BOOK I. CH. I. § 6. method. then, would be conceived as motion or change in atoms or between them, in molecules or between them, in masses or between them; as motion if space Need for this is involved as well as time; as change of condition if time alone is involved, and a single atom envisaged, though even this would seem to involve imagining the atom itself distinguished into parts. But change of condition in larger masses involves space as well as time, and is change of configuration, or motion of parts. The conception of rest, the negation of motion, is a compound conception; it is the equilibrium produced by two or more forces working in opposite directions; it is not the absence of motion, but the balance of more motions than one. The terms statical and dynamical are therefore terms of method, signifying the adoption of a point of view or a starting point in the treatment of the phenomena. (See Mr. Grove's Correlation of Physical Forces, and esp. page 206-7, 3d edition.) 6. If this, though untechnically stated, is correct, what does it amount to but saying that force is the combination of new time and space relations with what we had already before us in the conception of single atoms; for some time and space relations we had already in them? When, therefore, the physicist has reached his ultimate and simplest elements, atoms and force, or change in time and space relations of atoms, he has not reached what is absolutely ultimate and simplest, even so far as our knowledge goes; he has not gone so far in analysis as our knowledge enables him to do, for he can still distinguish the logically separable elements, which compose his ultimata, just as much as they compose the obvious perceptions and presentations of daily life. The VOL. I. E BOOK I. § 6. argument does not rest only upon the fact that the representation of an atom is formed by imagination Need for this from the presentation of visible and tangible objects, but also on the circumstance that both presentation and representation can be analysed into the same logically separable elements. method. 7. Metaphysic, then, digs down deeper into phenomena than physical science does; deeper in one direction at least; for the method of physical science which analyses phenomena into minute empirical portions, atoms and their movements, is deep in another sense or direction, not entered on at all by metaphysic. If however the physicist could show, either that the ultimate elements of the physical sciences, atoms and their movements, were not farther distinguishable into metaphysical elements, logically but not empirically separable from each other; or that the ultimate elements of metaphysic, feelings, time, and space, were empirical or complete objects, such as are the ultimate elements of physic ;-then, in either case, the logical priority of metaphysic to physic, in dealing with phenomena from the subjective side, would have to be abandoned. But to show that atoms cannot be conceived without force, nor force without atoms, is merely to show that the metaphysical conception, of elements only logically separable from each other, has a wider application than merely to the phenomena of metaphysic, namely, to physical science itself; for it would be showing the ultimate elements of physic to be still more complex than they have been here supposed to be. Again it is often said that the conception of pure force, or force as a cause of motion, is subjective, but that motion, the effect, is objective. The latter Воок І. CH. I. § 6. method. is then regarded as the object of physical science, and the former relegated to some metaphysical limbo. But the fact is, that force, when conceived as such Need for this a "cause" of motion, is conceived as objectively existing, and as much by the physicist as by the metaphysician, and equally unprofitably by both, since it is nothing but motion itself counted over again; while on the other hand motion is conceived and analysed subjectively as much as objectively, by the metaphysician as much as by the physicist, and profitably by both to the extent that each deals with it. In short there are no notions and no objects which are exclusively objective or exclusively subjective; none which are exclusively objects either of physic or of metaphysic. It is not in this empirical way that the line can be drawn between them. § 7. 1. While the method of subjective observation is applicable to all phenomena without exception, in conjunction with that of objective, the moment in which we pass from observing presentations to observing representations, that is, repetitions in the mind of things actually seen, heard, or felt, that moment the subjective method remains to a great extent the only one available or useful to any purpose. But to what precise extent is it the only one available? Precisely to the extent that general agreement has not been effected about the meaning of the words in which the representations are described; and the immediate purpose of the method is to observe and describe the representations so accurately that others may recognise their accuracy, and have the same fixed and definite thoughts and feelings called up by the same words. There are many representations which are already in this condition; for instance, $ 7. Aim of the following analysis. BOOK I. § 7. following analysis. those of many past events in history, say the execution of Charles I. All men attach the same meanAim of the ing to the words describing such events, so as to have the same pictures in their minds when the words are heard. But there is much even in a representation of this sort which is not fixed, namely, the feelings of the actors in the event described. No description can be supposed to give these with perfect certainty and definiteness. The cause of this is, that neither those who have described such events nor we who read the descriptions have had a logic of feelings sufficiently accurate, or supplied with such minutely appropriated terms, as to catch and fix them in a narrative which all persons should understand. Generally we may say, that, when the representation which is examined or described is a representation of something that has been or can be an object of presentation to the external senses, then there may be agreement as to the meaning of the words describing it, and the method may be predominantly objective, the subjective aspect of it ceasing to attract attention. But on the other hand, where the representation is of an emotion, or passion, or desire, attaching to such external objects, there, the immediate question being as to the particular feeling involved in them, and this being the matter to be settled and brought to a definition, the subjective method, that of observing the subjective aspect of the phenomena, becomes of itself, owing to that very circumstance, prominent and attractive of the attention. 2. There is then no "hard and fast line" between the methods of subjective and objective observation; both keep the eye steadily fixed on the phenomena; but while all observation, and methodical observation which is reasoning, inasmuch as it belongs to and is exercised by beings who have reflected, who are self-conscious and distinguish themselves from the objects of their thoughts, is necessarily both objective and subjective at once, the objective aspect of the observation is then first prominent, in any object-matter, when the definition and analysis of the object has been agreed upon and expressed by definite terms; in effecting which, while agreement is yet being arrived at, the subjective aspect is the prominent one. The possibility of changing into the objective method is a proof that the subjective work has been done. 3. Now in the history of events, the historian's first task is to discover what events and how have actually taken place, or have been presentations to the actors in them; this being done, there is a wide field left for the interpretation of those events, assignment of their emotional meaning both to the actors and for ourselves; and here is needed, as the first step, a logic or analysis of feeling, which as yet the subjective method can alone supply. Similarly in physiology of the nervous system, the first task of the physiologist is to show what the structure and functions of the nervous system are, and what actions definitely take place in it; and again, this being done, there is a wide field for the assignment of the definite feelings and thoughts, which depend upon those actions of the nervous system, and here again is needed as the first step the same analysis of feeling and thought, supplied as yet only by the subjective method. So that, while there is one field of enquiry which at present is only open to the sub BOOK I. § 7. Aim of the following analysis. |