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Search - Man Responsible For His Dispositions, Opinions, And Conduct : A Lecture Delivered In The Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, On ... Feb. 17, 1840

Man Responsible For His Dispositions Opinions And Conduct A Lecture Delivered In The Mechanics' Institution Southampton Buildings On Feb 17 1840
Author: Isaac Taylor

Man responsible for his dispositions, opinions, and conduct : a lecture delivered in the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, on ... Feb. 17, 1840 - THE usual preliminary of a discussion, namely, the definition of the principal term in question, is, in the present instance, attended with an incidental difficulty, not to be surmounted w... more »ithout virtually affirming what has been alleged to require proof. But then this same difficulty attaches to every argument concerning the great principles of human nature inasmuch as the mere fact that human language furnishes terms whereby such faculties may be defined and described is a substantial proof of their reality. If, for example, it were asked--Is man a rational animal -the contrary being pretended, and if the advocate of so whimsical a paradox were required to make us understand, by definitions, or circurnlocutions, or by equivalents, drawn fi-orn other languages, what it is precisely of which he means to despoil humanity, in merely stating his objection, he must answer it or at least supply all the materials necessary for his own sefutation. The fact that every language of civilised men comprises a large class of words and phrases dependent one upon another for their meaning, and , related, closely or remotely, to a certain property, or function of human nature, ancl which terms we can by no means dispense with in describing man, as he is distinguished from the terrestrial orders around him, this fact, attaching universally to the vehicle of thought, affords all the proof which a strict logic would grant in reply to the sophism. Language, when combined in continuous discourse, may indeed, and too often does, convey notions, totally false and absurd but language itself, which is at once the engine of cogitation, and the record of all facts permanently or incidentally attaching to human nature language, the least fallacious of historians, which, while it notes the revolutions of empires, is the enduring type of the visible world, and the shadow of the invisiblethe mirror of the universe, as known to man, language never lies how should it do so seeing that it is itself the creature and reflection of nature As well deny that the trees, buildings, rocks, and clouds, painted on the bosom of a tranquil lake are images of realities, as well do this, as assume that language, in the abstract, has ever belied humanity, or presented any elements foreign to our constitution. Philosophers, or teachers may have affirmed, and the multitude may have believed, far more than could be proved meantime the vehicle they have employed in defining and promulgating such illusions, has faithfully embodied the permanent verities of philosophy and religion just as a wonder-loving traveller, while he tells a thousand tales of griffins and dragons, sets us right by the dumb testimony of the specimens he has brought with him. Men might as easily create to themselves a sixth sense, as fabricate and retain in use a system of terms, having no archetypes in nature. And what is true of language generally, respecting human nature at large, is true in particular of the language of each Isace, respecting its particular characteristics, aud even its llistory...

ISBN-13: 9781408619186
ISBN-10: 1408619180
Publication Date: 1/31/2008
Pages: 74
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Read Books
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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Search - Man Responsible For His Dispositions, Opinions, And Conduct : A Lecture Delivered In The Mechanics' Institution, Southampton Buildings, On ... Feb. 17, 1840

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