18 THE WOELD-ENEEGY 



perception and conception mutually and necessarily 

 imply one another. However far the one may predomi- 

 nate in any given instance, the other is always involved in 

 the same act. Or, as somewhat picturesquely expressed 

 in a phrase attributed to Kant * (whom we are here sub- 

 stantially following), (i Conceptions without perceptions 

 are empty. Perceptions without conceptions are blind/'' f 



Nevertheless, perception is of a distinctly lower rank 

 than conception in the scale of the mind's modes of activ- 

 ity. As we have seen, the former is the distinctive mode 

 by which particular objects are taken up into conscious- 

 ness; while the latter is the mode by which the more 

 wide-reaching result is obtained of bringing into clear 

 definition in the individual consciousness the comple- 

 mentary relations of identity and difference necessarily 

 involved in the objects which appeal directly to the 

 senses. So that mere sense perception, so long as it pre- 

 dominates as such in the activity of any given mind and 

 thus includes conception only in its implicit phase, is 

 necessarily a very inadequate, superficial stage of mental 

 activity. And the development of conception into its 

 explicit phase as the dominating mode of mental activity 

 is essential to anything approaching adequate knowledge, 

 even of the simplest fact. 



Any " fact," indeed, can be truly known in no other 

 way than through its relations ; and it is,, let us repeat, 



* I have to acknowledge my indebtedness in the study of Kant to the 

 expositions of Dr. W. T. Harris, and also to Professor E. Caird's admirably 

 clear " Critical Account of the Philosophy of Kant" 



t Kant's own expression is: Gedanken ohne Inhalt sind leer, Anschau- 

 ungen ohne Begriffe sind blind. (Kritik, der reinen Vernunft. Ed. Harteu- 

 stein. S. 82.) But the context shows that the form given above the form 

 used by Professor Caird, and which also exactly translates the words used in 

 SchwegleVs exposition (Geschichte der Philosophic, i2te Auflage, S. 191), 

 is a perfectly accurate rendering of Kant's meaning. 



