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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1900)
THE TORCH o f REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, APRIL 26, I960. 5 * Ki , 1 * r * * .« * j — - « - « rr„.„ \\ hat more than an admitted tact other kind -green,” soothed kind that w e k Z X nhi 7 ’ ‘bere * ,ight ’ bere is conceivable regarding what con black,” or “violet" or any other thing in itself, through our'senses' LtTn'.’n P r n f A 7 Doll“ 7 ' ’ "fe i stitutes ° our Ur kno" ledSe of knowledge of a a thing? thing? to allo f the various arrangementslofconSciou8nes8” isprodUced?Do’n t t h e f <e .tH .no n ," (0nPage, 168)‘° N° 'e that Prob Huxley ’'*” d —k con-* ,n u e ,it.-..,,sn r ...,.3v..r*oo.Tw.»^-t,ai,k'er ~n\n— ^ u ^ r 7 a7 r ; ; T ------ ? Hons of tne narticiAB or ____ u._ . . . . a rat ’ m,ppj owls, bats, etc., can sciousnebs. Well, a tree or a man tions the exterior particles money he has in his vaults, and if different objects causing different it is silver, gold or paper, whether see where it appears to us to be is not a phenomenon, but a very velocities or amplitudes of the ether- he sees it or not? What difference pitch dark”, he concludes that: “If concrete reality! Such realities he waves that happen to impinge upon can it make to the thing itself, or . . . . . . . • . there would be no such putable facts—whether of conscious- them, producing the various effects how can it affect its condition when we cognize as the color of the ob it makes an impression upon our cond.t.on as darkness. That is the ness or in themselves, ject we behold. Now ^re we not as senses? Thence by determining its same as saying that darkness is in ! But while Prof. Huxley asserts US, RATHfcR T H A N BEING A CONEITION • t h a t “ A l l n l io n n l fully warranted in designating the nature and qualities with the aid kv'rwv.r ,, ^ fcITiON, that All phenomena are known to surface conditions of an object that of our senses we know just what it mjne * ' T° USe (Emphasis | us as facts of consciousness,” Ideal- produces a certain state of con is apart from them. T6 , . . . I,sm takes the converse view, hold- sciousness as “ white,” or “green” or 7 ,P lermS can “ r ing that ,he « ‘ernal world as we All objective realities are so in- “yellow,” as we are in thus denom dissolubly associated with,or united presence of 7il & rnied tbaJ the perceive it through our perceptions inating the effect said conditions to, their properties that to consider from a luminn l U ’Tn radlated maT *‘ave 00 resemblance whatever them apart from each other is ou l ' ” o 2 „ ^ f l l u m . n a t e s to the absolute reality, thus deny- have upon our consciousness? Does T " 7 ? im’ H lhe lia b ility of what Prof. the primary cause of these effects of the question. Yet upon the as- ! L ' X h . , i " 1" I H " X'ey "d” “ 8 ‘° be faClS °f co°- not consist of their variegated Burned position of such an utter im- i Louse T molecular surface conditions? And possibility the idealistic philosophy | through , hp » , • lu[" 'n081t’' semusness, and that they are known " 8 ”8 8“<=b Now pray tell is the secondary cause of these is based. The properties^, a thing i ism or ‘ot T h n 7 effects not in the ether-waves which constitute its very essence; how I ether-wave» affect ’ l" “ ""J10"8 me’ lf anT oue can-on wl‘at grounds depend for their velocities upon the then can they he dissociated from I nrX i n g e . ^ Wt V'.SUal °rganl8ms- tke belie, is based that there may n° reSPmblance bet™ " ‘b«8a molecular arrangements of the par the thing itself? If it cannot £ a3 Heh ticles of the thing perceived? different outside or independent of I of light’ “ 8 W form facts °f consciousness and the thing cognition than it is wi,,7 co g n itio n Jt ti ) ’ P " it8e'f that Produced <>' Well then, here we have two “ exl8tlng Out' wh? the8e facts d« not deserve to distinct causes in the nature of act it must always be just exactly as I „f or « 8 nisi”s- And to this lower I be placed in the category of defi- ual entities,which combined,contain we perceive it to be. “By their fruits: i.e. qualities 17 " ! ° 'B ’V 00ntend; Plants and | nitely ascertained knowledge! all the essential elements of what is really “color” in itself through such shall ye know them,” holds as good I whieh^n ° F T ° ‘ anllDal llfe’ ln Again, the noumenon being ad- in this case as in any other. Will L • I V ' ” 1“ Organ8 are »«yetlm itted by Idealists to be an un- combination of entities. Yet we are asked to ignore these entities any practical physicist take excep- ,,r 'hahh, ’ are . 8ll80ePtlble> and questionable fact in that it is the and to recognize only the p.-ychic tion to it? It L a n s ; determine ,Ph ± „ ? , h ^ rce,''e ,,1‘’ pre8ence ° b^ tive reality of our subjective °r' p8ycbic .8tates- it only remains to effects they have upon our percep the properties of a thing and you i ' know the thing itself. H one were f c ’h X J ‘Z, “ i ’ 7 P8reeiH 8ubi*cl <° a chemical analvsis, tive faculties! Thus, in the recog 8 , L°T '8 " f°r ‘he re’ and then- associating the facts of nition of what constitutes color, to ask a chemist what do you enp- PP pose are the qualities of a thing ° rgan,'8m Wa8 U . 8ci" ~ produced thereby Idealism ranks the sense-impres pose are the qualities of a thing special,y adapted, sions above the objective realities apart from the thing itself, or out- with the judgment connected there No one conte8t8 Prof R that produce them—“placing the side of the psychic states to which contention that: «‘All phenomena with, we have a tolerably approxi cart before the horse;” subordinat it gives rise he would first of all are, in their uItimate an mate conception of what the thing ing the greater to the lesser, the demand that you produce the thing known to us on]y a8 [act(j ((f really has been or is in itself with real to the unreal! all its qualifications. separa e rom Hs qualities. This sciousness” (quoted by Mr. Under- “ What are phenomena?” asks Mr. The various objective realities in would enable him to analyze one at wood). That is to say: We do Underwood, answering: “ What which all the elementary conditions ■ tbe " ° ume"°n” or "thing ! not 8ee or perceive the , hj . and properties of what we term itself first, and ,ts properties after- but only as it produces Lrtain appears; the appearance of the ‘‘color" are combined, existing in wards. Any wonder that Science |states of consciousness within us real; the effects upon consciousness dependent of psychic cognition, in id ealist ?™ ''«Parings of Thus, when we see a tree, we only of that which is.” The real, or that which is, being admitted, why ques validates the idealistic claims that Mr.Underwood continues further- n l u h r . '? 9 " ''V “ 0"’ °r ima8p.and tion its reality? What difference color does not exist outside of, or “Tkn arf. I u “« s ig n e r , not the tree itself, upon our sensor- apart from, the sensations it pro The external world, as we conceive ¡um. When we smell a rose, we does it make to a reality whether its appearance is phenomenal in its duces. Science sustains us in as Ind d 0U.r , ° /'n8k0f Perception perceive its emanations, not the serting that an orange is yellow, and modes of thought, may have entire rose itself, upon our senses. nature or not? Conceding the ap grass is green, etc., whether they X o h ,? ” T ! e WbateVer l° ' he When we feel a splinter in our flesh, pearance of a phenomenon,concedes make any psychic impressions or absolute reality. Between the in- ¡,B effects are conveyed to our cere- the reality of that which appeared, Qot. The conscious states to which ternal and external order there is bral seat of conscionsness, not the for something unreal could certain the molecular conditions of the ob ben8affirmed >> T .e“ bIanCe ?annot 8P” "<®r itself. These sense-lmpres- ly never have produced the phe nomenon. ject perceived, in connection with b “• 6 rolling that to sions are phenomenal—psychic—in the ether-waves emanating from it, He further avers: “That which e in erna order ot our con- their nature, and in their final give rise, are but the luminous cousness produced through the ac- j aI,alvpi9 redocjb)e is, is the thing in itself—that which fact8 of etheric reflections upon our senHor- t.on of ether-waves of l.ght upon I sciousness. No Materialist has ev- is independent of the perceiving Inmof the color-conditions or quali oar visual orgamsm the outside er disputed these relations of the self.” So far very good—all things ties resident in the thing itself. world appears luminous, wh.le to external world with the “internal are independent of the perceiving self. (he Materialistic position There is nothing in this conten the external order, i. e., to all out- order” of sentlency. could not have been laid down in v .. tion to sustain the charge of Mr. side of those organs, there is total darkness, our knowledge of the E’tc,‘p,ion may< however, be tak- plainer terms. But hequalifies this nderwood that Materialism holds 6 e^°a on^ ln r°f- proposition with the rather incon- incon- that the qualities of a thing are ob things thus affected is in no way rr , , jective realities. We claim that curtailed, since we then know that f, n, yH. pri°P°r lt,On’° nthe gr°Und grU°US aH8ertion that: “This is ° coneciol,sneH8 is as th e ‘unknowable’, the ‘inscrutable’, the qualities constitute the nature in one case they are within, and in • p & °f the thing perceived and as such the other case, ouside of the sphere ln ,RPU a e a apt as the judgment th e ‘unpicturable’, the ‘essence of can make it. being’.” Incongruous because the cannot be dissociated from, or re of luminosity. That is all the dif- ®RS(^ ,a garded separate from it. To use ference there can be in regard to q - , a fa c t’’ alE ffic ie n t for pos- admission that “that which is in- a fact (on dependent of the perceiving self”, I nderwood’8 own words in the question of resemblance of the t 'v • Ostentation of these views: “ We interiorand exterior order of con- xnn Hiae8>)aild is beyond contro- concedes its independent existence ditions. No other dissimilarity is vcrR^ Th,fs admission Prof. Hux- and if we know it exists, it must be 11 w and distinguish objects by conceivable, hence there can be, ’ey made, hence why qualify or placed in the realm of the knowa- the states of consciousness which, none. . modify it with the word “onlv” ? ------- n — r - n ---- r______ - I I V V 1 /H V 1 I V 7I ▼ V I J lv J I j ( • Concluded on 6th page.
