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CHAPTER III

SUMMARY

Sensation. Evolution of the special senses. — Doctrine of relativity: noumenon, phenomenon. Limitations of sense perception. The threshold. The greatness and littleness of human intellect. Special senses, a refinement of tactile sense. The outward reference of sensation.

The correla

tion of the senses. Visual perceptions. - The inverted retinal image, current explanation of erect vision: tactile experience reinverts visual sensation; incorrect, because not analogous to other special senses. - - First sight of congenitally blind is always erect. ignorant of retinal image. Each mathematical point of object is referred back to its proper place, and we see not the retinal image, but the object itself in space.

Mr. Hanna's experience.

EVOLUTION OF SPECIAL SENSES

Man

SENSATION is the means of communication between an organism and the outside world, — the material universe.

When a nutrient particle comes in contact with the periphery of an ameba, there would be no contractility, no ingestion, were it not for the fact that the cell possesses sensation, of which the various properties of protoplasm are manifestations. The organism would remain unconscious of its environment, would starve tho surrounded by an ocean of food. The nervous system is avowedly of the

lowest order, but the point to be here noted is that it is sufficient for the needs of its own organization. However meager the knowledge thus obtained may be, it immensely transcends no knowledge at all.

Without attempting to trace the stages from the ameba to man, it may suffice to say that there is evident all along the line an elevation of the function of sensation. This has followed the general law of evolution "from the simple to the relatively complex," that is, sensation has become specialized. Besides common sensation, man has the so-called five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.

DOCTRINE OF RELATIVITY

To most people it has never occurred that this beautiful array of talents leaves anything more to be desired. We think we know the material universe because we can touch, taste, smell, hear, and see some of it. But what reason have we to presume that these are the only phases of matter?

The deaf mute has no conception of music. To him it is a sealed book. A race of deaf mutes would be sure that they knew the material universe, because they could touch, taste, smell, and see it. Imagine their idea of a piano or a barking dog.

Is it not thus apparent that we are probably oblivious to many phases of matter? These five senses are like so many doorways, or windows thru which the ego catches glimpses of the outer world.

Instead of saying that we have in matter some

DOCTRINE OF RELATIVITY

37

thing we really know, it may be nearer true to say that we really know more of the attributes of mind, about which we are confessedly ignorant. For example, one may know certain facts about a table, that it is two feet wide and three feet long, that it is harder than his knuckles, but the sum of his knowledge may be so meager, and the special facts so unimportant, when compared with all the facts about it, that he may have an entirely erroneous conception.

Perhaps this can be illustrated by this poem by John G. Saxe.

"THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

"A HINDOO FABLE

“It was six men of Indostan,

To learning much inclined,
Who went to see an elephant
(Tho all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

“The first approached the elephant,
And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

'God bless me, but the elephant
Is very like a wall.'

"The second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried: 'Ho, what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of an elephant

Is very like a spear.'

"The third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake :

'I see,' quoth he, the elephant

"The fourth reached out his eager hand And felt above the knee.

'What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain,' quoth he; ''Tis clear enough the elephant Is very like a tree.'

"The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most:

Deny the fact who can?
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan.'

"The sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
'I see,' quoth he, 'the elephant
Is very like a rope.'

"And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long
Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong, Tho each was partly in the right And all were in the wrong.

DOCTRINE OF RELATIVITY

"MORAL

"So oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,
And prate about an elephant

Which none of them has seen."

NOUMENON AND PHENOMENON

39

John Fiske expresses this in his "Cosmic Philosophy," thus: "The doctrine of relativity affirms the existence of an unknowable reality of which all phenomena whatever are the knowable manifestations." To this unknowable is given the name of noumenon or the real thing, in distinction from phenomenon, which is the increment man knows of the real thing.

The story is told that when a missionary visited some Indians and explained to them the Christian theology, with considerable emphasis on the final state of the unredeemed, the chief showed considerable skepticism. With an arrow he drew a small circle in the sand, then a larger circle enclosing the first. Pointing to the inner circle, he said: "This is what Indian know." Pointing to the outer circle: "This is what white man know." Then sweeping the arrow outside the periphery of the larger circle: "Out here Indian know just as much as white man."

As a further illustration may be mentioned the old story of the doctor who denied the existence of