Syncline

“ It goes to the finer particles of the air, and passes on and on. There is an endless chain. It is as if there were numberless staffs, larger and smaller, and when one falls it either raises itself or passes on its rising to another or to others. There is an endless chain of movement to and fro, and as one ceases another comes. But, O king, I wish to take thee behind this long chain and to place thee where thou mayest not say, I will do this or that; but where thou canst say, This whole chain of movement shall be or shall not. ”

“ Furthermore, the fact of arrest with subsequent modification and degradation of function shows that the adaptation reached by the moment in its mature state is really kept in stable equilibrium by its more or less continued reproduction. Each reproduction of the moment is indispensable to the existence of the next one, and manifests its influence by maintaining the succeeding moment in the stage of maturity reached by the long series of modifications.
The moment of the synthetic type profits by experience, the moment of the desultory type does not. ”

“ What we have here is not four ideas, but one idea of there being four chairs. A sum of ideas is not the same thing as the idea of their sum, just as in algebra the sum of squares is not the same as the square of the sum. I think a sentence took a stroll in the forest yesterday morning. The sentence, forms a multiplicity of words, but in spite of all that multiplicity, the phrase appears in consciousness as one whole, as a synthetized unity. Synthetic unity is the essence, the backbone of thought. ”

“ The tendency to regard continuity as an idea of prime importance in philosophy may be conveniently termed synechism. What synechism is and what it leads to, may be brought out by comment on the formula of mental action. Logical analysis applied to mental phenomena shows that there is but one law of mind; namely, that ideas tend to spread continuously and to affect certain others which stand to them in a peculiar relation of effectibility. ”

“ Dactylic Syncopation.—"In this series it was easy to lay stress on the last (beat) ... this is the natural grouping; I unconsciously make such." "... of these the heavy one (accented syncopation) was much more satisfactory." "It was constantly my tendency to increase the strength of the last tap." "In this it is natural for me to make the final stroke heavy. To make the second group balance the first by equalizing the time alone is less satisfactory than by introducing elements of both time and force." "I felt that the latter part of the rhythm (unaccented syncopation) was lacking in force. ”

“ To have the idea of a conglomeration, of a multiplicity of objects, images or ideas, a synthetizing moment consciousness is required, a moment-consciousness that should take cognizance of all these objects, images or ideas and synthetize them into a unity, the one idea of the many. The many words, the many ideas must be synthetized in one moment-consciousness before the idea of the sentence can emerge, This synthesis, in fact, is that one idea. Ideas, images, thoughts, feelings do not come together, fuse into one, and make one idea. ”

“ Then I began once more: “Let me ask you, Daniel; perhaps you do not understand how difficult it is for one mind to believe that it cannot grasp what is in another mind. But this—this knowledge to which you have come—you must surely have come to it by degrees, by a process?” ”

“ In the synthetic moment the content of two adjoining stages is a little varied, still the sensory elements constituting the content of the preceding moment is reinstated in the succeeding one. It is true that even the desultory moment is not absolutely smooth in its course of repetitions or reinstatements. ”

“ Experience would imply that the moment under consideration has an idea of its state and remembering it takes on another occasion advantage of its acquired knowledge. Nothing of the kind occurs in the synthetic type. ”

“ Definition—When any given bodies of the same or different magnitude are compelled by other bodies to remain in contact, or if they be moved at the same or different rates of speed, so that their mutual movements should preserve among themselves a certain fixed relation, we say that such bodies are 'in union,' and that together they compose one body or individual, which is distinguished from other bodies by the fact of this union. ”

“ One of the fundamental principles of psychology is mental synthesis. Objects that appear within the same consciousness are synthetized in a unity, if they are taken cognizance of. An object a may be presented to consciousness, and another object b may be similarly perceived. They remain two and separate as long as consciousness does not take cognizance of their duality, of their being two objects, but as soon as the two appear in consciousness together and are perceived as two, they are by this very fact synthetized into a unity. ”

“ As we learn, through intercommunication with our fellows, of the existence for their perception of perceptual extension never directly presented to our own senses, the process of synthesis is extended further, so as to comprise in a single 247spatial system all the presentation-spaces of all the individual percipients in an order once again determined by the direction of the movements of transition from each to the others. ”

“ The characteristic required in addition to continuity is conformity with the laws of dynamics. Starting from what common sense regards as persistent things, and making only such modifications as from time to time seem reasonable, we arrive at assemblages of "sensibilia" which are found to obey certain simple laws, namely those of dynamics. By regarding "sensibilia" at different times as belonging to the same piece of matter, we are able to define motion, which presupposes the assumption [172] or construction of something persisting throughout the time of the motion. ”

“ An ascending synthesis accordingly finds the correspondence at first direct and homogeneous, then direct but heterogeneous, as extending in space and in time, and as increasing in specialty, in generality, and in complexity. Along with the all-sided development thus going on in the correspondences, there goes on a development in the degree in which the organs and functions of the individual are so correlated and united a to respond promptly and effectually to the answering changes in the environment. ”

“ Any lapse on our part, however slight, from practically perfect synchronization would have revealed to such a mentality as yours that I, whom you know as Mentor, am not an individual, but four. While we each worked as individuals upon all of the experimental lines, whenever we dealt with any one of the penultimates or ultimates we did so as a fusion. This was necessary, not only for your fullest possible development, but also to be sure that each of us had complete data upon every minute facet of the truth. ”

“ I name these facts to illustrate the truth that any kind of arrangement stands in the way of rearrangement; and that this must be true of organization, which is one kind of arrangement. When, during the evolution of a living body, its component substance, at first relatively homogeneous, has been transformed into a combination of heterogeneous parts, there results an obstacle, always great and often insuperable, to any considerable change of structure; the more elaborate and definite the structure the greater is the resistance it opposes to alteration. ”

“ The synthetic moment has no knowledge of what is taking place in its psychic activity, it is not conscious of the states it is living through. The only knowledge the synthetic moment possesses is the one characteristic of sensory life in general,―it is somewhat like what some writers term knowledge of acquaintance. ”

“ The individual presents only the history of the species. The reproductions of the synthetic moment begin to show the history of the modifications which have appeared in the course of the moment's life activity. Each recurrent reproduction of the synthetic moment is an epitome of its individual life-history, an epitome of its ontogenetic psychogenesis. ”

“ In speaking of the fact that the synthetic moment profits by its experience, while the desultory moment does not, we must be guarded against the term 'experience.' For it implies a psychic state belonging to a higher type of moment-consciousness, and it is misleading, unless the term be qualified, when used for a lower type of psychic life. ”

“ So it appears that thoughts may change the material universe; they may break the chain of causation, and interfere with material events.
Compare the two things, a state of consciousness and say, a steam shovel. They are entirely different, and so far as we can see, entirely incompatible and unrelated. Can anyone imagine how a thought can turn into a steam shovel, or a steam shovel into a thought? We can understand how a steam shovel lifts a mass of earth out of the ground, and we can understand how a human hand moves a lever which causes the shovel to act ”

“ This is as fair a description of thought transference and its necessary condition as could well be devised, for as in wireless telegraphy, its mechanical counterpart, it depends upon synchronism of vibration in a "sphere which goes forth from the life of every one." Thought transference and kindred phenomena in which all categories of space and time lose their significance baffle our understanding because they appear to involve the idea of being in two places—in many places—at once, a thing manifestly at variance with our own conscious experience. ”

“ If you have followed the chain of evolution here briefly sketched, although in mere suggestions, you can have no difficulty in perceiving the unbroken succession of allied links, all the way from the lowest cell-formations up to man. Many forms, doubtless, belong to subordinate systems, and take no part, directly, in the chain; yet the study of all will enable us more fully to comprehend the whole process. ”

“ Such a synthesis is always effected, whenever a moment-consciousness gets cognizance of many objects in other words, sensations, ideas, feelings, images can only get unified in the synthesis of a moment-consciousness. Mental synthesis of psychic content in the unity of a moment-consciousness is a fundamental principle of psychology. ”

“ If the tensions change from moment to moment entirely, we have a broken, a fragmentary effect, as that of zigzag, where all is dropping and picking up again of associated motions; in the straight line, much prolonged, we have a gradual and inexorable rending of these tendencies to associated movements. ”

“ The synchronous sensations produce synchronous ideas and the successive sensations successive ideas. Finally, the strength of the association between the ideas depends upon 'the vividness of the associated feelings, and the frequency of the association.' [518] Hume had said that association depended upon three [Pg 295] principles, 'contiguity in time and place,' 'causation,' and 'resemblance.' Contiguity in time corresponds to the successive, and contiguity in place to the synchronous, order. Causation, as Brown had finally proved, [519] means simply antecedence and consequence. ”

“ So great indeed is the effect which the passions occasion upon the organs of the circulation, as even to arrest them altogether in their functions, where the affection is very powerful. In this way is syncope produced, for the primitive seat of syncope is always, as I shall soon prove it to be, in the heart, and not in the brain. ”

“ We are thus compelled to admit that we have here to do with a synthesis which is, so to speak, qualitative, a gradual organization of our successive sensations, a unity resembling that of a phrase in a melody. ”

“ The phenomena of imperative concepts, insistent or fixed ideas, uncontrollable impulses, all grow and develop along the general lines of the synthetic moment. They are reinstatements of portions of dissociated moments buried in the subconscious and growing by the process of modification with each recurrent reinstatement. ”

“ And it seemed to him that atoms of thought and feeling might collect into a separate individuality, specially because they came forth from one brain or one heart; that they are related,—hence tend to one another with the same mysterious principle by which physical elements combine to form physical individualities. ”

“ It would indeed be both useless and pedantic to parade the whole machinery of the formal syllogism on every occasion. And yet the several forms of syllogism make themselves constantly felt in our cognition. If any one, when awaking on a winter morning, hears the creaking of the carriages on the street, and is thus led to conclude that it has frozen hard in the night, he has gone through a syllogistic operation:—an operation which is every day repeated under the greatest variety of conditions. ”

“ Analysis is declaratory—Synthesis is constructive. Analysis discovers and describes the relations actually existing—Synthesis applies connecting intermediates where no relations previously existed, and then Analysis characterizes the relations introduced by the cementing intermediates.
Even in the First Exercises the Series are Synthetic.‌ Every pair of words of which such Series consists exemplifies the relations either of Inclusion, Exclusion, or Concurrence. ”