As common
sense interpolates her constant 'things' between our intermittent
sensations, so science EXTRApolates her world of 'primary'
qualities, her atoms, her ether, her magnetic fields, and the like,
beyond the common-sense world. The 'things' are now invisible
impalpable things; and the old visible common-sense things are
supposed to result from the mixture of these invisibles. Or else the
whole NAIF conception of thing gets superseded, and a thing's name
is interpreted as denoting only the law or REGEL DER VERBINDUNG by
which certain of our sensations habitually succeed or coexist.
Science and critical philosophy thus burst the bounds of common
sense. With science NAIF realism ceases: 'Secondary' qualities
become unreal; primary ones alone remain. With critical philosophy,
havoc is made of everything. The common-sense categories one and all
cease to represent anything in the way of BEING; they are but
sublime tricks of human thought, our ways of escaping bewilderment
in the midst of sensation's irremediable flow.
But the scientific tendency in critical thought, tho inspired at
first by purely intellectual motives, has opened an entirely
unexpected range of practical utilities to our astonished view.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159