92 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



to the place where it may enter into awareness, and as 

 devices of inference by which one may gain information 

 as to the character of the end-objects. In this function 

 they may be called operators, to distinguish them from A 

 and 0. Then the perceptual situation may be symbolized 

 as follows: 



Pure End- 



awareness Operators object 



A - M - B - P - 



But to describe the operators as coming between A and 

 is somewhat confusing and may lead to all of the difficulties 

 of the common sense theory unless one specifies clearly just 

 what is meant by this. The operators, M, B, and P, are 

 more properly described by saying that they are those ele- 

 ments of perception which may be considered either as 

 parts of the gross object or as parts of the gross awareness. 

 In the former case they function in the determination of the 

 appearances of the end-object in the various contexts; in 

 the latter they function in the determination of the com- 

 plexity of awareness. Nothing can come between awareness 

 and its object, but there is no reason why both awareness 

 and object should not themselves be complex. By the object 

 of awareness one may mean only the end-object. But one 

 may mean on other occasions the end-object as operated 

 upon by the physical medium, or as operated upon by the 

 physical medium plus the sense organs and nervous system, 

 or as operated upon by the physical medium plus the sense 

 organs and nervous system plus the mind. In each case 

 the entity of which one is aware is the end-object as it 

 manifests itself through the influences of various operators. 

 It may be called the appearance of the object in the de- 

 scribed context, and awareness may be said to be of the 

 appearance of the object. This retains the directness of per- 

 ception, provided the appearances of an object are presumed 

 to be part of the object. But what is to be done with the 

 operators in case one wishes to speak merely of the end- 



