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80 An observation Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 9:46:56 +0000 Then the frontiers of the universe, so to speak, disappear ; for how ever great the universe may be, it is limited, and can give only a particular extension, not extension itself. This is the manner in which the idea of imaginary space seems to be formed. 80 An observation of the phenomena of the imagination will confirm what we have explained by the mere order of intelligence. Autor of the post: Undefined If it were not so Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:04:54 +0000 I imagine the extension of an orange, I imagine it with a limit, with this or that color, and with these or those qualities ; since it is not possible for me to imagine a figure without lines which terminate it. This limit in the imagination is distinct both from the exten sion which it encloses, and from the extension which, it excludes. If it were not so distinguished, we could not imagine it as limit, and it would not answer its object, which is to enable us to distinguish that which it encloses. Autor of the post: Undefined Destroy these limits Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:17:21 +0000 Therefore, the abstraction is not complete. In the imagin ation there is always something determinate, which is tha limit or the lines which constitute the limit. Destroy these limits, and the imagination expands, until it becomes lost in a sort of dark, unbounded abyss, such as we imagine beyond the universe. Autor of the post: Undefined When we see the white Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:36:37 +0000 A very simple example will make this explanation clearer. Our imagination may be compared to a black board on which a figure is marked with chalk. When we see the white line on the board which forms the figure, we see the figure also ; but if we rub out the line, there remains only the uniform figure of the board. Autor of the post: Undefined 81 The idea Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:52:48 +0000 If we suppose the lines which terminate the black-board to be indefinitely withdrawn, we shall look in vain for a figure ; we see only a black surface indefinitely extended. There is a sufficient parity between this and the manner in which the imagina tion pictures to itself an endless space. 81 The idea of an abstract extension which is limited, is a contradiction. Autor of the post: Undefined 82 Summing up this doctrine Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 11:05:17 +0000 Limit takes from extension generality; and generality destroys the limit. There can, therefore, be no abstract idea of limited extension ; but when we form an idea of extension in the abstract, we conceive it as unlim ited, and the imagination attempting to follow the under standing, pictures to itself an indefinite space. 82 Summing up this doctrine, and deducing its inevitable consequences, we may say : I That space is nothing else than the extension of bodies. Autor of the post: Undefined IV That the idea Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 11:20:27 +0000 II That the idea of space is the idea of extension. III That the different parts conceived in space are the ideas of particular extensions, from which we have not taken their limits. IV That the idea of infinite space is the idea of exten sion in general, abstracted from all limit. Autor of the post: Undefined VII That what is called Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 11:40:04 +0000 V That indefinite space arises necessarily from the imagination, which destrjys the limit in attempting to follow the generalizing march of the understanding. VI That where there is no body there is no space. VII That what is called distance is only the interposi tion of a body. Autor of the post: Undefined X That all vacuum Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 11:52:14 +0000 VIII That if every intermediate body be taken away, distance ceases ; there is then contiguity, and, consequently, absolute contact. IX That if there were only two bodies in existence, it would be metaphysically impossible for them to be distant from each other. X That all vacuum, of whatever kind, or however ob tained, is absolutely impossible. Autor of the post: Undefined I do not put forth Post Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2008 12:05:14 +0000 83 These are the consequences which follow from the principle explained in this chapter. If the reader ask me what I think of them and of the principle on which they are based, I frankly confess that, although the principle seems true and the conclusions legi timate, still the strangeness of some of them, and yet more so with regard to others which I shall point out as we come to them, makes me suspect that there is some error con cealed in the principle, or else the reasoning which de duces these consequences contains some defect which is not easy to discover. I do not put forth a settled opinion, so much as a series of conjectures, with the arguments in their favor. 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