DISTINCTIONS.

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 When examining the terms and data of our

general inquiry in the opening chapter, we distinguished (8) be

tween knowledge proper and mere consciousness ; between reflex

consciousness and the implicit, concomitant awareness which

the conscious subject necessarily has of itself in all its conscious

states or activities, without which these could not be conscious,

and which is usually described as direct consciousness ; between

non-cognitive (volitional, emotional, etc.) and cognitive con

sciousness ; between the interpretative objectivity of those cog

nitive states of consciousness which fall short of judgment, and

the formal or consciously asserted objectivity of the judgment

itself. We have also been obliged, in our exposition of the

doctrines of Descartes, Kant and Scholasticism (77), to discuss at

some length the nature and validity of our awareness of the self

as a concrete, existing, individual reality. Presupposing what

has been said already in those connexions we may be brief in

our present exposition of the cognitive value or significance of

the facts of consciousness and memory, an exposition which

will serve as a necessary and natural transition from intellectual

knowledge to sense knowledge.

 

The psychological distinction between intellectual conscious

ness, whereby we are aware of our intellectual activities such as

thought and volition, and sense consciousness, whereby we are

aware of our external sense functions and the states and con

ditions of our bodies, is not itself a datum of consciousness,

but an inference arising from introspection and based on the

 

VOL. II. I

 

2 THEOR Y OF KNO WLEDGE

 

diversity of the objects presented in the conscious states. As an

activity, consciousness of whatsoever kind reveals itself as be

longing wholly to the one conscious self or Ego.

 

The distinction between direct and reflex consciousness is

itself a datum of human consciousness : we are aware of the

difference between any direct cognitive act (direct consciousness)

and the act whereby we deliberately make our own conscious

activities {psychological reflection), or their objects (pntological

reflection), the object of special and distinct contemplation. From

the nature of this activity scholastic psychologists infer the im

material or spiritual nature of the faculty which elicits it, the

intellect, for the reason that no cognitive power of the sense

order, functioning through an animated material organ, could

possibly elicit such a reflex cognitive act. Whatever about the

nature of the faculty, or the implications of the fact, of reflex

consciousness, there can at all events be no doubt about the fact

itself.

 

 When examining the terms and data of our

general inquiry in the opening chapter, we distinguished (8) be

tween knowledge proper and mere consciousness ; between reflex

consciousness and the implicit, concomitant awareness which

the conscious subject necessarily has of itself in all its conscious

states or activities, without which these could not be conscious,

and which is usually described as direct consciousness ; between

non-cognitive (volitional, emotional, etc.) and cognitive con

sciousness ; between the interpretative objectivity of those cog

nitive states of consciousness which fall short of judgment, and

the formal or consciously asserted objectivity of the judgment

itself. We have also been obliged, in our exposition of the

doctrines of Descartes, Kant and Scholasticism (77), to discuss at

some length the nature and validity of our awareness of the self

as a concrete, existing, individual reality. Presupposing what

has been said already in those connexions we may be brief in

our present exposition of the cognitive value or significance of

the facts of consciousness and memory, an exposition which

will serve as a necessary and natural transition from intellectual

knowledge to sense knowledge.

 

The psychological distinction between intellectual conscious

ness, whereby we are aware of our intellectual activities such as

thought and volition, and sense consciousness, whereby we are

aware of our external sense functions and the states and con

ditions of our bodies, is not itself a datum of consciousness,

but an inference arising from introspection and based on the

 

VOL. II. I

 

2 THEOR Y OF KNO WLEDGE

 

diversity of the objects presented in the conscious states. As an

activity, consciousness of whatsoever kind reveals itself as be

longing wholly to the one conscious self or Ego.

 

The distinction between direct and reflex consciousness is

itself a datum of human consciousness : we are aware of the

difference between any direct cognitive act (direct consciousness)

and the act whereby we deliberately make our own conscious

activities {psychological reflection), or their objects (pntological

reflection), the object of special and distinct contemplation. From

the nature of this activity scholastic psychologists infer the im

material or spiritual nature of the faculty which elicits it, the

intellect, for the reason that no cognitive power of the sense

order, functioning through an animated material organ, could

possibly elicit such a reflex cognitive act. Whatever about the

nature of the faculty, or the implications of the fact, of reflex

consciousness, there can at all events be no doubt about the fact

itself.