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Untitled Article
ledge , and can form no conception ; and our acquaintance with their qualities extends no * further than the fact of their mutual operation . Their mode of operation is still concealed from us , and while this is the case , we can with no propriety speak of the necessary connexion of causes and effects , Were the nature of the connexion ascertained by us , we might be able to pronounce on the cause of an unprecedented phenomenon ,
antecedent to experiment ; which it is well known is beyond our power * A gardener on the coast of Jersey was surprised to find , one year , that four or five strawberry plants bore fruit of a larger size and finer flavour than had ever been seen in the island , while their neighbours of the same bed were of the ordinary size . In order to account for the appearance , the gardener , who was a sensible mam , examined the soil , and endeavoured to remember whether any peculiar mode of culture had been employed on the plants . Unable to detect the cause b y reflection , he tried experiments , adding various ingredients to the soil , first one , then another , then a compound of several ; but without success . At length he consulted his assistant ,
and discovered , on inquiry , that his children had deposited bunches of seaweed on the spot where the plants grew . More sea-weed was applied , with good effect , and from that time the strawberry beds were annually manured with its ashes : the gardener having had sufficient experience of its efficacy to believe that his trouble would not be in vain ; though his total ignorance of the mode in which the sea-weed operated on the fibres and juices of the plants would have made him hesitate ( had he been a metaphysician ) to declare that its influence was necessary '• Our author , while he adopts the
term we prefer , appears to assume the truth of that which we reject : believing the uniformity of causation , and necessary connexion of cause and effect , to be interchangeable terms . In this part of the Essay , he avoids the use of the term necessary , while he assumes the truth of the signification we ascribe to it . This assumption is consistent with his belief in the instinctive nature of the principle which forms the ground of his argument ; but it seems to us to be erroneous .
In the second chapter the writer points out the feet ( of considerable importance to his object ) , that while philosophers have been engaged in laying down the belief of the uniformity of causation as a ground for future expectation , they have neglected the consideration that it applies as well to the past as to the future ; and have forgotten to argue that like causes not only will produce , but have produced , like effects . If the necessary connexion of causes and effects be allowed , and if we admit our belief of this connexion to be instinctive , no proof of the above position is needed . But if not , if the connexion be only uniform * it is obvious that the author is already begging the question which he designs afterwards to present to hi * readers . From instinct there is no appeal ; but how is experience to assure us that like causes have always produced like effects ? The author affirms with us that it cannot . It is necessary here to make an extract *
" This assumption of the past uniformity of causation will be apparent on the sli g htest reflection . To nave recourse again to our instance of throwing paper into the fire : it is obvious that I not only expect the paper to be burnt , but I assume that fire has always possessed the property of consuming * that substance . As a proof that this assumption is involved in my thoughts , it is onl necessary to trace the process of my mind in rejecting a narration at variance with nay own experience . Should any one assert , that at a former period of his life he had thrown paper into the tire , suffered it to remain for five minutes in the flames , and then taken it out unscorched and unconsumed , I should instantly regard the relation as false , and should think it a sufficient
Untitled Article
630 Etmys on the Par mi t of Truth .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 630, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/30/
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