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Facts of Consciousness
Facts of Consciousness
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Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original magazine edition for enjoyable reading. (Worth every penny spent!)
***
The pathway from the world of sense to the world above sense is laid by the experimental knowledge of the human mind. The "Facts of Consciousness" must be investigated, for they are the measure of the true essence of the soul.
These facts of consciousness are not, however, those of the ordinary psychologist. "We must take the mind of humanity at large, in the fullness of its ideal life (theoretical, artistic, ethical, and religious), and in the might of its preternatural activity, as the real starting-point." In addition to thiB, we must weigh carefully even those facts whioh are rare and exceptional. These spring from a source lying within the region of preconsciousness. For the soul is preconsious and preexistent. Of the three alternative hypotheses—-
1. the old dualism of a distinct body and distinct soul mechanically united;
2. The unity whioh makes the soul either " a portion of the infinite thought of the universe or the result of material organization ;"
3. The unity which makes the soul an individual substance and the formative principle of the body.
Fichte prefers the last as the only one which harmonizes with his view of "the real facts;" we suppose, of psychology. Among the propositions which he adduces and illustrates we may mention the following:
The soul is a real existence, involving a space-relation. This "invisible pneumatic body" existed potentially before it was brought under organic conditions, but only in virtue of these conditions can be raised into the region of consciousness; it has an original character of its own, it has a twofold life, a preconscious and a conscious life.
The preconscious life, is seen in the building up of organism; in all the constructive actions; and in all the involuntary workings of the intelligence. The conscious life of the soul is seen in all the ordinary and normal phenomena of our mental development. The preconscious life of the soul can exhibit transcendent phenomena ; it can operate in this way without organic conditions. As the conscious life links us by numberless relations to the sense-world, so the preconscious life brings us into a series of relations with the spiritual world.
This personality of the soul involves in it a complete proof of the Divine Personality. The facts of man's nature and man's history establish the reality of a special Providence, which finds its consummation and only true explanation in the Divine Humanity of Christ, and is applied and carried out by intermediate orders of spiritual beings.
The soul is immortal; death being a release from the present conditions of time and sense, and man's moral probation extending into the world to come. This future existence of the soul is, first, a slightly modified continuation of the present, succeeded by a sort of Greek Grammar, or Paulo post futurum existence which determines the last crisis of all, qualifies the approved for an immutable Heaven and the rejected for as immutable a Hell.
***
The pathway from the world of sense to the world above sense is laid by the experimental knowledge of the human mind. The "Facts of Consciousness" must be investigated, for they are the measure of the true essence of the soul.
These facts of consciousness are not, however, those of the ordinary psychologist. "We must take the mind of humanity at large, in the fullness of its ideal life (theoretical, artistic, ethical, and religious), and in the might of its preternatural activity, as the real starting-point." In addition to thiB, we must weigh carefully even those facts whioh are rare and exceptional. These spring from a source lying within the region of preconsciousness. For the soul is preconsious and preexistent. Of the three alternative hypotheses—-
1. the old dualism of a distinct body and distinct soul mechanically united;
2. The unity whioh makes the soul either " a portion of the infinite thought of the universe or the result of material organization ;"
3. The unity which makes the soul an individual substance and the formative principle of the body.
Fichte prefers the last as the only one which harmonizes with his view of "the real facts;" we suppose, of psychology. Among the propositions which he adduces and illustrates we may mention the following:
The soul is a real existence, involving a space-relation. This "invisible pneumatic body" existed potentially before it was brought under organic conditions, but only in virtue of these conditions can be raised into the region of consciousness; it has an original character of its own, it has a twofold life, a preconscious and a conscious life.
The preconscious life, is seen in the building up of organism; in all the constructive actions; and in all the involuntary workings of the intelligence. The conscious life of the soul is seen in all the ordinary and normal phenomena of our mental development. The preconscious life of the soul can exhibit transcendent phenomena ; it can operate in this way without organic conditions. As the conscious life links us by numberless relations to the sense-world, so the preconscious life brings us into a series of relations with the spiritual world.
This personality of the soul involves in it a complete proof of the Divine Personality. The facts of man's nature and man's history establish the reality of a special Providence, which finds its consummation and only true explanation in the Divine Humanity of Christ, and is applied and carried out by intermediate orders of spiritual beings.
The soul is immortal; death being a release from the present conditions of time and sense, and man's moral probation extending into the world to come. This future existence of the soul is, first, a slightly modified continuation of the present, succeeded by a sort of Greek Grammar, or Paulo post futurum existence which determines the last crisis of all, qualifies the approved for an immutable Heaven and the rejected for as immutable a Hell.
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