54 PART II. SOME IMPORTANT METHODOLOGICAL TERMS. 



PART II. 



DEFINITION OF SOME IMPORTANT METHODO- 

 LOGICAL TERMS. 



SECTION VIII. OBJECT, FACT, ENVIRONMENT. 



19. (A) OBJECT. The term Object is, as such, perhaps 

 undefinable. A given object is that (object) which we choose 

 to regard as having a separate or separable existence. 1 An 

 atom in a molecule, a molecule in a nucleus, the nucleus itself, 

 the cell, a piece of tissue, an organ, a system of organs, the 

 organism, and so on, may severally be regarded as entities. 

 (Conclusions 25 / and 22.) A tree, a wood, a landscape, a moun- 

 tain range, a country, a continent, the earth, the solar system, 

 the sidereal system, and the Universe, are objects. 2 In a puzzle 

 picture, whose primary object it is to deceive, and in many 

 geometrical designs, the same set of lines, according to the 

 manner in which they are viewed or interpreted, yield dis- 

 similar objects. Similarly with sounds. Uttering, for instance, 

 several times in rapid succession the word "plea", we may 

 imagine, according to choice or circumstance, that we are say- 

 ing "leap" or "plea". Again, we may disregard the changes 

 which are produced in the passage of time from the zygote 

 to the new-born babe, and from the new-born babe to the man 

 bowed down by age, or the transformations due to position 

 in space and to other circumstances. Furthermore, just as we 

 may ignore changes of time and space, we may pass over 

 determinate quantity, as in the concepts man, redness, solidity, 

 and the like, where the terms imply highly abstract and gene- 

 ralised facts. Similarly, inasmuch as animate beings derive 

 their nature from other animate beings, as a son from his 

 parents; an animal and a plant from other animals and plants; 

 one species from a preceding one; therefore mankind and the 

 whole of animate existence may be conceived as one and 

 undivided. The current methods of classification are, however, 

 based on practical considerations, and separate movable ob- 

 jectsan animal, a table are the conventional types of objects 

 as such. Beyond this necessarily limited view of apprehending 

 nature, convenience, interest, and an easy grasp and separation 



1 "GegenstJinde oder Dinge sind von unserm Willen unabhangige Kom- 

 plexe von Empfindungen, denen raumliche Selbstandigkeit und zeitliche 

 Stetigkeit zukommt." (Wundt, Logik, vol.1, p. 454.) It need scarcely be 

 pointed out that a complex of sensations is a thing or object, and that no 

 sensation complex is entirely independent of discriminating intelligence. 



2 "We can call a pile of wood, a pyramid of balls, or a heap of sand 

 a unity or a thing, although it contains a plurality." (Sigwart, Logic, vol. 2, 

 p. 82.) Sigwart discusses this subject somewhat fully, and Locke has a 

 few apposite paragraphs in his Essay on the Human Understanding, bk. 2, 

 ch. 23, 1-2. 



