Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/76

Rh this universal principle, this faculty which is common to all minds, in virtue of which we are able to apprehend the truth, not merely as it exists for us, but as it exists for all? What can we say in explanation of this faculty?

24. To explain this universal faculty, I shall bring forward a few illustrations as the best means of rendering myself intelligible; or rather, without assuming that we have such a faculty, I shall produce the grounds which compel us to hold that there is something universal, as well as something particular, in our intelligent constitution. When I apply sugar to my palate, and declare that the taste is sweet and agreeable, am I entitled to declare further that sugar is sweet and agreeable to all sentient and intelligent beings? Can I announce this as a truth for all intelligence? Obviously I cannot; and why can I not? Simply because I am under no compulsion so to regard it: I can help thinking it as a truth for all intelligence. And on what ground can I help so thinking it? On the ground that an intelligence with a different organism from mine would apprehend the sugar differently. Therefore the truth for me, namely, that sugar is sweet and agreeable, cannot be laid down as a truth for all intelligence. Take another case. I say," The earth goes round the sun." Is that a truth for all intelligence? It looks very like one, but it is not one. And why not? you will ask. I answer, for this reason: that a truth for all