"Looking back upon our own thought, we observe no Subject, like an admiral on the bridge of his flagship, dictating and controlling, some man above the man or in the man; we only note a process of development which requires no such assumption."
— Spiller, Gustav (1864-1940)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Swan Sonnenschein
Date
1902
Metaphor
"Looking back upon our own thought, we observe no Subject, like an admiral on the bridge of his flagship, dictating and controlling, some man above the man or in the man; we only note a process of development which requires no such assumption."
Metaphor in Context
We must, therefore, reject the easy assumption that because a certain word is frequently employed, its meaning always remains the same. Looking back upon our own thought, we observe no Subject, like an admiral on the bridge of his flagship, dictating and controlling, some man above the man or in the man; we only note a process of development which requires no such assumption. Arduous examination finds no immaterial Subject which is mysteriously affected and spontaneously affects other things; it only meets with a single plane without any unanalysable entities. A contentless Subject, or one not analysable into elements like any other thing, is neither more nor less than a pre-scientific conception. In its place we must put the theory of developing complications (or associations) where the importance and meaning of the word " I" is casual and ephemeral.
(p. 329)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in Google Books
Citation
Gustav Spiller. The Mind of Man: A Text-book of Psychology. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1902. <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
03/16/2009
