CHAPTER VII
BELIEF
ATTENTION has been called to the fact that anything pre sented to a mind is accepted as real without hesitation or questioning unless there is something in the experience or the organization of that mind which opposes it. There seems, however, to be one limiting condition. In order to make clear what that is let us use one of Prof. James illustrations. " Suppose," he says, " a new-born mind, en tirely blank and waiting for experience to begin. Suppose that it begins in the form of a visual impression of a lighted candle against a dark background and nothing else, so that while this image lasts it constitutes the entire universe known to the mind in question. Suppose, moreover, that the candle is only imaginary and that no original of it is recognized by us Psychologists outside. . . . Will this hal lucinatory candle be believed in, will it have a real existence for the mind?" 1
Now, this question he answers in the affirmative. But in this he is, it seems to me, manifestly mistaken. In the first place, it involves an error to speak of the candle in such a case as " known." Knowledge involves consciousness of relation, and this implies the presence of two or more images in consciousness. The perception of relations, or any an alysis of this total impression into its constitutent elements, is not possible before there have been present to conscious ness more than one presentation. Indeed, if we can legit imately speak of " consciousness " at all in such a hypotheti cal situation, we can only mean a primordial and undiffer-
- " Principles of Psychology," Vol. II, p. 287.
135
�� �
