The Grammar of Science - Chapter II

Chapter II

"The Facts of Science"

1. Immediate sense-impressions form permanent impresses in the brain which psychically correspond to memory. The union of immediate sense-impressions with associated stored impressions leads to the formation of "constructs," which we project "outside ourselves," and term phenomena or appearances. The real world lies for us in such phenomenal constructs and not in shadowy things-in-themselves. "Outside" and "inside" oneself are alike ultimately based on sense-impressions; but from these sense-impressions by association, mechanical and mental, we form conceptions and draw inferences. These are the facts of science, and its field is essentially the contents of the mind.
2. When an interval elapses between sense-impression and muscular exertion, and the interval contains cerebral activity marking the revival and combination of past sense-impresses, we are said to think or be conscious. Consciousness of something external is an inference which, not yet having been verified by immediate sense-impression, we term an "eject;" it is conceivable, however, that it could become an object.Consciousness has no meaning other than to nervous systems akin to our own; it is illogical to assert that all matter is conscious, still more that consciousness or will can exist outside matter.
3. The term knowledge is meaningless when extended beyond the sphere in which we may legitimately infer consciousness, or when applied to things outside the area of thought, i.e., to metaphysical terms dignified by the name of conceptions although they do not ultimately flow from sense-impressions.