人类理解研究

Chapter 2: The Origin of Ideas The most active thought is weaker than even the dullest sense. Thus, here we can divide all perceptions in the human mind into two categories, and these two categories are distinguished by their strength and vigor. The less strong, less active perceptions are commonly called ThoughtsorIdeas. As for the other kind of perception, it lacks an equivalent name in English, and also in many other languages; I think this is because it is only when people are engaged in philosophical thought that they need to be grouped under a name, but not normally. We can be a little more casual and call them Impressions. But the term we are using here has a slightly different meaning than usual. By the word impression I mean all our more active perceptions, that is, the perceptions we have when we hear, see, touch, love, hate, desire, and think. Impressions are distinct from perceptions, which are the less active perceptions that we are aware of when we reflect on the above-mentioned sensations and movements. But although our mind seems to have this unlimited freedom, we see, on close examination, that it is really confined to a very narrow range, and that all the creative power of the human mind is merely the mixing, changing, increasing or decreasing of the materials supplied to us by the senses and experience, and that it is not a strange faculty. In short, all the materials in the mind come from the external or internal senses. All that the human mind and will can do is to mix and arrange them. If I were to express myself in philosophical terms, I could say that all our ideas or weaker perceptions are impressions or facsimiles of the more active perceptions.