asso association psychology associationism attributes axioms belief Berkeley cause character coexistence complex ideas conceived conception consciousness definitions derived distinction doctrine elements empirical empiricism ence Essay existence external world facts fundamental Grammar of Science grounded Hartley Hence human Hume Ibid idea of space implies inductive methods inference inquiry inseparable association intuition J. S. Mill James Mill John Mill John Stuart Mill kind knowledge law of causation laws of association laws of nature Locke major premise mathematics merely Mill's theory mind names objects observation original particulars perience permanent possibilities Philosophy physical sciences possibilities of sensation primary relations principle priori problem problem of induction proof proposition reality reasoning Relativity of Knowledge resemblance says Mill sensations and ideas sense sequence succession syllogism theory of experience things thought tion true truth ultimate laws uncon uniformities universal valid
Popular passages
Page 75 - The true incomprehensibility perhaps is, that something which has ceased, or is not yet in existence, can still be, in a manner, present; that a series of feelings, the infinitely greater part of which is past or future, can be gathered up, as it were, into a simple present conception, accompanied by a belief of reality.
Page 72 - What is it we mean when we say that the object we perceive is external to us, and not a part of our own thoughts ? We mean, that there is in our perceptions something which exists when we are not thinking of it ; which existed before we had ever thought of it, and would exist if we were annihilated...
Page 24 - ... phenomena, by a previous study of the modes of generation of the mental facts which are confessedly not original ; a study sufficiently thorough to enable us to apply its results to the convictions, beliefs, or supposed intuitions which seem to be original, and to determine whether some of them may not have been generated in the same modes, so early as to have become inseparable from our consciousness before the time at which memory commences.
Page 77 - ... thoughts' do exist — that I fear some readers will follow me no farther. Let me then immediately explain that I mean only to deny that the word stands for an entity, but to insist most emphatically that it does stand for a function. There is, I mean, no aboriginal stuff or quality of being, contrasted with that of which material objects are made, out of which our thoughts of them are made...
Page 17 - There is therefore some other mind wherein they exist, during the intervals between the times of my perceiving them : as likewise they did before my birth, and would do after my supposed annihilation. And as the same is true with regard to all other finite created spirits, it necessarily follows, there is an omnipresent, eternal Mind, which knows and comprehends all things, and exhibits them to our view in such a manner, and according to such rules as he himself hath ordained, and are by us termed...
Page 67 - But it is necessary to our using the word cause that we should believe not only that the antecedent always has been followed by the consequent, but that as long as the present constitution of things endures it always will be so.
Page 17 - Now the set rules or established methods wherein the Mind we depend on excites in us the ideas of sense, are called the laws of nature; and these we learn by experience, which teaches us that such and such ideas are attended with such and such other ideas, in the ordinary course of things.
Page 72 - The conception I form of the world existing at any moment, comprises, along with the sensations I am feeling, a countless variety of possibilities of sensation: namely, the whole of those which past observation tells me that I could, under any supposable circumstances, experience at this moment, together with an indefinite and illimitable multitude of others which though I do not know that 1 could, yet it is possible that I might, experience in circumstances not known to me.
Page 67 - The cause, then, philosophically speaking, is the sum total of the conditions, positive and negative, taken together; the whole of the contingencies of every description, which being realized, the consequent invariably follows.
Page 5 - principle of utility ' understood as Bentham understood it, and applied in the manner in which he applied it through these three volumes, fell exactly into its place as the keystone which held together the detached and fragmentary component parts of my knowledge and beliefs. It gave unity to my conceptions of things. I now had opinions ; a creed, a doctrine, a philosophy ; in one among the best senses of the word, a religion ; the inculcation and diffusion of which, could be made the principal outward...