My Individualism: and the Philosophical Foundations of Literature (Tuttle Classics) by Soseki Natsume & Brodey Inger

Author:Soseki,Natsume & Brodey, Inger [Brodey, Inger]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2011-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

9. The Process of Differentiation Carried Out by Awareness (2)

As I have just said, we locate objects in space by radiation and carry out a meticulous classification of them by processes of differentiation. At the same time, we develop for ourselves a process similar to differentiation that leads to separation between body and mind. We divide this operation of the mind into three: intelligence, perception and will. Then, dividing up intelligence and perception, by the specificity of these operations we can proceed to make various distinctions. As people who we call psychologists are mainly responsible for this area of choice, it is very easy to listen to their pronouncements. However, abusive practices slip into the work of psychologists during analysis in which recommendations are made that proceed from the heart/mind and from the resulting process of abstraction. Perhaps intelligence, perception and will derive from a purposely established classification, but these faculties are not isolated from one another and cannot be exercised in the absence of a relationship with the outside world. As regards operations that proceed from the heart/mind, however much they intervene, however subtle the elements, we can truly say, when we consider them as a whole, that there are many cases in which these three faculties, intelligence, perception and will, are united. Therefore, the fact of carrying out a clear-cut classification into these three distinct faculties is an abstraction to which we yield only for convenience. If we have no recourse to these procedures of abstraction, the task of transcribing the movements of the heart/mind as a whole, which become extremely subtle as the process of differentiation is taken to a critical point, so that they can be revealed to people, falls principally on men of letters. Thus, the work of these people allows us to progress towards a clear state of awareness of something that had been plunged in obscurity and to carry out a meticulous breakdown and classification of that of which we have become aware. For example, in the works of the past such as The Bamboo Cutter’s Story9 or The Chronicle of the Great Peace,10 the various characters all resemble human beings. It is the same with Saikaku.11 At the end of the day, the human race has been seen, mostly, by writers who, uttering cries of admiration, pain, disgust, joy or sadness, have probably proceeded with the same complete distraction. With the coming of the present age, in which operations of differentiation have developed, conceptions concerning humanity were no longer marked with nobility. As regards operations that proceed from the mind, if writers did not have the ability to divide things up in a fine and clear manner, and to describe minutely the parts thus divided, they would be out of step with the doctrines of the present time. When people who do not have this singular perspicacity try to represent other people, they behave exactly as if they have become color-blind and want to paint something, and nothing but complete failure can result.

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