The THIRD part of reality, additional to these perceptions (tho
largely based upon them), is the PREVIOUS TRUTHS of which every new
inquiry takes account. This third part is a much less obdurately
resisting factor: it often ends by giving way. In speaking of these
three portions of reality as at all times controlling our belief's
formation, I am only reminding you of what we heard in our last
hour.
Now however fixed these elements of reality may be, we still have a
certain freedom in our dealings with them. Take our sensations. THAT
they are is undoubtedly beyond our control; but WHICH we attend to,
note, and make emphatic in our conclusions depends on our own
interests; and, according as we lay the emphasis here or there,
quite different formulations of truth result. We read the same facts
differently. 'Waterloo,' with the same fixed details, spells a
'victory' for an englishman; for a frenchman it spells a 'defeat.'
So, for an optimist philosopher the universe spells victory, for a
pessimist, defeat.
What we say about reality thus depends on the perspective into which
we throw it. The THAT of it is its own; but the WHAT depends on the
WHICH; and the which depends on US. Both the sensational and the
relational parts of reality are dumb: they say absolutely nothing
about themselves.
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