Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 99

Chap.

111

BETWEEN SUBJECT AND OBJECT

I]

this

way

there

is

a

75

whole world of relations; these relaand important as the parts of the

tions appear equally real

We frequently impression that these relations dominate the

object that enter into relation to each other.

receive

the

component elements

of the object

more than those elements

the relations; with the simplest antithesis of these two, as,

with that of force and matter, the impression becomes so overwhelming, that one is fairly inclined to deny the reality of matter, and accept the relaSince by reason of its microtion only as actually existing. for instance,

of the relation

eosmical character our

human

consciousness

to the observation of these relations,

is

also disposed

and since these relations

cannot be photographed nor represented, but can only be thought, apart fi-om the elements among which they exist,

from these infinite series of organically connected relations the whole world of our thinking is born. If science means that our human consciousness shall take up into itself what exists as an organic whole, it goes without saying that she makes no progress whatever by the simple presentation of the elements ; and that she can achieve her purpose only v/hen, in addition to a fairly complete presentation of the elements, she also comes to a fairly complete study of their relations.'^ That morphine quiets pain is a component part of our knowledge, in so far as it has been discovered that there is a certain relation between this poppy- juice and our nerves. But this empirical knowledge will have led to a scientific insight only its

when

workings, and

this relation itself shall be understood in

when

it

shall be demonstrable

how mor-

phine acts upon the nerves so as to neutralize the action of 1 The distinction between elements (moments) and relations in the object has pnrposely been employed, because it is the most general one. By element we understand neither the substantia as substratum of the ijhenomena, nor the " Ding an sich " as object minus subject. Both of these are abstractions of thought, and might therefore mislead us. It needs scarcely a reminder, moreover, that there can be complication and association in tliese elements as well as in our presentations of them. And also that they can be reproduced from memory as well as be freshly perceived. But I cannot

detain myself with all this now. distinctions in the object, one of

representations,

and the other

My purpose was but to indicate the two which corresponds to our capacity to form

to our capacity to think.

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