The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-11-02
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.



And now, behold, Diogenes rushes
into the breach and, buckling on his
tinsel armor, like the brave little
man he evidently Is not. shuts his
eyes and pulls the trigger and fires
his little blunderbuss from the Sc
cure ambush of a disguised name.
Was II a too intimate association
with quinine or poker that led Do
genes to conclude that his article
would probably have more weight in
the community in which he lives II
, signed by a name other than his own2
Let me commend his friends wisdom
in the use he made 90 the doctors
prescription. II his only alternative
was to take them or play poker with
them. | think he was justified in the
use he made of the quinine tablets.
But what will become of the Doctors
prescriptions when all the people get
as wise as his friend and Christian
, Science and the constables break up
all the poker games? doubt II
there ever was a subject that offered
more provoking opportunity TO its
would-be critics to make public ex-
i hibitions of their ignorance. or an
opportunity of which they have more
unfailing and with such unparalleled
success availed themselves than
Christian Science.
Now | am quite as well aware.
imagine. as Diogenes could possible
be. OF the different use sometimes
made OF the two words conception
and perception. especially by modern
psychologists and philosophers OF a
minor grade who seem to find con-
genial pastime in mouse-tracking be-
tween these words. but | used the
word concep advlsedly and in the
same sense In which Il Is understood
and used by the most distinguished
scientists and philosophers of the
past two centuries. Both conception
and perception are given US by mind
and We can have no consciousness of
an object or OF its presence except
as il Is given us by mind. All that
can now be reasonably contended by
the materlalists is that there may be
material or nervous processes lead
ing to a mental result which Is called
perception. but the percept or per
ception is in itself wholly mental and
contains no material cement OF any
kind. The objects given us by per-
ception are mental objects, concepts
or phenome of the human mind.
as / have sald. and can ret possibly
be anything else. All the objects.
therefore. which we see around us
and which seem to be material OBJ
jects existing in space independent
OF mind and to constitute the objects
of material universe. are merely
the phenomena or concepts OF the
human mind. Mind can not be con
scious of anything but its own con-
leepts or states We may contend n
we choose that there are material OBJ
ljects out in space which correspond
to these mental pictures or objects
given us in perception. just az We
may contend that the moon Is made
of green cheese. This Is a free coun-
try and nobody could put us in Jail
for H. But Is II either prudent or
profitable to disregard the conclus-
ions OF our profoundest thinkers in
all ages who have devoted their lives
to the study OF these very problems?
Back Of the issues raised by Dsogenes
are some OF the profoundest questions
that have engaged the attention of
scholarly men in all ages questions
apparently little dreamed OF in he
PHILOSOPHY of Diogenes. I possibly
could not hope to make my meaning
any clearer or more instructive to the
readers of The Sun than by quoting
at some length from "A Cumb for
the Modern Symposium" By the
late Prof. John Fiske. OF Yale. which
appears in the volume of his works
entitled "Darwinism and other Es-
says." viz:
''Materialism of this sort has plenty
of defenders, no doubt, but not
among those who are skilled in phil
osophy. The unframed thinker. who
believes that the group Of phenomena
constituting the table on which he
Is writing has an objective existence
Independent of consciousness. will
probably find no difficulty In accept
ing this sort OF materlallsm II he
II devoted to the study of nervous
physiology, he will be very likely to
adopt some such crude notion. and
to proclaim il as zealously as II II
we're very important truth, calcu-
lated to promote, in many ways. the
welfare OF mankind The science Of
such a writer is very likely to be
sound and valuable. and what he
tells us about woorara-poson and
frogs legs. and acute mania. viii
probably be worthy OF serious atten-
ton. But with his philosophy ii is
quite otherwise. When he has pro-
ceeded as far in subjective analysis