Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗
- Author: Samuel Butler
Book online «Unconscious Memory(Fiscle Part-3) - Samuel Butler (digital e reader TXT) 📗». Author Samuel Butler
But It Does Not Follow That The Action Of Two People Who Have Had
Tolerably Similar Antecedents And Are Placed In Tolerably Similar
Circumstances Should Be More Unlike Each Other In This Second Case
Than In The First. On The Contrary, Nothing Is More Common Than To
Observe The Same Kind Of People Making The Same Kind Of Mistake When
Placed For The First Time In The Same Kind Of New Circumstances. I
Did Not Say That There Would Be No Sameness Of Action Without Memory
Of A Like Present. There May Be Sameness Of Action Proceeding From A
Memory, Conscious Or Unconscious, Of Like Antecedents, And A Presence
Only Of Like Presents Without Recollection Of The Same.
The Sameness Of Action Of Like Persons Placed Under Like
Circumstances For The First Time, Resembles The Sameness Of Action Of
Inorganic Matter Under The Same Combinations. Let Us For The Moment
Suppose What We Call Non-Living Substances To Be Capable Of
Remembering Their Antecedents, And That The Changes They Undergo Are
The Expressions Of Their Recollections. Then I Admit, Of Course,
That There Is Not Memory In Any Cream, We Will Say, That Is About To
Be Churned Of The Cream Of The Preceding Week, But The Common Absence
Of Such Memory From Each Week's Cream Is An Element Of Sameness
Between The Two. And Though No Cream Can Remember Having Been
Churned Before, Yet All Cream In All Time Has Had Nearly Identical
Antecedents, And Has Therefore Nearly The Same Memories, And Nearly
The Same Proclivities. Thus, In Fact, The Cream Of One Week Is As
Truly The Same As The Cream Of Another Week From The Same Cow,
Pasture, &C., As Anything Is Ever The Same With Anything; For The
Having Been Subjected To Like Antecedents Engenders The Closest
Similarity That We Can Conceive Of, If The Substances Were Like To
Start With.
The Manifest Absence Of Any Connecting Memory (Or Memory Of Like
Presents) From Certain Of The Phenomena Of Heredity, Such As, For
Example, The Diseases Of Old Age, Is Now Seen To Be No Valid Reason
For Saying That Such Other And Far More Numerous And Important
Phenomena As Those Of Embryonic Development Are Not Phenomena Of
Memory. Growth And The Diseases Of Old Age Do Indeed, At First
Sight, Appear To Stand On The Same Footing, But Reflection Shows Us
That The Question Whether A Certain Result Is Due To Memory Or No
Chapter 12 Pg 135Must Be Settled Not By Showing That Combinations Into Which Memory
Does Not Certainly Enter May Yet Generate Like Results, And Therefore
Considering The Memory Theory Disposed Of, But By The Evidence We May
Be Able To Adduce In Support Of The Fact That The Second Agent Has
Actually Remembered The Conduct Of The First, Inasmuch As He Cannot
Be Supposed Able To Do What It Is Plain He Can Do, Except Under The
Guidance Of Memory Or Experience, And Can Also Be Shown To Have Had
Every Opportunity Of Remembering. When Either Of These Tests Fails,
Similarity Of Action On The Part Of Two Agents Need Not Be Connected
With Memory Of A Like Present As Well As Of Like Antecedents, But
Must, Or At Any Rate May, Be Referred To Memory Of Like Antecedents
Only.
Returning To A Parenthesis A Few Pages Back, In Which I Said That
Consciousness Of Memory Would Be Less Or Greater According To The
Greater Or Fewer Number Of Times That The Act Had Been Repeated, It
May Be Observed As A Corollary To This, That The Less Consciousness
Of Memory The Greater The Uniformity Of Action, And Vice Versa. For
The Less Consciousness Involves The Memory's Being More Perfect,
Through A Larger Number (Generally) Of Repetitions Of The Act That Is
Remembered; There Is Therefore A Less Proportionate Difference In
Respect Of The Number Of Recollections Of This Particular Act Between
The Most Recent Actor And The Most Recent But One. This Is Why Very
Old Civilisations, As Those Of Many Insects, And The Greater Number
Of Now Living Organisms, Appear To The Eye Not To Change At All.
For Example, If An Action Has Been Performed Only Ten Times, We Will
Say By A, B, C, &C., Who Are Similar In All Respects, Except That A
Acts Without Recollection, B With Recollection Of A's Action, C With
Recollection Of Both B's And A's, While J Remembers The Course Taken
By A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, And I--The Possession Of A Memory By B
Will Indeed So Change His Action, As Compared With A's, That It May
Well Be Hardly Recognisable. We Saw This In Our Example Of The Clerk
Who Asked The Policeman The Way To The Eating-House On One Day, But
Did Not Ask Him The Next, Because He Remembered; But C's Action Will
Not Be So Different From B's As B's From A's, For Though C Will Act
With A Memory Of Two Occasions On Which The Action Has Been
Performed, While B Recollects Only The Original Performance By A, Yet
B And C Both Act With The Guidance Of A Memory And Experience Of Some
Kind, While A Acted Without Any. Thus The Clerk Referred To In
Chapter X. Will Act On The Third Day Much As He Acted On The Second--
That Is To Say, He Will See The Policeman At The Corner Of The
Street, But Will Not Question Him.
When The Action Is Repeated By J For The Tenth Time, The Difference
Between J's Repetition Of It And I's Will Be Due Solely To The
Difference Between A Recollection Of Nine Past Performances By J
Against Only Eight By I, And This Is So Much Proportionately Less
Than The Difference Between A Recollection Of Two Performances And Of
Only One, That A Less Modification Of Action Should Be Expected. At
The Same Time Consciousness Concerning An Action Repeated For The
Tenth Time Should Be Less Acute Than On The First Repetition.
Memory, Therefore, Though Tending To Disturb Similarity Of Action
Less And Less Continually, Must Always Cause Some Disturbance. At
Chapter 12 Pg 136The Same Time The Possession Of A Memory On The Successive
Repetitions Of An Action After The First, And, Perhaps, The First Two
Or Three, During Which The Recollection May Be Supposed Still
Imperfect, Will Tend To Ensure Uniformity, For It Will Be One Of The
Elements Of Sameness In The Agents--They Both Acting By The Light Of
Experience And Memory.
During The Embryonic Stages And In Childhood We Are Almost Entirely
Under The Guidance Of A Practised And Powerful Memory Of
Circumstances Which Have Been Often Repeated, Not Only In Detail And
Piecemeal, But As A Whole, And Under Many Slightly Varying
Conditions; Thus The Performance Has Become Well Averaged And Matured
In Its Arrangements, So As To Meet All Ordinary Emergencies. We
Therefore Act With Great Unconsciousness And Vary Our Performances
Little. Babies Are Much More Alike Than Persons Of Middle Age.
Up To The Average Age At Which Our Ancestors Have Had Children During
Many Generations, We Are Still Guided In Great Measure By Memory; But
The Variations In External Circumstances Begin To Make Themselves
Perceptible In Our Characters. In Middle Life We Live More And More
Continually Upon The Piecing Together Of Details Of Memory Drawn From
Our Personal Experience, That Is To Say, Upon The Memory Of Our Own
Antecedents; And This Resembles The Kind Of Memory We Hypothetically
Attached To Cream A Little Time Ago. It Is Not Surprising, Then,
That A Son Who Has Inherited His Father's Tastes And Constitution,
And Who Lives Much As His Father Had Done, Should Make The Same
Mistakes As His Father Did When He Reaches His Father's Age--We Will
Say Of Seventy--Though He Cannot Possibly Remember His Father's
Having Made The Mistakes. It Were To Be Wished We Could, For Then We
Might Know Better How To Avoid Gout, Cancer, Or What Not. And It Is
To Be Noticed That The Developments Of Old Age Are Generally Things
We Should Be Glad Enough To Avoid If We Knew How To Do So.
Chapter 13 (Conclusion) Pg 137
If We Observed The Resemblance Between Successive Generations To Be
As Close As That Between Distilled Water And Distilled Water Through
All Time, And If We Observed That Perfect Unchangeableness In The
Chapter 13 (Conclusion) Pg 138Action Of Living Beings Which We See In What We Call Chemical And
Mechanical Combinations, We Might Indeed Suspect That Memory Had As
Little Place Among The Causes Of Their Action As It Can Have In
Anything, And That Each Repetition, Whether Of A Habit Or The
Practice Of Art, Or Of An Embryonic Process In Successive
Generations, Was An Original Performance, For All That Memory Had To
Do With It. I Submit, However, That In The Case Of The Reproductive
Forms Of Life We See Just So Much Variety, In Spite Of Uniformity, As
Is Consistent With A Repetition Involving Not Only A Nearly Perfect
Similarity In The Agents And Their Circumstances, But Also The Little
Departure Therefrom That Is Inevitably Involved In The Supposition
That A Memory Of Like Presents As Well As Of Like Antecedents (As
Distinguished From A Memory Of Like Antecedents Only) Has Played A
Part In Their Development--A Cyclonic Memory, If The Expression May
Be Pardoned.
There Is Life Infinitely Lower And More Minute Than Any Which Our
Most Powerful Microscopes Reveal To Us, But Let Us Leave This Upon
One Side And Begin With The Amoeba. Let Us Suppose That This
Structureless Morsel Of Protoplasm Is, For All Its Structurelessness,
Composed Of An Infinite Number Of Living Molecules, Each One Of Them
With Hopes And Fears Of Its Own, And All Dwelling Together Like Tekke
Turcomans, Of Whom We Read That
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