太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > lecture20 >

第5节

lecture20-第5节

小说: lecture20 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!






even though it be an insignificant fact; it is of the KIND to



which all realities whatsoever must belong; the motor currents of



the world run through the like of it; it is on the line



connecting real events with real events。  That unsharable feeling



which each one of us has of the pinch of his individual destiny



as he privately feels it rolling out on fortune's wheel may be



disparaged for its egotism; may be sneered at as unscientific;



but it is the one thing that fills up the measure of our concrete



actuality; and any would…be existent that should lack such a



feeling; or its analogue; would be a piece of reality only half



made up。'336'







'336' Compare Lotze's doctrine that the only meaning we can



attach to the notion of a thing as it is 〃in itself〃 is by



conceiving it as it is FOR itself; i。e。; as a piece of full



experience with a private sense of 〃pinch〃 or inner activity of



some sort going with it。















If this be true; it is absurd for science to say that the



egotistic elements of experience should be suppressed。  The axis



of reality runs solely through the egotistic placesthey are



strung upon it like so many beads。  To describe the world with



all the various feelings of the individual pinch of destiny; all



the various spiritual attitudes; left out from the



descriptionthey being as describable as anything else would



be something like offering a printed bill of fare as the



equivalent for a solid meal。  Religion makes no such blunder。 



The individual's religion may be egotistic; and those private



realities which it keeps in touch with may be narrow enough; but



at any rate it always remains infinitely less hollow and



abstract; as far as it goes; than a science which prides itself



on taking no account of anything private at all。







A bill of fare with one real raisin on it instead of the word



〃raisin;〃 with one real egg instead of the word 〃egg;〃 might be



an inadequate meal; but it would at least be a commencement of



reality。  The contention of the survival…theory that we ought to



stick to non…personal elements exclusively seems like saying that



we ought to be satisfied forever with reading the naked bill of



fare。  I think; therefore; that however particular questions



connected with our individual destinies may be answered; it is



only by acknowledging them as genuine questions; and living in



the sphere of thought which they open up; that we become



profound。  But to live thus is to be religious; so I



unhesitatingly repudiate the survival…theory of religion; as



being founded on an egregious mistake。  It does not follow;



because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and mixed them



with their religion; that we should therefore leave off being



religious at all。'337'  By being religious we establish ourselves



in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at which



reality is given us to guard。  Our responsible concern is with



our private destiny; after all。







'337' Even the errors of fact may possibly turn out not to be as



wholesale as the scientist assumes。  We saw in Lecture IV how the



religious conception of the universe seems to many mind…curers



〃verified〃 from day to day by their experience of fact。 



〃Experience of fact〃 is a field with so many things in it that



the sectarian scientist methodically declining; as he does; to



recognize such 〃facts〃 as mind…curers and others like them



experience; otherwise than by such rude heads of classification



as 〃bosh;〃 〃rot;〃 〃folly;〃 certainly leaves out a mass of raw



fact which; save for the industrious interest of the religious in



the more personal aspects of reality; would never have succeeded



in getting itself recorded at all。  We know this to be true



already in certain cases; it may; therefore; be true in others as



well。  Miraculous healings have always been part of the



supernaturalist stock in trade; and have always been dismissed by



the scientist as figments of the imagination。  But the



scientist's tardy education in the facts of hypnotism has



recently given him an apperceiving mass for phenomena of this



order; and he consequently now allows that the healings may



exist; provided you expressly call them effects of 〃suggestion。〃 



Even the stigmata of the cross on Saint Francis's hands and feet



may on these terms not be a fable。  Similarly; the time…honored



phenomenon of diabolical possession is on the point of being



admitted by the scientist as a fact; now that he has the name of



〃hystero…demonopathy〃 by which to apperceive it。  No one can



foresee just how far this legitimation of occultist phenomena



under newly found scientist titles may proceedeven 〃prophecy;〃



even 〃levitation;〃 might creep into the pale。















Thus the divorce between scientist facts and religious facts may



not necessarily be as eternal as it at first sight seems; nor the



personalism and romanticism of the world; as they appeared to



primitive thinking; be matters so irrevocably outgrown。  The



final human opinion may; in short; in some manner now impossible



to foresee; revert to the more personal style; just as any path



of progress may follow a spiral rather than a straight line。  If



this were so; the rigorously impersonal view of science might one



day appear as having been a temporarily useful eccentricity



rather than the definitively triumphant position which the



sectarian scientist at present so confidently announces it to be。







You see now why I have been so individualistic throughout these



lectures; and why I have seemed so bent on rehabilitating the



element of feeling in religion and subordinating its intellectual



part。  Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of



feeling; the darker; blinder strata of character; are the only



places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making;



and directly perceive how events happen; and how work is actually



done。'338'  Compared with this world of living individualized



feelings; the world of generalized objects which the intellect



contemplates is without solidity or life。  As in stereoscopic or



kinetoscopic pictures seen outside the instrument; the third



dimension; the movement; the vital element; are not there。  We



get a beautiful picture of an express train supposed to be



moving; but where in the picture; as I have heard a friend say;



is the energy or the fifty miles an hour?'339'







'338' Hume's criticism has banished causation from the world of



physical objects; and 〃Science〃 is absolutely satisfied to define



cause in terms of concomitant change…read Mach; Pearson; Ostwald。



The 〃original〃 of the notion of causation is in our inner



personal experience; and only there can causes in the



old…fashioned sense be directly observed and described。







'339' When I read in a religious paper words like these: 



〃Perhaps the best thing we can say of God is that he is THE



INEVITABLE INFERENCE;〃 I recognize the tendency to let religion



evaporate in intellectual terms。  Would martyrs have sung in the



flames for a mere inference; however inevitable it might be? 



Original religious men; like Saint Francis; Luther; Behmen; have



usually been enemies of the intellect's pretension to meddle with



religious things。  Yet the intellect; everywhere invasive; shows



everywhere its shallowing effect。  See how the ancient spirit of



Methodism evaporates under those wonderfully able rationalistic



booklets (which every one should read) of a philosopher like



Professor Bowne (The Christian Revelation; The Christian Life The



Atonement:  Cincinnati and New York; 1898; 1899; 1900)。  See the



positively expulsive purpose of philosophy properly so called:







〃Religion;〃 writes M。  Vacherot (La Religion; Paris; 1869; pp。



313; 436; et passim); 〃answers to a transient state or condition;



not to a permanent determination of human nature; being merely an



expression of that stage of the human mind which is dominated by



the imagination。 。 。 。 Christianity has but a single possible



final heir to its estate; and that is scientific philosophy。〃







In a still more radical vein; Professor Ribot (Psychologie des



Sentiments; p。 310) describes the evaporation of religion。  He



sums it up in a single formulathe ever…growing predominance of



the rational intellectual element; with the gradual fading out of



the emotional element; this latter tending to enter into the



group of purely intellectual sentiments。  〃

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的