Great Throughts Treasury

"If this is correct, all that is contained in a single divine consciousness within which an inconceivably vast number of streams of finite experience interact and interweave. When the lower level streams of experience which correspond to the basic items postulated in physics enter into appropriately complex relations with each other they form aggregates (and aggregates of aggregates) which are what living things are in themselves, and which underpin the emergence of the streams of consciousness of animals and men. Within such streams of consciousness, more particularly the human, a not self aspect, which is primarily the physical world as it is for us, confronts a self aspect, and serves as its representation of the system of interweaving streams of experience n the midst of which it exists and with which it must interact appropriately in order to survive, communicate with other similar selves, and realize its personal essence as fully as it can."

"Our view does not deny the importance, and indeed inevitability, of our sustaining the construction of a world in which values pertain to things which are not conceived as anyone’s mere personal experience. It will, however, think that for critical reflection the values of the constructed world only matter to whatever extent they, or the belief in them, are values realized in immediate experience."

"If one goes for a long time without serious pain, one can more or less forget its distinctive nature. But then, when it comes, one is reminded only too well of what it is like, that is, of its reality as a distinctive quality of experience."

"It is an objective fact whether a certain experience is pleasurable or unpleasurable, and relatedly whether a particular conscious individual is presently experiencing something pleasurable or painful. It is an objective fact, so we may put it, about a subjective state."

"There once was a thinker called Plato Who said "this our world's second rate-oh, Its just a poor copy Of something less sloppy Where all is precise and first rate-oh". That crafty old man Aristotle Took his friends to look at a bottle Saying "its causes are four, No less and no more, Glass, shape, vintner and drinking full throttle". A French soldier known as Descartes Said "I hope that you've taken to heart That without a safe line To something divine, Each is stuck at his self engrossed start." There once was a tutor called Locke Who said that the self's like a sock Though the wool is quite new It's still really you Because its been darned without shock. That skilful lens grinder Baruch Said "nothing can happen by fluke For nothing is free From Nature's decree, Free will is just gobledy gook". That worldly wise Gottfried Leibniz Had most of the angels in fits When he said "your external relations Are just private sensations From one monad to 'tother nowt flits". There once was a vicar called Berkeley Who said to his friends somewhat darkly "This whole vale of tears Is nowt but ideas" That astonishing vicar called Berkeley. That somewhat stout Scot David Hume Said "this cosmos of ours has no room For forces or powers Its just hours and hours Of impressions, then ideas, till the tomb". That punctilious pedestrian Kant Said the realness of ought I must grant As for time and for space You may laugh in my face But call them genuinely real I just shan't. That rather unnerving chap Hegel Tried us all to the view to inveigle That pure Nothing and Being Far from not agreeing In becoming are playboy and playgirl. That gloomy old Sage Schopenhauer Said "there's much more nettle than flower" Nothing more he reviled Than the person who smiled And grieved not at the Cosmic Will's power. That sad fellow Friedrich Nietzsche Was once a fine classical teacher Till a voice in his head Told him God was now dead - This became of his thought the chief feature. Shall I marry her? asked Kierkegaard I love her but Christ surely more He sought mediation To end hesitation But God called out NO: - EITHER/OR. That temperate man T. H. Green Said "There's something divine but unseen Which spins the relations Which make our sensations. A real world, if you see what I mean". Said that soldierly mystic called Bradley "Please don't take my system too sadly It’s really quite fun Thinking everything's One We should all feel unreal very gladly". The Hegelian inclined Bosanquet Said "it’s really, you know, rather wet To expect each finite chappy To be well fed and happy For the Absolute ain't in our debt". That most honest of thinkers McTaggart Although very far from a braggart Felt some pride in his proof That time was a spoof Which could never take in a McTaggart. William James declared that the true Is the thought which works best for you And it works through its dealing With those streams of pure feeling Known as matter, mind, (and God too) Martin Heidegger said don't repine If you don't quite catch what's my line You don't need much German To follow my sermon As long as you know the word Sein. A man in a cafe called Sartre Gave the other chaps there quite a start By looking around For someone not to be found But whose absence still haunted Montmartre 1. The demands of rhyme forced me to move Sartre from his more usual haunt of Montparnasse A weirdo yclept Wittgenstein Called out this whole world is "just mine" But later he noted That an ego so bloated Had no room for mine or for thine. A man from Ohio now dead3 Would lurk in the fields, so it is said, So that when others screamed "rabbit" He could indulge in his habit Of shouting "Gavagai" instead. A brain in a vat called Putnam Said "perhaps this whole world's just a scam Still, my thoughts must refer To their causes out there What they are I don't care a damn." The truth of all this it seems plain Is that philosophy would indeed be in vain If its aim were a view So objectively true It will not be discarded again But cheer yourselves up my good friends Though it’s true that the search never ends We may each in our day Have our personal say And feel free to ignore current trends. "

"Our view does not deny the importance, and indeed inevitability, of our sustaining the construction of a world in which values pertain to things which are not conceived as anyone?s mere personal experience. It will, however, think that for critical reflection the values of the constructed world only matter to whatever extent they, or the belief in them, are values realized in immediate experience."

"If a philosopher would grasp reality in its concreteness, and arrive at a philosophic position adequate to such grasp, he must take the flow of his own experience as his paradigm example of the true pulse of existence, and continually check the results of his reasonings by reference back to it."