1 40 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

knowledge of ourselves in the act of having some feeling

or experience a knowledge, the absolute certainty of

which is absolutely unquestionable. It is a fact which,

being ultimate, is necessarily not only undefmable and

undescribable, but also inexplicable. We know, as a fact,

that we are conscious, but how that fact comes about we

know no more than we know the "how" of any other

ultimate "that" e.g., "how" it is that "extended" bodies

are extended, or " how " it is that " motion " is a possibility,

or " how " it is we can have any knowledge at all.

As an abstract truth, as a universal,* consciousness is the

ideal perception which the mind gains by abstraction from

its experience of concrete conscious states of its own being.

Such abstract consciousness, like all other abstractions, is

of course only an idea, and has no real existence except

in that actual living consciousness of an individual conscious

being, which is the foundation of the idea.

Consciousness constantly attends our normal waking life,

though, of course, it is but rarely that we are expressly

conscious of our consciousness. We only become so by

turning back the mind and saying, " Now I know that I

am conscious." That is reflex consciousness. But, like all

our other ordinary mental acts, it is accompanied by direct

consciousness.

Had we not true and valid knowledge in our direct

consciousness, without the need of turning back the mind

and reflecting thereon, we could never have any knowledge

at all ; for we should have to go through a regressus ad

infinitum to obtain it in other words, we never could

obtain it.

When we do turn back the mind and reflect on our

experience, we become aware (with special attention to

the fact as a fact) expressly of what we may be doing,

* See ante, p. 6.

knowledge of ourselves in the act of having some feeling

or experience a knowledge, the absolute certainty of

which is absolutely unquestionable. It is a fact which,

being ultimate, is necessarily not only undefmable and

undescribable, but also inexplicable. We know, as a fact,

that we are conscious, but how that fact comes about we

know no more than we know the "how" of any other

ultimate "that" e.g., "how" it is that "extended" bodies

are extended, or " how " it is that " motion " is a possibility,

or " how " it is we can have any knowledge at all.

As an abstract truth, as a universal,* consciousness is the

ideal perception which the mind gains by abstraction from

its experience of concrete conscious states of its own being.

Such abstract consciousness, like all other abstractions, is

of course only an idea, and has no real existence except

in that actual living consciousness of an individual conscious

being, which is the foundation of the idea.

Consciousness constantly attends our normal waking life,

though, of course, it is but rarely that we are expressly

conscious of our consciousness. We only become so by

turning back the mind and saying, " Now I know that I

am conscious." That is reflex consciousness. But, like all

our other ordinary mental acts, it is accompanied by direct

consciousness.

Had we not true and valid knowledge in our direct

consciousness, without the need of turning back the mind

and reflecting thereon, we could never have any knowledge

at all ; for we should have to go through a regressus ad

infinitum to obtain it in other words, we never could

obtain it.

When we do turn back the mind and reflect on our

experience, we become aware (with special attention to

the fact as a fact) expressly of what we may be doing,

* See ante, p. 6.