Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-03

term not only all nueS, nut also Wnlte
and black, and every variety of light
and shade. Seeing is a specific sense
perception, state of mind; color is
its primary object, the thing perceived.
l am conscious of the color"
Definition of Color
He then proceeds to define what color
is, as follows: THE retina serves to
receive, modify, and transmit in modi-
fed form through the Optic nerve the
light-producing vibrations; but 1 am
unconscious of the part 1T plays, or
even of its existence. 1 am conscious
only of a result, which has been as
certained to occur at a sight center
far within the cerebrum, and I call it
color. We thus trace this percept, as
the others, into the nervous centers,
and find that color, too, is phenom-
enon of the brain. 1t is not that we
perceive the sight center to be colored;
but 1T is that the sight center is the
immediate object, the material thing
that directly causes the conscious inn
preston of color in the mind, and
therefore it is the material object inn
mediately known or perceived. We
commonly attribute color to external
objects, and think of 1t as residing on
their surfaces. We regard light as
something beyond ourselves, filling
space. There is, alphabetically, Vi
brating ether filling space which
causes the phenomenon; but there is
no brightness beyond ourselves out III
space, nor any color, blue, yellow, or
red, residing on the surface of bodies.
Colors are wholly the phenomena OF
ones brain, caused by the supposed
vibrations; so that, were there no eye
to see, the sun would not be bright
the moon and stars would not shine,
the sky would have no tints, the land
1tfnC
darkness would reign throughout the
universe"
l have quoted thus extensively from
Professor Davis in order that you may
begin to realize to what an extent
qualities which you are accustomed TO
ascribe to things are not in reallty
qualities of those things, or qualities
of things at all, but are merely states
of the so-called human mind.
To recognize material object direct
ly. as we seem to do, is admitted to be
out of the question by every one who
makes any pretension to reflective
thought along these lines. Hence it Is
no wonder we find this admission from
Professor Davis, on page 16: The
doctrine of immediate perception, IN
its usual form, has encountered many
objections which, if our proposition
be allowed, are avoided. We shall find
hereinafter that an escape from ideal
ism, or the doctrine that non-ego
does not exist, can be accomplished
only on the ground that extra organic
objects are not Immediately perceived"
Admission Is Humiliating
This is all very contrary to what we
have supposed to be our daily expe-
rience of life and things. To have to
admit thus early in our investigation
that when we look at horse or other
object, we do not see the object at all,
but only experience some kind of cere
lral excitement which takes place in
some remote recess of the brain, is, to
say the least of it, humiliating to COM
nonsense. And yet the Votaries of
matter or materialistic philosophy are
driven to this extremity by their own
admission. Either they must maintain
this proposition or share the. to them,
more dreadful fate of letting go their
hold on matter altogether, and submit
ting to be swallowed up in the vortex
of idealsm.
Leaving our friend the materialist
to work out at his leisure, If possible, |
this problem of getting matter into the
of mind, let us turn to
that other great stream of philosophic |
thought which has flowed down
through the centuries from Socrates
and Plato to the present time. 1t ap-
pears to me we can hardly hope to
find a fairer or more Intelligent and i.
practical representative of modern
Ideaiism than is presented in the per- |
son of Prof Borden P. Bovine, pro-
who revised and republished !
his work on metaphysics as late as
1898.
However before proceeding further |
With our investigation, let me again |
assure you that it is by no means my
purpose to commit you to any partic-
liar school of philosophy. What l am
rying to do for you is to call your
attention to the thoroughly unreliable
haracter of what people are pleased to
erm their common sense experiences,
s they transpire in daily life, when
yer these experiences are subjected to
nything like critical analysis.
page 296. Professor Bovine
ays: "Objects exist for us only as the
nind builds up valid conceptions with
n itself. The forms of knowledge are
forms of thought, and we can
ave no knowledge which is not deter
lined by those forms. Hence it fol-
1ws that our apparent knowledge can
ave no objective validity unless our
bjects themselves are cast in the
loulds of thought or unless the laws
nd categories of thought are also laws
nd categOries of being. Without this
ssential identity or at least parallel
SIN between our thought and things
here must be a parallel between the
and the reality. and a re-
ulting failure of knowledge"
Thoughts and Things
Also page 80: "Our thoughts are
OF things. but are valid for things;
we must at last come
own to a thinker whose thoughts are
nings; that is, to a thinker whose OBJ
ects are only his realized thoughts"
-lso pages 422, 423 of his "Metaphy- I
cs." 1.-The illusion further rests on
le failure to distinguish between the
henomenal and the ontological reality. {
ommon sense unhestatngly takes
henomena for substantial realities,
nd takes the phenomenal categories
S the deepest facts of real existence.
n this way it builds up mechanical
nd material system Which often
roves a Veritable Frankenstein for 5
s creator. But when we came to
tudy this extra-mental reality we
)und it extremely elusive. 1t finally
ppeared that the world of things can
e defined and understood only as we
i've up the notion of an extra mental
aality altogether, and make the en- l
re world a thought world; that is, a {
orld that exists only through and in s
elation to intelligence. Mind is the {
nly ontological reality Ideas have I
My conceptual reality. Ideas ener- l
zed by will have phenomenal reality. I
esides these realities there is no :
her" {
Now, if you are not unwilling to be '
ctructad nv SlIch learned man as q