Philosophy

the sense of sight is pre-eminent, although blind men (and others to a less degree) can acquire a good knowledge of form by the sense of touch. Another point of importance about our perceptions is that they give us, within limits, a knowledge of temporal sequence. If you say to a man “Brutus killed Cæsar”, and then “Cæsar killed Brutus”, the difference between the two statements is likely to be perceived by him if he is listening; in the one case he will say “of course”, in the other “nonsense”, which is evidence of his having different perceptions in the two cases, according to our definition. Further, if you ask him what the difference is, he can tell you that it is a difference in the order of the words. Thus time-order within a short period of time is clearly perceptible. The objective method, which we have been applying in this chapter, is the only possible one in studying the perceptions of animals or of infants before they can talk. Many animals too low in the scale of evolution to have eyes are yet sensitive to light, in the sense that they move towards it or move away from it. Such animals, according to our criterion, perceive light, though there is no reason to suppose that they perceive colour or visual form or anything beyond the bare presence of light. We can perceive the bare presence of light when our eyes are shut; perhaps one may imagine their sensitiveness to be more or less analogous in its limitations. It is not to be supposed, in any case, that “perceiving” an object involves knowing what it is like. That is quite another matter. We shall see later that certain inferences, of a highly abstract character, can be drawn from our perceptions to the objects perceived; but these inferences are at once difficult and not quite certain. The idea that perception, in itself, reveals the character of objects, is a fond delusion, and one, moreover, which it is very necessary to overcome if our philosophy is to be anything more than a pleasant fairy-tale.