Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/256

Rh of this error in the psychology of the Sophists, and how he corrected it.

22. In answer to the question, What, and what alone, appertains to man by nature? the sophists replied in one word, sensation. It is certain that man has by nature certain senses, and that he is naturally sensitive to pleasure and to pain. He has also, as part of his constitution, certain appetites, passions, and desires. Some of these, however, exist only in society, and are probably created only by our contact with society. The other appetites and passions which man brings with him into the world are so intimately connected with organic pleasure or pain that they may be placed under the head of sensation, and thus sensation, or a susceptibility and experience of pleasure or of pain, is properly all that belongs to man by nature. That this attribute is natural to him is what cannot be for a moment doubted. He comes into the world feeling, that is, alive to enjoyment or suffering, at every pore. In regard to all his other attributes, we cannot be sure that they are not entirely due to the influences and operation of society.

23. To what extent the Sophists admitted thought to be an indigenous property of man seems somewhat uncertain. It is probable that they did not admit it as anything different from sensation. They either slurred it over without much notice, or they regarded it as the natural sequent or accompaniment of