Hume : with helps to the study of Berkeley : essays / by Thomas H. Huxley.

Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hume : with helps to the study of Berkeley : essays / by Thomas H. Huxley. 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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    the substance of these particles has existed and will exist, that the energy which stire them has persisted and will persist, without assignable limit, either in the past or the future. Surely, as Heracleitus said of his kitchen with its pots and pans, “Here also are the gods.” Little as we have, even yet, learned of the material universe, that little makes for the belief that it is a system of unbroken order and perfect symmetry, of which the form incessantly changes, while the substance and the energy are imperishable. It will be understood that those who are thoroughly imbued with this view of what is called “matter” find it a little diflBcult to understand why that which is termed “ mind ” should give itself such airs of superiority over the twin sister; to whom, so far as our planet is concerned, it might be hazardous to deny the right of primogeniture. Accepting the ordinary view of mind, it is a substance the properties of which are states of consciousness, on the one hand, and energy of the same order as that of the material world (or else it would not be able to affect the latter) on the other hand. It is admitted that chance has no more place in the world of mind, than it has in that of matter. Sensations, emotions, intellections are subject to an order, as strict and inviol- able as that which obtains among material things. If the order which obtains in the material world lays it open to the reproach of subjection to “blind necessity,” the demonstrable existence of a similar order amidst the phenomena of conscioxrsness (and without the belief in that fixed order, logic has no binding force and morals have no foundation) renders it obnoxious to the same condemnation. For necessity is necessity, and whether it is blind or .sharp-eyed is nothing to the purpose. Even if the supposed energy of the substance of mind is sometimes exerted without any antecedent cause—which is the only intelligible sense of the popular doctrine of free-will—the occurrence is admittedly exceptional, and, by the nature of the case, it is not susceptible of proof. Moreover, if the hypo- thetical substance of mind is possessed of energy, I, for my ]>art, am unable to see how it is to be discriminated from tho hyi>othetical substance of matter.