Constance Naden and hylo-idealism : a critical study / by E. Cobham Brewer ; annotated by R. Lewins.

  • E. Cobham Brewer
Date:
1891
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Constance Naden and hylo-idealism : a critical study / by E. Cobham Brewer ; annotated by R. Lewins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ( « ) This I think is a rough outline of Hylo-idealisni without its lemmas and deductions, which cannot be introduced into this essay. Its speciality is the ignoring of the Non-ego. “ The world,” says G. H. Lewes, in his Problems of Life and Mind, “ is to each man as it affects liim. To each a different world. Fifty spectators see fifty different rainbows, and all believe they see the same one. Nor is this unanimity delusive for ‘the same,’ [in this case] means... similarity in their states of consciousness but the “ consciousness ” is a sine qud no?i, and consciousness certainly is part of ourselves; that, at least, cannot belong to the Non-ego of an exterior world. No illustration runs quite on all fours, but perhaps a pretty correct idea of what is meant by the foregoing may be gained from a camera obscura. Everything must be thrown into the camera before the sensitive plate can record it. Call the camera the individual, and the sensitive plate the brain. So far as the camera obscura is concerned, whatever is photo- graphed must first be asselfed or made part of the sensitive plate; and before the mind can cognize any object, that object must be thrown into the mind, and impressed on the brain. If two or more plates are exactly alike, the photographs will very minutely resemble each other; if not, they will differ more or less, and in some cases be almost unrecognisable. Of course, this does not touch the question whether or not, independent of ourselves, there is an objective world. That is quite a separate question. It only determines that so far as you, or I, or any other individual, is concerned there is no such thing as the Non-ego; for all that anyone can possibly cognize must first be asselfed, or made part of his Ego; as all things to be photographed must first be taken into the camera obscura, before the sensitive plate can take any notice of them. Miss Naden, speaking on this subject, makes an objector say, “ Each man’s mind. Ego or personality, is peculiar to himself. It is his inalienable heritage...If [however] the Ego