Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 112

88

§40.

LANGUAGE

[Div. II

language makes the content of our consciousness our property. It is one thing in the first stage of development to know that there are

and

all

sorts of sensations, perceptions, impressions,

distinctions in our consciousness,

assimilated nor classified.

And

it

which we have neither is

quite another thing

have entered upon that second stage of our development, in which we have transposed this content of our consciousness into representations and conceptions. And it is by language only that our consciousness effects this mighty transformation, by which the way is paved for the real progress of all science and this is done partly already by the language of images but more especially by the language of words and thus by the combined action of the imaginatioii to

;

;

;

and thought.

In this connection we also refer to the action

of the imagination, for tive

meaning

though ordinarily we attach a

to the imagination, so that

it

crea-

imagines some-

thing that does not exist, the figurative representation of

something we have perceived belongs to this selfsame action of our mind. Representation surpasses the mere perception, in that it presents the image as a unit and in some external relation, and is in so far always in part a product also of our thought, but only in so far as our thought is susceptible of

Hence

plastic objectification.

in the representation our ego

something that belongs to the content of our consciousness. But whatever clearness may arise from this, and however necessary this representation may be for the clearness of our consciousness, the representation by itself is not sufficient for our ego ; we must also logically understand the object and this is not conceivable without the forming of the conception. And this very forming of the conceptions, and the whole work which our mind then undertakes with these conceptions, would be absolutely sees a morphological

;

inconceivable,

means

to

if

the language of words did not offer us the for ourselves what is present in our

objectify

consciousness as the result of tJiought. Being used to the manipulation of language, we may well be able to follow up a series of thoughts and partly arrange them in order, without whispering or writing a word, but this is merely the

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