"The problems which that earlier period considered fundamental
to all science were those of the theory of knowledge:
What
is true in our sense perceptions and thought? and In what way
do our ideas correspond to reality?"
"[...] we can discover the lawful regularities in
the processes of the external world. And natural laws assert that
from initial conditions which are the same in some specific way,
there always follow consequences which are the same in some other
specific way."
“Thus, even if in their qualities our sensations are only
signs whose specific nature depends completely upon our make-up or
organisation, they are not to be discarded as empty appearances. They are still
signs of something - something existing or something taking place - and given
them we can determine the laws of these objects or these events. And that is
something of the greatest importance!”
“The fact that we become aware of these effects through
frequently repeated trials and observations can be demonstrated in many, many
ways. Even as adults we can still learn the innervations necessary to pronounce
the words of a foreign language, or in singing to produce some special kind of
voice formation. We can learn the innervations necessary to move our ears, to
turn our eyes inward or outward, to focus them upward or downward, and so on.
The only difficulty in learning to do these things is that we must try to do them
by using innervations which are unknown, innervations which have not been
necessary in movement previously executed. We know these innervations in no
form and by no definable characteristics other than the fact that they produce
the observable effects intended. This alone distinguishes the various
innervations from one another.”
"These last points should be considered more fully. The
volition for a specific movement is a psychic act, and the perceptible
change in sensation which results from it is also a psychic event. is it
possible for the first to bring about the second by some purely mental process?
It is certainly not absolutely impossible. Whenever we dream, something similar
to this takes place.
While dreaming we believe that we are executing some
movement, and then we dream further that the natural results of this movement
occur. We dream that we climb into a boat, shove it off from shore, guide it
over the water, watch the surrounding objects shift position, and so on. In
cases like this it seems to the dreamer that he sees the consequences of his
actions and that the perceptions in the dream are brought about by means of
purely Psychical processes. Who can say how long and how finely spun, how
richly elaborated, such dreams may be! If everything in dreams were to occur
in ultimate accordance with the laws of nature, there would be no distinction
between dreaming and waking, except that the person who is awake may break off
the series of impressions he is experiencing.
I do not see how a system of even the most extreme
subjective idealism, even one which treats life as a dream, can be refuted. One
can show it to be as improbable, as unsatisfactory as possible (in this
connection I concur with the severest expressions of condemnation), but it can
be developed in a logically consistent manner, and it seems to me important to
keep this in mind. How ingeniously Calderon carried out this theme in Life
Is a Dream is well known.
Fichte also believed and taught that the Ego constructs the
Non-Ego, that is, the world of phenomena, which it requires for the development
of its Psychical activities. His idealism is to be distinguished from the one
mentioned above, however, by the fact that he considered other individuals
not to be dream images but, on the basis of moral laws, to be other Egos with
equal reality. Since the images by which all these Egos represent the
Non-Ego must be in agreement, he considered all the individual Egos to be
part of or emanations from an Absolute Ego. The world in which they find
themselves is the conceptual world which the World Spirit constructs. From this
a conception of reality results similar to that of Hegel.”
"Science must consider thoroughly all admissible hypotheses
in order to obtain a complete picture of all possible modes of explanation.
Furthermore, hypotheses are necessary to someone doing research, for one cannot
always wait until a reliable scientific conclusion has been reached; one must
sometimes make judgments according to either probability or aesthetic or moral
feelings. Metaphysical hypotheses are not to be objected to here either.”
“Insofar as we recognise a law as a power analogous to our
will, that is, as something giving rise to our perceptions as well as
determining the course of natural processes, we call it a force. The idea of a force acting in opposition to us arises
directly out of the nature of our simplest perceptions and the way in which
they occur. From the beginning of our lives, the changes which we cause
ourselves by the acts of our will are distinguished from those which are
neither made nor can be set aside by our will. Pain, in particular, gives us
the most compelling awareness of the power or force of reality. The
emphasis falls here on the observable fact that the perceived circle of
presentabilia is not created by a conscious act of our mind or will. Fichte's
Non-Ego is an apt and precise expression for this. In dreaming, too, that which
a person believes he sees and feels does not appear to be called forth by his
will or by the known relations of his ideas, for these also may often be
unconscious. They constitute a Non-Ego for the dreamer too. It is the same for
the idealists who see the Non-Ego as the world of ideas of the World Spirit.”
“In general, it is clear that a distinction between thought
and reality is possible only when we know how to make the distinction between
that which the ego can and that which it cannot change. This, however, is
possible only when we know the uniform consequences which volitions have in
time. From this fact it can be seen that conformity to law is the essential
condition which something must satisfy in order to be considered real.”
“'All things transitory
But as symbols are sent.' [Faust]
I take it to be a propitious sign that we find Goethe with
us here, as well as further along on this same path. Whenever we are dealing
with a question requiring a broad outlook, we can trust completely his clear,
impartial view as to where the truth lies. He demanded of science that it be
only an artistic arrangement of facts and that it form no abstract concepts
concerning them, for he considered abstract concepts to be empty names which
only hide the facts.”
“Every inductive inference is based upon the belief that
some given relation, previously observed to be regular or uniform, will
continue to hold in all cases which may be observed. In effect, every inductive
inference is based upon a belief in the lawful regularity of everything that
happens. This uniformity or lawful regularity, however, is also the condition
of conceptual understanding. Thus belief in uniformity or lawful regularity is
at the same time belief in the possibility of understanding natural phenomena
conceptually. If we assume that this comprehension or understanding of natural
phenomena can be achieved - that is, if we believe that we shall be able to
discern something fundamental and unchanging which is the cause of the changes
we observe - then we accept a regulative principle in our thinking. It is
called the law of causality, and it expresses our belief in the complete
comprehensibility of the world.”
“Moreover, reality has always unveiled the truth of its laws
to the sciences in a much richer, more sublime fashion than she has painted it
for even the most consummate efforts of mystical fantasy and metaphysical speculation.
What have all the monstrous offspring of indiscreet fancy, heapings of gigantic
dimensions and numbers, to say of the reality of the universe, of the period of
time during which the sun and earth were formed, or of the geological ages
during which life evolved, adapting itself always in the most thoroughgoing way
to the increasingly more moderate physical conditions of our planet?
What metaphysics has concepts in readiness to explain the
effects of magnetic and induced electrical forces upon each other - effects
which physics is now struggling to reduce to well-established elementary
forces, without having reached any clear solution? Already, however, in physics
light appears to be nothing more than another form of movement of these two
agents, and the ether (the electrical and magnetic medium which pervades
all space) has come to have completely new characteristics or properties.”
“'In the tides of Life, in Action's storm, A fluctuant wave,
A shuttle free,
Birth and the Grave, An eternal sea,
A weaving, flowing
Life, all-glowing,
Thus at Time's humming loom't is my hand prepares
The garment of Life which the Deity wears !' [Faust]
We are particles of dust on the surface of our planet, which
is itself scarcely a grain of sand in the infinite space of the universe. We
are the youngest species among the living things of the earth, hardly out of
the cradle according to the time reckoning of geology, still in the learning
stage, hardly half-grown, said to be mature only through mutual agreement.
Nevertheless, because of the mighty stimulus of the law of causality, we have
already grown beyond our fellow creatures and are overcoming them in the
struggle for existence. We truly have reason to be proud that it has been given
to us to understand, slowly and through hard work, the incomprehensibly great
scheme of things. Surely we need not feel in the least ashamed if we have not
achieved this understanding upon the first flight of an Icarus.”
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