A Study of Religion, Its Sources and Contents, Volume 2Clarendon Press, 1888 |
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admit affirm agent animal antecedent appear Axioms of Causality Bain brutes causality cause character conception conscience consciousness constitution creatures death Deism Descartes determining Ding-an-sich Divine doctrine effect elements empirical energy essence eternal ethical evil existence experience faith feeling finite force former freedom give human human menagerie idea ideal immanent impulses individual infinite infinitude instinctive intellectual J. S. Mill James Mill Kant less libertarian limits living look Malebranche means mind moral motives movements nature necessarian necessity noumenal objective organism ourselves pain Pantheism passions perfection phenomena philosophical Theism physical pleasure possible predicates prescience present rational reason reflex action relation religion rule Schopenhauer self-conscious self-determination sensation sense sentiment simply soul Spinoza spirit springs of action suppose Theism theory things thought tion transcendent true universe volition voluntary whole word
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Page 329 - But the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. G ranted that a definite thought and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously ; we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning, from the one to the other.
Page 204 - Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. By JAMES MILL. With Notes, Illustrative and Critical. 2 vols. 8vo. 28^. On Representative Government By JOHN STUART MILL.
Page 329 - Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and illuminated as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be ; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem, " How are these physical processes connected with the facts of consciousness Í" The chasm between...
Page 255 - In a given state of society, a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life. This is the general law; and the special question as to who shall commit the crime depends of course upon special laws; which, however, in their total action, must obey the large social law to which they are subordinate. And the power of the larger law is so irresistible, that neither the love of life nor the fear of another world can avail anything towards even checking its operation.
Page 102 - ... A widow — she had only one ! A puny and decrepit son ; But, day and night, Though fretful oft, and weak and small A loving child, he was her all — The Widow's Mite. The Widow's Mite — ay, so sustain'd.
Page 329 - ... the passage from the current to the needle, if not demonstrable, is thinkable, and that we entertain no doubt as to the final mechanical solution of the problem ; but the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor, apparently, any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass by a process...
Page 332 - eludes all mental presentation ' ; and hence the logic seems of iron strength which claims for the brain an automatic action, uninfluenced by states of consciousness. But it is I believe, admitted by those who hold the automaton theory, that states of consciousness are produced by the marshalling of the molecules of the brain ; and this production of consciousness by molecular motion is to me quite as unthinkable as the production of molecular motion by consciousness.
Page 345 - Are Man's highest spiritual qualities, into the production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with the rest? Has all this work been done for nothing? Is it all ephemeral, all a bubble that bursts, a vision that fades?
Page 329 - ... one to the other. They appear together, but we do not know why. Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and illuminated as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain ; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be ; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem. ' How are these physical processes...
Page 228 - I have distinct consciousness of choosing between alternatives of conduct, one of which I conceive as right or reasonable, I find it impossible not to think that I can now choose to do what I so conceive, however strong may be my inclination to act unreasonably, and however uniformly I may have yielded to such inclinations in the past 2 '. It is not, however, to be supposed that the empirical 1 Methods of Ethics, ch.