TAINE'S STUDENT CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTEBOOKS 213 



Sometime during the 1 849-1 850 school year, he added the follow- 

 ing comment: 'This is pure IdeaHsm, I have not yet made the 

 distinction between perception and conception,^ 3o 



THE PROBLEM OF METHOD ( 1 849- 1 85 1 ) 



Perception and Conception 



That the problem of method was Taine's central concern during 

 his second year at the Normal School is clear from a notebook, 

 entitled Philosophy, Dogmatism, dated 1 849-1 850^1; another, dated 

 November, 1849-March, 1850, in two parts, on the Idea of 

 Science and On the Absolute^^; two others from 1850, discussed by 

 Chevrillon,33 headed Dogma and Metaphysics: Analytic and 

 Abstract J"^ These, together with a large number of other critical 

 papers, 3 5 indicate that this year was a particularly active and 

 crucial one for Taine. 



The Philosophy, Dogmatism notebook began with the following 

 observation: T am beginning to perceive that I shall have to 

 recast the notebook which is the summary of all of my last year's 

 work: it is the labour of Penelope. Each day one mounts on one's 

 (own) shoulders.' 36 Jt opened with the distinction between per- 

 ception and conception already cited: 



'Everything depends on the method: so I return to that subject. 

 By method, I mean the means of having true perceptions, in 

 other words the necessary conditions for having a series of true 

 perceptions. 



'By the truth of a perception, I mean its agreeing with its 

 object; I mean to say that it should be subjectively what the 

 object is in itself. 



'Every act of intelligence, all knowledge is a perception. 

 Memory is a perception of a present modification, which implies 

 a past perception. Conception is the perception of a modification 

 of the same sort which one does not attribute to a past per- 

 ception. . . .'37 



Taine's problem had become one of how, from our perceptions, 

 we arrive at true conceptions. 38 



Criticisms of Descartes and Aristotle 



Concerning the problem of method, critical essays 'On Descartes' 

 Method' 3 9 and on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics^'^ are relevant. 



