第 30 节
作者:
桃桃逃 更新:2022-08-21 16:33 字数:9314
capriciously when it seeks to ignore this admission when speaking about faith; or
it betrays a want of reflection not to know; that; if the necessity of education be
once admitted; mediation is pronounced indispensable。
§67n
The reminiscence of ideas spoken of by Plato is equivalent to saying that ideas implicitly exist in
man; instead of being; as the Sophists assert; a foreign importation into his mind。 But to conceive
knowledge as reminiscence does not interfere with; or set aside as useless; the development of
what is implicitly in man; which development is another word for mediation。 The same holds good
of the innate ideas that we find in Descartes and the Scotch philosophers。 These ideas are only
potential in the first instance; and should be looked at as being a sort of mere capacity in man。
§68
In the case of these experiences the appeal turns upon something that shows itself
bound up with immediate consciousness。 Even if this combination be in the first
instance taken as an external and empirical connection; still; even for empirical
observation; the fact of its being constant shows it to be essential and inseparable。
But; again; if this immediate consciousness; as exhibited in experience; be taken
separately; so far as it is a consciousness of God and the divine nature; the state
of mind which it implies is generally described as an exaltation above the finite;
above the senses; and above the instinctive desires and affections of the natural
heart: which exaltation passes over into; and terminates in; faith in God and a
divine order。 It is apparent; therefore; that; though faith may be an immediate
knowledge and certainty; it equally implies the interposition of this process as its
antecedent and condition。
It has been already observed; that the so…called proofs of the being of God; which
start from finite being; give an expression to this exaltation。 In that light they are
no inventions of an oversubtle reflection; but the necessary and native channel in
which the movement of mind runs: though it may be that; in their ordinary form;
these proofs have not their correct and adequate expression。
§69
It is the passage (§ 64) from the subjective Idea to being which forms the main
concern of the doctrine of immediate knowledge。 A primary and self…evident
interconnection is declared to exist between our Idea and being。 Yet precisely this
central point of transition; utterly irrespective of any connections which show in
experience; clearly involves a mediation。 And the mediation is of no imperfect or
unreal kind; where the mediation takes place with and through something
external; but one comprehending both antecedent and conclusion。
§70
For; what this theory asserts is that truth lies neither in the Idea as a merely
subjective thought; nor in mere being on its own account…that mere being per se;
a being that is not of the Idea; is the sensible finite being of the world。 Now all
this only affirms; without demonstration; that the Idea has truth only by means of
being; and being has truth only by means of the Idea。 The maxim of immediate
knowledge rejects an indefinite empty immediacy (and such is abstract being; or
pure unity taken by itself); and affirms in its stead the unity of the Idea with
being。 And it acts rightly in so doing。 But it is stupid not to see that the unity of
distinct terms or modes is not merely a purely immediate unity; i。e。 unity empty
and indeterminate; but that … with equal emphasis…the one term is shown to have
truth only as mediated through the other … or; if the phrase be preferred; that
either term is only mediated with truth through the other。 That the quality of
mediation is involved in the very immediacy of intuition is thus exhibited as a fact;
against which understanding; conformably to the fundamental maxim of
immediate knowledge that the evidence of consciousness is infallible; can have
nothing to object。 It is only ordinary abstract understanding which takes the terms
of mediation and immediacy; each by itself absolutely; to represent an inflexible
line of distinction; and thus draws upon its own head the hopeless task of
reconciling them。 The difficulty; as we have shown; has no existence in the fact;
and。 it vanishes in the speculative notion。
§71
The one…sidedness of the intuitional school has certain characteristics attending
upon it; which we shall proceed to point out in their main features; now that we
have discussed the fundamental principle。 The first of these corollaries is as
follows。 Since the criterion of truth is found; not in the nature of the content; but
in the mere fact of consciousness; every alleged truth has no other basis than
subjective certitude and the assertion that we discover a certain fact in our
consciousness。 What I discover in my consciousness is thus exaggerated into a
fact of the consciousness of all; and even passed off for the very nature of
consciousness。
Among the so…called proofs of the existence of God; there used to stand the
consensus gentium; to which appeal is made as early as Cicero。 The consensus
gentium is a weighty authority; and the transition is easy and natural; from the
circumstance that a certain fact is found in the consciousness of every one to the
conclusion that it is a necessary element in the very nature of consciousness。 In
this category of general agreement there was latent the deep…rooted perception;
which does not escape even the least cultivated mind; that the consciousness of
the individual is at the same time particular and accidental。 Yet unless we examine
the nature of this consciousness itself; stripping it of its particular and accidental
elements and; by the toilsome operation of reflection disclosing the universal in its
entirety and purity; it is only a unanimous agreement upon a given point that can
authorise a decent presumption that that point is part of the very nature of
consciousness。
Of course; if thought insists on seeing the necessity of what is presented as a fact
of general occurrence; the consensus gentium is certainly not sufficient。 Yet even
granting the universality of the fact to be a satisfactory proof; it has been found
impossible to establish the belief in God on such an argument; because experience
shows that there are individuals and nations without any such faith。
In order to judge of the greater or less extent to which Experience shows cases of Atheism or of
the belief in God; it is all…important to know if the mere general conception of deity suffices; or if
a more definite knowledge of God is required。 The Christian world would certainly refuse the
title of God to the idols of the Hindus and the Chinese; to the fetishes of the Africans; and even
to the gods of Greece themselves。 If so; a believer in these idols would not be a believer in God。
If it were contended; on the other hand; that such a belief in idols implies some sort of belief in
God; as the species implies the genus; then idolatry would argue not faith in an idol merely; but
faith in God。 The Athenians took an opposite view。 The poets and philosophers who explained
Zeus to be a cloud; and maintained that there was only one God; were treated as atheists at
Athens。
The danger in these questions lies in looking at what the mind may make out of an object; and
not what that object actually and explicitly is。 If we fail to note this distinction; the commonest
perceptions of men's senses will be religion: for every such perception; and indeed every act of
mind; implicitly contains the principle which; when it is purified and developed; rises to religion。
But to be capable of religion is one thing; to have it another。 And religion yet implicit is only a
capacity or a possibility。
Thus in modern times; travellers have found tribes (as Captains Ross and Parry found the
Esquimaux) which; as they tell us; have not even that small modicum of religion possessed by
African sorcerers; the goetes of Herodotus。 On the other hand; an Englishman; who spent the
first months of the last Jubilee at Rome; says; in his account of the modern Romans; that the
common people are bigots; whilst those who can read and write are atheists to a man。
The charge of Atheism is seldom heard in modern times: principally because the facts and the
requirements of religion are reduced to a minimum。 (See § 73。)
But there can be nothing shorter and more convenient than to have the bare
assertion to make; that we discover a fact in our consciousness; and are certain
that it is true: and to declare that this certainty; instead of proceeding from our
particular mental constitution only; belongs to the very nature of the mind。
§72
A second corollary which results from holding immediacy of consciousness to be
the criterion of truth is that all superstition or idolatry is all