Psychology - 1 Author:Antonio Rosmini Volume: 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1886 Original Publisher: Kegan Paul, Trench Subjects: Psychology Psychology / General Psychology / History Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis Psychology / Reference Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations ... more »and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER VII. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING UNDERSTOOD BY MAN r 681. From the theory set forth above we may derive this corollary, that an interpretation, rendering it true, may be given to the opinion of the Schoolmen, which St Thomas expresses thus : " Primum autem quod tntelligilur a nobis secundum statum prasentis mite est QUIDDITAS REI MATERIALIS, qiUB est nostri intellectus objectum." It follows, indeed, from what has been said, that the sentient principle, having once arrived at perfection, tends to know the nature of body (quidditas ret materialts], that is, to perceive body as being; hence the first real object of intelligence is body. 682. It may be said that, according to us, it is not the body, but the animal feeling that is the object apprehended by the first fundamental perception. This is true ; still, if we consider that the sentient principle is not divisible from the felt, and that it is, therefore, perceived in and with the felt, it follows that the felt body, the living body, is really the term of perception. 683. It may also be said that St. Thomas speaks of the extra-subjective body, perceived with the five special senses. I reply that I do not pretend that the theory which I am expounding is exactly that of St. Thomas; but the two views approximate each other. And it must be observed also that our theory furnishes the reason why, as soon as an external body acts on our organs of sense, we perceive it intel...« less