The Skeptical and Other Systems of Philosophy on Superphysics

Knowledge is Opposite of Probability

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The Weakness of Our Mental Powers Creates Uncertainty in Our Understanding of Truths

In all demonstrative sciences, the rules are certain and infallible.

But when we apply them, our fallible faculties make mistakes.

The Nature of Probability

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We should always correct our first judgment derived from the object’s nature with another judgment derived from the nature of our understanding.

Feeling Versus Intellect

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A question is asked to me.

I think of an answer.

I go over the impressions of my memory and senses.

I carry my thoughts from them to the objects commonly conjoined with them.

Can our senses deceive us?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Justification 4: Belief generally consists in nothing but the vivacity of an idea.

An idea may acquire this vivacity by its relation to some present impression.

Impressions are naturally the most vivid perceptions of the mind.

How Do We Know We Exist?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Is the Perception of Existence from Our Senses, Reason, or Imagination?

We can ask: Why do we believe in the body’s existence?

Our Perceptions are just a Representation based on Disposition

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Justification 2: The constancy of our perceptions

The constancy of our perceptions makes us ascribe to them a perfect numerical identity even if:

there are separated by very long period of time
they only have one of the essential qualities of identity: invariableness.

Philosophers distinguish between sensory objects and perceptions which are co-existent and resembling.

Why Each Moment is a New Reality: Identity

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The separation of existences is justified by 4 things:

An explanation of the principle of identity
Why the resemblance of our broken and interrupted perceptions causes us to unify them as a single identity
Proof of the propensity to unite these broken appearances by a continued existence.
An explanation for that force of conception arising from the propensity.

Justification 1: The view of any one object is not enough to convey the idea of identity.

In such a case:

Why We Assign a Continued Existence to Things

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Justification 3:

Any contradiction to our feelings gives us an uneasiness, whether it comes externally or internally as

the opposition of external objects
the combat of internal principles

On the contrary, we get pleasure from whatever matches our natural propensities as to:

Can our senses deceive us?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Can our senses deceive us? Where does the error of the senses come from?

We answer the question on external existence, by setting aside the metaphysical question of the identity of a thinking substance.

The Philosophy of Aristotle -- Matter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aristotle’s Original Substance as a Universal Identity

Several moralists have recommended it as an excellent method of:

becoming acquainted with our own hearts, and
knowing our progress in virtue:
- to recollect our dreams in a morning, and
- examine them with the same rigour that we would apply on our most serious actions.

They say that our character:

Aristotle's Philosophy is False

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are levels of opinions based on the people’s level of reason and knowledge:

the vulgar,
a false philosophy, and
the true.

The true philosophy approaches nearer to the feelings of the vulgar, than to those of a mistaken knowledge.

Imagination Creates Reality

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Philosophers might be able to produce a few convincing arguments that objects can exist without a mind to observe them.

Philosophy tells us that everything we perceive are dependent on the mind.

The Philosophy of Descartes -- Imagination

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Descartes has an Irregular Imagination

I am unjust in blaming the for:

using the imagination, and
allowing themselves to be entirely guided by the imagination in their reasonings.

There are two kinds of imagination:

Hume's Physics: Identity and Space for that Identity to Exist

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hume’s Primary Qualities of the Material Universe: Space and Identity

If we remove the sounds, colours, heat, cold, and other sensible qualities of an external object, then we only are left with ‘primary qualities’.

The coherence and constancy of impressions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The opinion of the continued existence of body depends on the coherence and constancy of certain impressions.

Our internal impressions are fleeting.

The Entropy of the Mind

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mathematics has several loose standards of equality.

We correct these standards by connecting them together.

We then imagine that the resulting standard is exact.

This is because when the imagination (Part 2, Section 4) is set into any train of thinking, it tends to continue even when its object fails.
The imagination continues its course without any new impulse, like a galley put in motion by the oars.

The same principle is why we apply continued existence to body.

Spinoza's Philosophy -- The Soul's Immateriality

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Every philosophical system has contradictions regarding:

external physical objects
the ideas of those objects

These contradictions are so clear and determinate in our imagination.

A Feeling or Perception Cannot Be Bound By Dimensions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Philosophers say that the soul is immaterial because it exists in divisible physical space.

But a thought, feeling, or perception is an inseparable and indivisible being.

The Relation of Perceptions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

An apple is one end of the table and a lemon at the other.

The apple and lemon have a taste and color, which are complex ideas.

We conjoin these qualities.

The Soul's Substance

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have condemned the question of the soul’s substance as utterly unintelligible.

The doctrine of the immateriality, simplicity, and indivisibility of a thinking substance is a true atheism.

It will justify all those feelings that Spinoza is so universally infamous for.

Spinoza's system is really Theological

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Let us survey this argument and see whether all the absurdities in Spinoza’s system may not be discovered in that of Theologians (See Bayle’s dictionary, article of Spinoza).

Argument 1

It has been said against Spinoza scholastically, that a mode is not any distinct or separate existence.

The Mind's Substance

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There is no connection between motion or thought just as there appears no connection between all other causes and effects.

Two weights

Place 100 pound weight on one end of a lever and another 100 pound weight on another end. These weights will not move, just as thoughts will not move from seeing this.

The Self is a Collection of Perceptions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Some philosophers imagine that we:

are always intimately conscious of our self,
feel its existence and its continuance, and
are certain of its perfect identity and simplicity.

They say that the strongest sensation, the most violent passion:

The Idea of Identity is Caused by the Resemblance of Perceptions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Our idea of the self can be explained by our idea on the selves of plants and animals.

We Assign a Change in Identity Based on Our Perception of the Change Relative to the Whole

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A mass of matter, with contiguous and connected parts, is placed before us.

We attribute a perfect identity to this mass, provided all the parts are unchanged.

But if some very small part were added to or subtracted from the mass, it would absolutely destroy the whole’s identity, strictly speaking.

Discerning Identities

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Two phenomena are remarkable:

We are commonly able to distinguish between numerical and specific identity.

Yet sometimes we confound them.

In our thinking and reasoning, we employ the one for the other.

Conclusion of Book 1

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Imagination is the Foundation of the Memory, Senses, and Understanding

I ponder my philosophical voyage.

It requires the utmost art and industry to be concluded happily. I am like a man who:

The flights of the imagination

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In the end, we must become ashamed of our credulity.

The flights of the imagination are most dangerous to reason. This has been the biggest cause of the mistakes among philosophers.

People Should Study Philosophy over Religion

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If this curiosity and ambition does not make me speculate outside of common life, my inquiries would come from my weakness.

Superstition is much bolder in its systems and hypotheses than philosophy. Philosophy contents itself with assigning new causes and principles to the phenomena in the visible world.