Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗

To The Physiologist Neither More Nor

Less Than The Matter Of Which They Consist.  That Animals Feel Desire

And Repugnance,  That The Material Mechanism Of The Human Frame Is In

Chose Connection With Emotions Of Pleasure Or Pain,  And With The

Active Idea-Life Of Consciousness--This Cannot,  In The Eyes Of The

Physicist,  Make The Animal Or Human Body Into Anything More Than What

It Actually Is.  To Him It Is A Combination Of Matter,  Subjected To

The Same Inflexible Laws As Stones And Plants--A Material

Combination,  The Outward And Inward Movements Of Which Interact As

Cause And Effect,  And Are In As Close Connection With Each Other And

With Their Surroundings As The Working Of A Machine With The

Revolutions Of The Wheels That Compose It.

 

Neither Sensation,  Nor Idea,  Nor Yet Conscious Will,  Can Form A Link

In This Chain Of Material Occurrences Which Make Up The Physical Life

Of An Organism.  If I Am Asked A Question And Reply To It,  The

Material Process Which The Nerve Fibre Conveys From The Organ Of

Hearing To The Brain Must Travel Through My Brain As An Actual And

Material Process Before It Can Reach The Nerves Which Will Act Upon

My Organs Of Speech.  It Cannot,  On Reaching A Given Place In The

Brain,  Change Then And There Into An Immaterial Something,  And Turn

Up Again Some Time Afterwards In Another Part Of The Brain As A

Material Process.  The Traveller In The Desert Might As Well Hope,

Before He Again Goes Forth Into The Wilderness Of Reality,  To Take

Rest And Refreshment In The Oasis With Which The Fata Morgana Illudes

Him; Or As Well Might A Prisoner Hope To Escape From His Prison

Through A Door Reflected In A Mirror.

 

So Much For The Physiologist In His Capacity Of Pure Physicist.  As

Long As He Remains Behind The Scenes In Painful Exploration Of The

Details Of The Machinery--As Long As He Only Observes The Action Of

The Players From Behind The Stage--So Long Will He Miss The Spirit Of

The Performance,  Which Is,  Nevertheless,  Caught Easily By One Who

Sees It From The Front.  May He Not,  Then,  For Once In A Way,  Be

Allowed To Change His Standpoint?  True,  He Came Not To See The

Representation Of An Imaginary World; He Is In Search Of The Actual;

But Surely It Must Help Him To A Comprehension Of The Dramatic

Apparatus Itself,  And Of The Manner In Which It Is Worked,  If He Were

To View Its Action From In Front As Well As From Behind,  Or At Least

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Allow Himself To Hear What Sober-Minded Spectators Can Tell Him Upon

The Subject.

 

There Can Be No Question As To The Answer; And Hence It Comes That

Psychology Is Such An Indispensable Help To Physiology,  Whose Fault

It Only In Small Part Is That She Has Hitherto Made Such Little Use

Of This Assistance; For Psychology Has Been Late In Beginning To Till

Her Fertile Field With The Plough Of The Inductive Method,  And It Is

Only From Ground So Tilled That Fruits Can Spring Which Can Be Of

Service To Physiology.

 

If,  Then,  The Student Of Nervous Physiology Takes His Stand Between

The Physicist And The Psychologist,  And If The First Of These Rightly

Makes The Unbroken Causative Continuity Of All Material Processes An

Axiom Of His System Of Investigation,  The Prudent Psychologist,  On

The Other Hand,  Will Investigate The Laws Of Conscious Life According

To The Inductive Method,  And Will Hence,  As Much As The Physicist,

Make The Existence Of Fixed Laws His Initial Assumption.  If,  Again,

The Most Superficial Introspection Teaches The Physiologist That His

Conscious Life Is Dependent Upon The Mechanical Adjustments Of His

Body,  And That Inversely His Body Is Subjected With Certain

Limitations To His Will,  Then It Only Remains For Him To Make One

Assumption More,  Namely,  That This Mutual Interdependence Between The

Spiritual And The Material Is Itself Also Dependent On Law,  And He

Has Discovered The Bond By Which The Science Of Matter And The

Science Of Consciousness Are United Into A Single Whole.

 

Thus Regarded,  The Phenomena Of Consciousness Become Functions Of The

Material Changes Of Organised Substance,  And Inversely--Though This

Is Involved In The Use Of The Word "Function"--The Material Processes

Of Brain Substance Become Functions Of The Phenomena Of

Consciousness.  For When Two Variables Are So Dependent Upon One

Another In The Changes They Undergo In Accordance With Fixed Laws

That A Change In Either Involves Simultaneous And Corresponding

Change In The Other,  The One Is Called A Function Of The Other.

 

This,  Then,  By No Means Implies That The Two Variables Above-Named--

Matter And Consciousness--Stand In The Relation Of Cause And Effect,

Antecedent And Consequence,  To One Another.  For On This Subject We

Know Nothing.

 

The Materialist Regards Consciousness As A Product Or Result Of

Matter,  While The Idealist Holds Matter To Be A Result Of

Consciousness,  And A Third Maintains That Matter And Spirit Are

Identical; With All This The Physiologist,  As Such,  Has Nothing

Whatever To Do; His Sole Concern Is With The Fact That Matter And

Consciousness Are Functions One Of The Other.

 

By The Help Of This Hypothesis Of The Functional Interdependence Of

Matter And Spirit,  Modern Physiology Is Enabled To Bring The

Phenomena Of Consciousness Within The Domain Of Her Investigations

Without Leaving The Terra Firma Of Scientific Methods.  The

Physiologist,  As Physicist,  Can Follow The Ray Of Light And The Wave

Of Sound Or Heat Till They Reach The Organ Of Sense.  He Can Watch

Chapter 6 Pg 70

Them Entering Upon The Ends Of The Nerves,  And Finding Their Way To

The Cells Of The Brain By Means Of The Series Of Undulations Or

Vibrations Which They Establish In The Nerve Filaments.  Here,

However,  He Loses All Trace Of Them.  On The Other Hand,  Still

Looking With The Eyes Of A Pure Physicist,  He Sees Sound Waves Of

Speech Issue From The Mouth Of A Speaker; He Observes The Motion Of

His Own Limbs,  And Finds How This Is Conditional Upon Muscular

Contractions Occasioned By The Motor Nerves,  And How These Nerves Are

In Their Turn Excited By The Cells Of The Central Organ.  But Here

Again His Knowledge Comes To An End.  True,  He Sees Indications Of

The Bridge Which Is To Carry Him From Excitation Of The Sensory To

That Of The Motor Nerves In The Labyrinth Of Intricately Interwoven

Nerve Cells,  But He Knows Nothing Of The Inconceivably Complex

Process Which Is Introduced At This Stage.  Here The Physiologist

Will Change His Standpoint; What Matter Will Not Reveal To His

Inquiry,  He Will Find In The Mirror,  As It Were,  Of Consciousness; By

Way Of A Reflection,  Indeed,  Only,  But A Reflection,  Nevertheless,

Which Stands In Intimate Relation To The Object Of His Inquiry.  When

At This Point He Observes How One Idea Gives Rise To Another,  How

Closely Idea Is Connected With Sensation And Sensation With Will,  And

How Thought,  Again,  And Feeling Are Inseparable From One Another,  He

Will Be Compelled To Suppose Corresponding Successions Of Material

Processes,  Which Generate And Are Closely Connected With One Another,

And Which Attend The Whole Machinery Of Conscious Life,  According To

The Law Of The Functional Interdependence Of Matter And

Consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

After This Explanation I Shall Venture To Regard Under A Single

Aspect A Great Series Of Phenomena Which Apparently Have Nothing To

Do With One Another,  And Which Belong Partly To The Conscious And

Partly To The Unconscious Life Of Organised Beings.  I Shall Regard

Them As The Outcome Of One And The Same Primary Force Of Organised

Matter--Namely,  Its Memory Or Power Of Reproduction.

 

The Word "Memory" Is Often Understood As Though It Meant Nothing More

Than Our Faculty Of Intentionally Reproducing Ideas Or Series Of

Ideas.  But When The Figures And Events Of Bygone Days Rise Up Again

Unbidden In Our Minds,  Is Not This Also An Act Of Recollection Or

Memory?  We Have A Perfect Right To Extend Our Conception Of Memory

So As To Make It Embrace Involuntary Reproductions,  Of Sensations,

Ideas,  Perceptions,  And Efforts; But We Find,  On Having Done So,  That

We Have So Far Enlarged Her Boundaries That She Proves To Be An

Ultimate And Original Power,  The Source,  And At The Same Time The

Unifying Bond,  Of Our Whole Conscious Life.

 

We Know That When An Impression,  Or A Series Of Impressions,  Has Been

Made Upon Our Senses For A Long Time,  And Always In The Same Way,  It

May Come To Impress Itself In Such A Manner Upon The So-Called Sense-

Memory That Hours Afterwards,  And Though A Hundred Other Things Have

Occupied Our Attention Meanwhile,  It Will Yet Return Suddenly To Our

Chapter 6 Pg 71

Consciousness With All The Force And Freshness Of The Original

Sensation.  A Whole Group Of Sensations Is Sometimes Reproduced In

Its Due Sequence As Regards Time And Space,  With So Much Reality That

It Illudes Us,  As Though Things Were Actually Present Which Have Long

Ceased To Be So.  We Have Here A Striking Proof Of The Fact That

After Both Conscious Sensation And Perception Have Been Extinguished,

Their Material Vestiges Yet Remain In Our Nervous System By Way Of A

Change In Its Molecular Or Atomic Disposition,  {69} That Enables The

Nerve Substance To Reproduce All The Physical Processes Of The

Original Sensation,  And With These The Corresponding Psychical

Processes Of Sensation And Perception.

 

Every Hour The Phenomena Of Sense-Memory Are Present With Each One Of

Us,  But In A Less Degree Than This.  We Are All At Times Aware Of A

Host Of More Or Less Faded Recollections Of Earlier Impressions,

Which We Either Summon Intentionally Or Which Come Upon Us

Involuntarily.  Visions Of Absent People Come And Go Before Us As

Faint And Fleeting Shadows,  And The Notes Of Long-Forgotten Melodies

Float Around Us,  Not Actually Heard,  But Yet Perceptible.

 

Some Things And Occurrences,  Especially If They Have Happened To Us

Only Once And Hurriedly,  Will Be Reproducible By The Memory In

Respect Only Of A Few Conspicuous Qualities; In Other Cases Those

Details Alone Will Recur To Us Which We Have Met With Elsewhere,  And

For The Reception Of Which The Brain Is,  So To Speak,  Attuned.  These

Last Recollections Find Themselves In Fuller Accord With Our

Consciousness,  And Enter Upon It More Easily And Energetically; Hence

Also Their Aptitude For Reproduction Is Enhanced; So That What Is

Common To Many Things,  And Is Therefore Felt And Perceived With

Exceptional Frequency,  Becomes Reproduced So Easily That Eventually

The Actual Presence Of The Corresponding External Stimuli Is No

Longer Necessary,  And It Will Recur On The Vibrations Set Up By Faint

Stimuli From