James Frederick Ferrier: Selected Writings by Jennifer Keefe

Author:Jennifer Keefe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: James Frederick Ferrier, Scottish philosophy, epistemology, ontology, moral philosophy, post-Hegelian, self-consciousness, consciousness, idealism, common sense, metaphysics, essays, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Reid
ISBN: 9781845403164
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2011
Published: 2011-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

It is, no doubt, perfectly true that we all believe in the existence of matter, and that we all act up to this belief. The truth that “each of us exists;” the truth that “each of us is the same person today that he was yesterday;” the truth that “a material universe exists, and that we believe in its existence;” all these are most important truths, most important things to know. It is difficult to see how we could get on without this knowledge. Yet they are not worth one straw in communication. And why not? Just for the same reason that atmospheric air, though absolutely indispensable to our existence, has no value whatever in exchange; this reason being that we can get, and have already got, both the air and the truths in unlimited abundance for nothing, and thanks to no man. It is not its importance, then, which confers upon truth its value in communication. The value of truth is measured by precisely the same standard which determines the value of wealth. This standard is in neither case the importance of the article; it is always its difficulty of attainment, its cost of production. Has labor been expended on its formation or acquisition: then the article, if a material commodity, has a value in exchange; if a truth, it has a value in communication. Has no labor been bestowed upon it, and has Nature herself furnished it to every human being in overflowing abundance: then the thing is altogether destitute of exchange-value, whether it be an article of matter or of mind; no man can, without impertinence, transmit or convey such a commodity to his neighbor. If this be the law on the subject (and we conceive that it must be so ruled) it settles the question as to the second mode of dealing with the problem of perception. It establishes the point that this method of treating the problem is not to be permitted.

The first and third modes of dealing with our problem remain to be considered. The first mode ignores the problem altogether; it refuses to have anything to do with it. Perhaps this mode is the best of the three. We will not say that it is not: it is at any rate preferable to the second. But once admit that philosophy is a legitimate occupation, and this mode must be set aside, for it is a negation of all philosophy. Everything depends upon this admission. But the admission is, we conceive, a point which has been already and long ago decided. Men must and will philosophize. That being the case, the only alternative left is, that we should discuss the highest problem of philosophy in the terms of the third mode proposed. We have called this the speculative method, which means nothing more than that we should expend upon the investigation the uttermost toil and application of thought; and that we should estimate the truths which we arrive at, not by the scale of their importance, but by the scale of their difficulty of attainment, of their cost of production.

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