1. Philosophy being nothing else but THE STUDY OF WISDOM
AND TRUTH, it
may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains
in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater
clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts
and difficulties than other men. Yet so it is, we see the illiterate bulk
of mankind that walk the high-road of plain common sense, and are
governed by the dictates of nature, for the most part easy and
undisturbed. To them nothing THAT IS FAMILIAR appears unaccountable or
difficult to comprehend. They complain not of any want of evidence in
their senses, and are out of all danger of becoming SCEPTICS. But no
sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of a
superior principle, to reason, meditate, and reflect on the nature of
things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our minds concerning those
things which before we seemed fully to comprehend.
Prejudices and errors
of sense do from all parts discover themselves to our view; and,
endeavouring to correct these by reason, we are insensibly drawn into
uncouth paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and
grow upon us as we advance in speculation, till at length, having
wandered through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just where we
were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn Scepticism.
2. The cause of this is thought to be the obscurity of things, or the
natural weakness and imperfection of our understandings.
It is said, the
faculties we have are few, and those designed by nature for the SUPPORT
and comfort of life, and not to penetrate into the INWARD ESSENCE and
constitution of things. Besides, the mind of man being finite, when it
treats of things which partake of infinity, it is not to be wondered at
if it run into absurdities and contradictions, out of which it is
impossible it should ever extricate itself, it being of the nature of
infinite not to be comprehended by that which is finite.
3. But, perhaps, we may be too partial to ourselves in placing the fault
originally in our faculties, and not rather in the wrong use we make of
them. IT IS A HARD THING TO SUPPOSE THAT RIGHT
DEDUCTIONS FROM TRUE
PRINCIPLES SHOULD EVER END IN CONSEQUENCES WHICH CANNOT
BE MAINTAINED or
made consistent. We should believe that God has dealt more bountifully
with the sons of men than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge
which he had placed quite out of their reach. This were not agreeable to
the wonted indulgent methods of Providence, which, whatever appetites it
may have implanted in the creatures, doth usually furnish them with such
means as, if rightly made use of, will not fail to satisfy them. Upon the
whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of
those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked
up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to ourselves--that we have
first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.
4. My purpose therefore is, to try if I can discover what those
Principles are which have introduced all that doubtfulness and
uncertainty, those absurdities and contradictions, into the several sects
of philosophy; insomuch that the wisest men have thought our ignorance
incurable, conceiving it to arise from the natural dulness and limitation
of our faculties. And surely it is a work well deserving our pains to
make a strict inquiry concerning the First Principles of Human Knowledge,
to sift and examine them on all sides, especially since there may be some
grounds to suspect that those lets and difficulties, which stay and
embarrass the mind in its search after truth, do not spring from any
darkness and intricacy in the objects, or natural defect in the
understanding, so much as from false Principles which have been insisted
on, and might have been avoided.
5. How difficult and discouraging soever this attempt may seem, when I
consider how many great and extraordinary men have gone before me in the
like designs, yet I am not without some hopes--upon the consideration
that the largest views are not always the clearest, and that he who is
short--sighted will be obliged to draw the object nearer, and may,
perhaps, by a close and narrow survey, discern that which had escaped far
better eyes.
6. A CHIEF SOURCE OF ERROR IN ALL PARTS OF KNOWLEDGE.--
In order to
prepare the mind of the reader for the easier conceiving what
follows, it is proper to premise somewhat, by way of Introduction,
concerning the nature and abuse of Language. But the unravelling this
matter leads me in some measure to anticipate my design, by taking notice
of what seems to have had a chief part in rendering speculation intricate
and perplexed, and to have occasioned innumerable errors and difficulties
in almost all parts of knowledge. And that is the opinion that the mind
has a power of framing ABSTRACT IDEAS or notions of things. He who is
not a perfect stranger to the writings and disputes of philosophers must
needs acknowledge that no small part of them are spent about abstract
ideas. These are in a more especial manner thought to be the object of
those sciences which go by the name of LOGIC and METAPHYSICS, and of all
that which passes under the notion of the most abstracted and sublime
learning, in all which one shall scarce find any question handled in such
a manner as does not suppose their existence in the mind, and that it is
well acquainted with them.
7. PROPER ACCEPTATION OF ABSTRACTION.--It is agreed on all hands that the
qualities or modes of things do never REALLY EXIST EACH
OF THEM APART BY
ITSELF, and separated from all others, but are mixed, as it were, and
blended together, several in the same object. But, we are told, the mind
being able to consider each quality singly, or abstracted from those other
qualities with which it is united, does by that means frame to itself
abstract ideas. For example, there is perceived by sight an object
extended, coloured, and moved: this mixed or compound idea the mind
resolving into its simple, constituent parts, and viewing each by itself,
exclusive of the rest, does frame the abstract ideas of extension, colour,
and motion. Not that it is possible for colour or motion to exist without
extension; but only that the mind can frame to itself by ABSTRACTION the
idea of colour exclusive of extension, and of motion exclusive of both
colour and extension.
8. OF GENERALIZING [Note].--Again, the mind having observed that in the
particular extensions perceived by sense there is something COMMON and
alike IN ALL, and some other things peculiar, as this or that figure or
magnitude, which distinguish them one from another; it considers apart or
singles out by itself that which is common, making thereof a most abstract
idea of extension, which is neither line, surface, nor solid, nor has any
figure or magnitude, but is an idea entirely prescinded from all these. So
likewise the mind, by leaving out of the particular colours perceived by
sense that which distinguishes them one from another, and retaining that
only which is COMMON TO ALL, makes an idea of colour in abstract which is
neither red, nor blue, nor white, nor any other determinate colour. And,
in like manner, by considering motion abstractedly not only from the body
moved, but likewise from the figure it describes, and all particular
directions and velocities, the abstract idea of motion is framed; which
equally corresponds to all particular motions whatsoever that may be
perceived by sense.
[Note: Vide Reid, on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Essay V,
chap iii. sec. 1, edit. 1843]
9. OF COMPOUNDING.--And as the mind frames to itself abstract ideas of
qualities or MODES, so does it, by the same precision or mental
separation, attain abstract ideas of the more compounded BEINGS
which include several coexistent qualities. For example, the mind
having observed that Peter, James, and John resemble each other
in certain common agreements of shape and other qualities, leaves
out of the complex or compounded idea it has of Peter, James, and
any other particular man, that which is peculiar to each, retaining
only what is common to all, and so makes an abstract idea wherein
all the particulars equally partake--abstracting entirely from
and cutting off all those circumstances and differences which might
determine it to any particular existence. And after this manner it is
said we come by the abstract idea of MAN, or, if you please, humanity, or
human nature; wherein it is true there is included colour, because there
is no man but has some colour, but then it can be neither white, nor
black, nor any particular colour, because there is no one particular
colour wherein all men partake. So likewise there is included stature,
but then it is neither tall stature, nor low stature, nor yet middle
stature, but something abstracted from all these. And so of the rest.
Moreover, their being a great variety of other creatures that partake in
some parts, but not all, of the complex idea of MAN, the mind, leaving
out those parts which are peculiar to men, and retaining those only which
are common to all the living creatures, frames the idea of ANIMAL, which
abstracts not only from all particular men, but also all birds, beasts,
fishes, and insects. The constituent parts of the abstract idea of animal
are body, life, sense, and spontaneous motion. By BODY
is meant body
without any particular shape or figure, there being no one shape or
figure common to all animals, without covering, either of hair, or
feathers, or scales, &c., nor yet naked: hair, feathers, scales, and
nakedness being the distinguishing properties of particular animals, and
for that reason left out of the ABSTRACT IDEA. Upon the same account the
spontaneous motion must be neither walking, nor flying, nor creeping; it
is nevertheless a motion, but what that motion is it is not easy to
conceive[Note.].
[Note: Vide Hobbes' Tripos, ch. v. sect. 6.]
10. TWO OBJECTIONS TO THE EXISTENCE OF ABSTRACT IDEAS.--
Whether
others have this wonderful faculty of ABSTRACTING THEIR
IDEAS,
they best can tell: for myself, I find indeed I have a faculty of
imagining, or representing to myself, the ideas of those particular
things I have perceived, and of variously compounding and dividing them.
I can imagine a man with two heads, or the upper parts of a man joined to
the body of a horse. I can consider the hand, the eye, the nose, each by
itself abstracted or separated from the rest of the body. But then
whatever hand or eye I imagine, it must have some particular shape and
colour. Likewise the idea of man that I frame to myself must be either of
a white, or a black, or a tawny, a straight, or a crooked, a tall, or a
low, or a middle-sized man. I cannot by any effort of thought conceive
the abstract idea above described. And it is equally impossible for me to
form the abstract idea of motion distinct from the body moving, and which
is neither swift nor slow, curvilinear nor rectilinear; and the like may
be said of all other abstract general ideas whatsoever.
To be plain, I
own myself able to abstract IN ONE SENSE, as when I consider some
particular parts or qualities separated from others, with which, though
they are united in some object, yet it is possible they may really exist
without them. But I deny that I can abstract from one another, or
conceive separately, those qualities which it is impossible should exist
so separated; or that I can frame a general notion, by abstracting from
particulars in the manner aforesaid--which last are the two proper
acceptations of ABSTRACTION. And there are grounds to think most men will
acknowledge themselves to be in my case. The generality of men which are
simple and illiterate never pretend to ABSTRACT NOTIONS.
It is said
they are difficult and not to be attained without pains and study; we may
therefore reasonably conclude that, if such there be, they are confined
only to the learned.
11. I proceed to examine what can be alleged in DEFENCE
OF THE DOCTRINE
OF ABSTRACTION, and try if I can discover what it is that inclines the
men of speculation to embrace an opinion so remote from common sense as
that seems to be. There has been a late deservedly esteemed philosopher
who, no doubt, has given it very much countenance, by seeming to think
the having abstract general ideas is what puts the widest difference in
point of understanding betwixt man and beast. "The having of general
ideas," saith he, "is that which puts a perfect distinction betwixt man
and brutes, and is an excellency which the faculties of brutes do by no
means attain unto. For, it is evident we observe no foot-steps in them of
making use of general signs for universal ideas; from which we have
reason to imagine that they have not the FACULTY OF
ABSTRACTING, or
making general ideas, since they have no use of words or any other
general signs." And a little after: "Therefore, I think, we may suppose
that it is in this that the species of brutes are discriminated from men,
and it is that proper difference wherein they are wholly separated, and
which at last widens to so wide a distance. For, if they have any ideas
at all, and are not bare machines (as some would have them), we cannot
deny them to have some reason. It seems as evident to me that they do,
some of them, in certain instances reason as that they have sense; but it
is only in particular ideas, just as they receive them from their senses.
They are the best of them tied up within those narrow bounds, and have
not (as I think) the faculty to enlarge them by any kind of
ABSTRACTION." Essay on Human Understanding, II. xi. 10
and 11. I readily
agree with this learned author, that the faculties of brutes can by no
means attain to ABSTRACTION. But then if this be made the distinguishing
property of that sort of animals, I fear a great many of those that pass
for men must be reckoned into their number. The reason that is here
assigned why we have no grounds to think brutes have abstract general
ideas is, that we observe in them no use of words or any other general
signs; which is built on this supposition--that the making use of words
implies the having general ideas. From which it follows that men who use
language are able to ABSTRACT or GENERALIZE their ideas.
That this is the
sense and arguing of the author will further appear by his answering the
question he in another place puts: "Since all things that exist are only
particulars, how come we by general terms?" His answer is: "Words become
general by being made the signs of general ideas."--
Essay on Human
Understanding, IV. iii. 6. But [Note. 1] it seems that a word becomes
general by being made the sign, not of an ABSTRACT
general idea, but of
several particular ideas [Note. 2], any one of which it indifferently
suggests to the mind. For example, when it is said "the change of motion
is proportional to the impressed force," or that
"whatever has extension
is divisible," these propositions are to be understood of motion
and extension in general; and nevertheless it will not follow that
they suggest to my thoughts an idea of motion without a body moved,
or any determinate direction and velocity, or that I must conceive
an abstract general idea of extension, which is neither line, surface,
nor solid, neither great nor small, black, white, nor red, nor of any
other determinate colour. It is only implied that whatever particular
motion I consider, whether it be swift or slow, perpendicular,
horizontal, or oblique, or in whatever object, the axiom concerning
it holds equally true. As does the other of every particular extension,
it matters not whether line, surface, or solid, whether of this or
that magnitude or figure.
[Note 1: "TO THIS I CANNOT ASSENT, BEING OF OPINION,"
edit of 1710.]
[Note 2: Of the same sort.]
12. EXISTENCE OF GENERAL IDEAS ADMITTED.--By observing how ideas
become general we may the better judge how words are made so.
And here it is to be noted that I do not deny absolutely there
are general ideas, but only that there are any ABSTRACT
GENERAL
IDEAS; for, in the passages we have quoted wherein there is
mention of general ideas, it is always supposed that they are formed by
ABSTRACTION, after the manner set forth in sections 8
and 9. Now, if we
will annex a meaning to our words, and speak only of what we can
conceive, I believe we shall acknowledge that an idea which, considered
in itself, is particular, becomes general by being made to represent or
stand for all other particular ideas of the SAME SORT.
To make this plain
by an example, suppose a geometrician is demonstrating the method of
cutting a line in two equal parts. He draws, for instance, a black line
of an inch in length: this, which in itself is a particular line, is
nevertheless with regard to its signification general, since, as it is
there used, it represents all particular lines whatsoever; so that what
is demonstrated of it is demonstrated of all lines, or, in other words,
of a line in general. And, as that particular line becomes general by
being made a sign, so the name LINE, which taken absolutely is
PARTICULAR, by being a sign is made GENERAL. And as the former owes its
generality not to its being the sign of an abstract or general line, but
of ALL PARTICULAR right lines that may possibly exist, so the latter must
be thought to derive its generality from the same cause, namely, the
VARIOUS PARTICULAR lines which it indifferently denotes.
[Note.]
[Note: "I look upon this (doctrine) to be one of the greatest and most
valuable discoveries that have been made of late years in the republic
of letters."--Treatise of Human Nature, book i, part i, sect. 7. Also
Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind, part i, chapt. iv.
sect. iii. p. 99.]
13. ABSTRACT GENERAL IDEAS NECESSARY, ACCORDING TO
LOCKE.--To give
the reader a yet clearer view of the nature of abstract ideas,
and the uses they are thought necessary to, I shall add one more
passage out of the Essay on Human Understanding, (IV.
vii. 9) which is as
follows: "ABSTRACT IDEAS are not so obvious or easy to children or the
yet unexercised mind as particular ones. If they seem so to grown men it
is only because by constant and familiar use they are made so. For, when
we nicely reflect upon them, we shall find that general ideas are
fictions and contrivances of the mind, that carry difficulty with them,
and do not so easily offer themselves as we are apt to imagine. For
example, does it not require some pains and skill to form the general
idea of a triangle (which is yet none of the most abstract,
comprehensive, and difficult); for it must be neither oblique nor
rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, nor scalenon, but ALL AND
NONE of these at once? In effect, it is something imperfect that cannot
exist, an idea wherein some parts of several different and INCONSISTENT
ideas are put together. It is true the mind in this imperfect state has
need of such ideas, and makes all the haste to them it can, for the
CONVENIENCY OF COMMUNICATION AND ENLARGEMENT OF
KNOWLEDGE, to both which
it is naturally very much inclined. But yet one has reason to suspect
such ideas are marks of our imperfection. At least this is enough to show
that the most abstract and general ideas are not those that the mind is
first and most easily acquainted with, nor such as its earliest knowledge
is conversant about."--If any man has the faculty of framing in his mind
such an idea of a triangle as is here described, it is in vain to pretend
to dispute him out of it, nor would I go about it. All I desire is that
the reader would fully and certainly inform himself whether he has such
an idea or no. And this, methinks, can be no hard task for anyone to
perform. What more easy than for anyone to look a little into his own
thoughts, and there try whether he has, or can attain to have, an idea
that shall correspond with the description that is here given of the
general idea of a triangle, which is NEITHER OBLIQUE NOR
RECTANGLE,
EQUILATERAL, EQUICRURAL NOR SCALENON, BUT ALL AND NONE
OF THESE AT ONCE?
14. BUT THEY ARE NOT NECESSARY FOR COMMUNICATION.--Much is here
said of the difficulty that abstract ideas carry with them, and
the pains and skill requisite to the forming them. And it is on
all hands agreed that there is need of great toil and labour of the mind,
to emancipate our thoughts from particular objects, and raise them to
those sublime speculations that are conversant about abstract ideas. From
all which the natural consequence should seem to be, that so DIFFICULT a
thing as the forming abstract ideas was not necessary for COMMUNICATION,
which is so EASY and familiar to ALL SORTS OF MEN. But, we are told, if
they seem obvious and easy to grown men, IT IS ONLY
BECAUSE BY CONSTANT
AND FAMILIAR USE THEY ARE MADE SO. Now, I would fain know at what time it
is men are employed in surmounting that difficulty, and furnishing
themselves with those necessary helps for discourse. It cannot be when
they are grown up, for then it seems they are not conscious of any such
painstaking; it remains therefore to be the business of their childhood.
And surely the great and multiplied labour of framing abstract notions
will be found a hard task for that tender age. Is it not a hard thing to
imagine that a couple of children cannot prate together of their
sugar-plums and rattles and the rest of their little trinkets, till they
have first tacked together numberless inconsistencies, and so framed in
their minds ABSTRACT GENERAL IDEAS, and annexed them to every common name
they make use of?
15. NOR FOR THE ENLARGEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE.--Nor do I think them
a whit more needful for the ENLARGEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE
than for
COMMUNICATION. It is, I know, a point much insisted on, that
all knowledge and demonstration are about universal notions, to
which I fully agree: but then it doth not appear to me that those notions
are formed by ABSTRACTION in the manner PREMISED--
UNIVERSALITY, so far as
I can comprehend, not consisting in the absolute, POSITIVE nature or
conception of anything, but in the RELATION it bears to the particulars
signified or represented by it; by virtue whereof it is that things,
names, or notions, being in their own nature PARTICULAR, are rendered
UNIVERSAL. Thus, when I demonstrate any proposition concerning triangles,
it is to be supposed that I have in view the universal idea of a
triangle; which ought not to be understood as if I could frame an idea of
a triangle which was neither equilateral, nor scalenon, nor equicrural;
but only that the particular triangle I consider, whether of this or that
sort it matters not, doth equally stand for and represent all rectilinear
triangles whatsoever, and is in that sense UNIVERSAL.
All which seems
very plain and not to include any difficulty in it.
16. OBJECTION.--ANSWER.--But here it will be dem