THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



CHAPTER I 



SPACE 



Kant writes, " Space is merely the form of all appearances 

 of the outward senses, i.e. the subjective conditioning of 

 sensibility, by which alone intuition of the outside world is 

 possible for us." The biologist would express this in the 

 following way, — " The existence of space is dependent on the 

 inner organisation of the subject's personality, which clothes 

 the sense-qualities in spatial form." 



This spatial form, however, is not the same throughout 

 the various domains of sense, and it requires separate con- 

 sideration for each. 



If when we are listening, the accompanying tactile sensa- 

 tions of the ear are cut out, we get a condition in which the 

 auditory sensation remains quite normal but the direction 

 from which the sound comes can no longer be estimated. 

 In the same way, we can separate the sensations of smell 

 and taste from the sensations of touch which accompany 

 them, and then ask ourselves, " What do these pure sensa- 

 tions tell us about space ? " The answer must be that they 

 tell us very little indeed. For the qualities of these senses 

 are merely projected ; they are not localised. In this primi- 

 tive " what-lies-outside-ourselves " there are no places, no 

 directions and no forms. We may call this " what-lies- 

 outside-ourselves " space, but it must be remembered that 



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