Elements of the philosophy of the human mind / by Dugald Stewart.

  • Dugald Stewart
Date:
1854
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of the philosophy of the human mind / by Dugald Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    respect to mind, and that the words which express its different operations, are almost all borrowed from the objects of our senses.* It must, however, appear manifest, upon a very little reflection, that as the two subjects are essentially distinct, and as each of them has its peculiar laws, the analogies we are pleased to fancy between them, can be of no use in illustrating either; and that it is no less unphilosophical to attempt an ex- planation of Perception, or of the Association of Ideas, upon mechanical principles ; than it would be to explain the phenom- ena of gravitation, by supposing, as some of the ancients did, the particles of matter to be animated with principles of mo- tion ; or to explain the chemical phenomena of elective attrac- tions, by supposing the substances among which they arc ob- served, to be endowed with thought and volition. — The analogy of matter, therefore, can be of no use in the inquiries which form the object of the following work; but, on the contrary, is to be guarded against, as one of the principal sources of the errors to which we are liable. * [ If we critically examine any language, ancient or modern, and trace its several terms or phrases to their source, we shall find it hold invariably, that all the words made use of to denote spiritual and intellectual things, are in their origin metaphors, taken from objects of sense. This shows evidently, that the latter [objects of sense] have made the earliest impres- sions, have by consequence first obtained names in every tongue, and are still, as it were, more present with us, and strike the imagination more forcibly than the former [spiritual and intellectual things.] Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, Book III. Chapter i. 3. Numberless instances might be given; but a very few will suffice. Im- agination is derived from an optical image; acuteness, from a Latin word signifying the sharpness of a material instrument; reflection, from bending bach a ray of light; apprehension originally meant seizure, or taking hold of something by the hand; instil means to drop into; spirit is breath; animal and animation, (anima, uveuoc) come from breath, and ultimately from wind; melancholy means black bile; faint-hearted and milk-livered have come to mean cowardly, and hard-hearted to mean cruel} understanding, foresight, in- clination, penetration, etc., suggest their own etymology.]
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