The Scottish Philosophy [127]
as the ideal hypothesis. There is no evidence that sensation comes before perception. The two are thus distinguished by Reid: " When I smell a rose, there is in this operation both sensation and perception. The agreeable odor I feel, considered by itself, without relation to any external object, is merely a sensation." The quality in the rose which {212} produces the sensation "is the object perceived, and that act of my mind by which I have the conviction and belief of this quality is what I call perception." (310.) These two seem to me to constitute one concrete act, and they can be separated only by a process of abstraction. There is not first a sensation of a colored surface, and then a perception of it; but we have the two at once. This does away with the necessity of signs and suggestions, which might be quite as troublesome intermediaries as ideas. It would be better to say that, upon certain affections of sense being conveyed to the mind, it (this is a better phrase than , or than at once the colored surface.
Hamilton, when he began to edit Reid, thought that Reid's doctrine was the same as his own. But, as he advances, he sees that it is not so; and he comes to doubt whether, after all, Reid held the doctrine to which he himself adhered so tenaciously, that of immediate perception. Reid does, indeed, represent perception as immediate; meaning that it is direct, and with out a process of reasoning. Yet he tells us that, " although there is no reasoning in perception, yet there are certain means and instruments, which, by the appointment of nature, must intervene between the, object and our perception of it; and by these our perceptions are limited and regulated." Surely Hamilton himself will admit that there are such means in the action of the senses, of the nerves, and the brain, without which there can be no perception. Reid indeed calls in more of such anterior processes than Hamilton does; in particular, he calls in signs and suggestions, and makes sensation come before perception. But, after all, the two agree in the main point. While both allow, as all men do, that there are processes prior to the perception, both agree that when the mind is perceiving, it is perceiving not an idea, or even a sensation or suggestion, but an external extended object.
On one point, however, and this not an unimportant one, Reid and his commentator do differ; and that is as to what should be represented as the object of perception. Locke means by idea, " whatever is the object of the understanding when it thinks." But the word
Hamilton, when he began to edit Reid, thought that Reid's doctrine was the same as his own. But, as he advances, he sees that it is not so; and he comes to doubt whether, after all, Reid held the doctrine to which he himself adhered so tenaciously, that of immediate perception. Reid does, indeed, represent perception as immediate; meaning that it is direct, and with out a process of reasoning. Yet he tells us that, " although there is no reasoning in perception, yet there are certain means and instruments, which, by the appointment of nature, must intervene between the, object and our perception of it; and by these our perceptions are limited and regulated." Surely Hamilton himself will admit that there are such means in the action of the senses, of the nerves, and the brain, without which there can be no perception. Reid indeed calls in more of such anterior processes than Hamilton does; in particular, he calls in signs and suggestions, and makes sensation come before perception. But, after all, the two agree in the main point. While both allow, as all men do, that there are processes prior to the perception, both agree that when the mind is perceiving, it is perceiving not an idea, or even a sensation or suggestion, but an external extended object.
On one point, however, and this not an unimportant one, Reid and his commentator do differ; and that is as to what should be represented as the object of perception. Locke means by idea, " whatever is the object of the understanding when it thinks." But the word