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

Date:
1811
Catalogue details

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 Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    have for theexiftence of bodyj nay, if there be any difference between the two cafes, that we have flronger evidence for it; inafmuch as the one is fuggefted to us by the fubjefts of our own confcioufnefs, and the other merely by the objedts of our perceptions : and in this light, undoubtedly, the fa£t would appear to every perfon, were it not, that, from our earlieft years, ■ the attention is engroffed with the qualities and laws of matter, an acquaintance with which is abfolutely neceffary for the prefervation of our animal exiflence. Hence it is, that thefe phenomena occupy our thoughts more than thofe of mind; that we are perpetually tempted to explain the latter by the analogy of the former, and even to endeavour to refer them to the fame general laws ; and that we acquire habits of in- attention to the fubjefts of our confcioufnefs, too ftrong to be afterwards furmounted, without the moll perfe- vering induftry. If the foregoing obfervations be well founded, they eflablifh the diflinaion between mind and matter, without any long procefs of metaphyfical reafoning*: for if our notions of both are merely relative; if we know the one, only by fuch fenfible qualities as ex- tenfion, figure, and folidity; and the other, by fuch operations as fenfation, thought, and volition j we are certainly entitled to fay, that matter and mind, confider'ed as objefts of human ftudy, are elTentially different; the fcience of the former refting ultimately on the phenomena exhibited to our fenfes j that of tlie latter, on the phenomena of which we are confcious. Inftead, therefore, of objeaing to the fcheme of mate- » See Note [A], at the end of the volume. rialifm.