The Validity of Internal Sense-Knowledge
The reliability of internal sense-perception — consciousness, memory, imagination — and its indispensability to intellectual knowledge.
The internal senses are reliable within their proper functions because they are natural faculties naturally adapted for definite objects. So-called 'errors of imagination' are errors of precipitate judgment upon the findings of a disturbed or over-stimulated sense — correctable by the check-up of mediate experience — not essential failures of the faculty. Sense-consciousness (the common sense) is especially reliable within its proper limits because its testimony is so immediate that denial of it involves affirmation of it: to doubt that one is conscious is to be conscious of doubting. Intellectual consciousness (the intellect's awareness of its own acts and states) is similarly reliable as a report of fact — it errs only when it ventures beyond its proper limits into explanation of the ultimate nature of the facts it reports.
Sense-Knowledge Sensation c) Consciousness
The Internal Senses
We recall that the internal senses are four: the common or central sense, which perceives and distinguishes the action and product of external sensation here and now exercised; the imagination or phantasy, which conserves, reproduces, and rearranges sensiles once externally sensed, but not here and now affecting the subject externally; the estimative or instinct, which apprehends the findings of the other senses as useful or harmful; the sensitive memory, which apprehends a sensile (externally present or reproduced in imagination) as perceived in the past.
Validity of Internal Sensation
We need no special argument to instruct us in the character and validity of internal sensation. The internal senses elaborate the findings of the outer senses, and hence rest for their validity upon the validity of external sensation. It is to be noted, however, that the inner sense of imagination has an object that is trans-subjective in matter and form, but not in presence, for imagination can evoke images of things sensed in the past, but not now externally present to the subject.
In themselves and in their organic structure, the internal senses (seated organically in the brain) are faculties naturally adapted for perceiving definite objects. We find consistency in nature; nature of itself does not err. Hence, these natural faculties are normal sources of that for which they are obviously constructed; they are valid sources of truth and certitude. When error occurs, it is accidental, attributable to precipitate judgment, as we have seen in discussing external sensation.
We often hear of “errors of imagination.” A timorous person hears sounds at night, may distinctly hear the step of an intruder upon the stair, may even see window or door begin to open, or the shape of a wholly non-existent person within the very room.
Here we have an over-active imagination, stimulated by what psychologists call “expectant attention.”
The error is one of judgment upon the findings of an abnormally excited sense. The check-up of mediate experience and the application of other senses to the fanciful findings will dispel the error and give truth. When senses are normal, when the check-up of mediate experience is applied, then erroneous judgment does not occur. The error is accidental, not essential to sense as such.
C) CONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness is the common or central sense whereby we are aware (that is, conscious) of things affecting us, and of ourselves as affected. Within its proper limits, consciousness, like other senses, is a reliable source of certitude. The object of consciousness is so vivid, is so direct an intuition, that one cannot deny its existence at the moment it is perceived. Nor can one deny the testimony of consciousness without at the same time affirming it. For one who doubts or denies the testimony of consciousness affirms that he is conscious of himself and of what he considers doubtful. Now, testimony of this kind, testimony that is so necessary that it cannot be denied, is inevitable and veracious. Hence, consciousness is veracious, and a source of certitude, when used within due limits. The limits of consciousness are indicated by its nature. It is a faculty that makes us directly aware of things here and now affecting us, and indirectly it makes us aware of ourselves as affected. These things consciousness reports as facts.
But when, upon the testimony of consciousness, we reach a fanciful explanation of the nature of the facts, we are basing more on consciousness than it is meant to bear; we are using consciousness outside its limits; we are likely to err. 2io CERTITUDE
Summary Of The Article
This brief article ,has been a simple study of the internal senses and their validity. The basic argument for validity in sensation is that presented in the preceding article on the external senses. We have indicated the reliability of the internal senses as natural faculties for the apprehending of definite objects. We have noted the nature of so-called “errors of imagination.” We have studied the function of consciousness, and have found that this faculty, when used within due limits, is a true and reliable source of certitude.