Malebranch's search after truth, or, A treatise of the nature of the humane mind and of its management for avoiding error in the sciences : vol I : done out of French from the last edition.

CHAP. IV.

I. Of the Occasional Causes of Error, and that of these there are Five Principal ones.

II. The General Design of the Whole Work, and the Particular Design of the First Book.

WE have seen, that Men are only deceiv'd, because they make not that use of their Liberty which they ought to do, and because they do not moderate the haste and eagerness of the Will for bare appea∣rances of Truth; that Error consists only in a Con∣sent of the Will, which is more capacious than the Perception of the Understanding; since Men would not be deceiv'd, if they only judg'd of what they un∣derstand.

But though, properly speaking, 'tis only an ill Use of Liberty which is the Cause of Error, yet it may be said, that we have many Faculties, which are also the Causes thereof, not true Causes, but such as may be call'd Occasional ones. * 1.1 All our Modes of Perceiving, are so many Occasions of Deceiving us, for since our false Judgments include two things, the Consent of the Will, and the Perception of the Understanding, it is very evident, that all our Modes of Perception may occasionally deceive us, fince they are able to in∣cline us to precipitate and rash Assents.

Now, since 'tis necessary, first to convince the Soul of its Weakness and Errors, to create in it just desires of being delivered from them, and that it may more easily lay aside its Prejudices, we shall endeavour to make an exact Division of all its Modes of Percepti∣on, which will be as so many Heads, to every one of which we shall hereafter refer the different Errors we are subject to.

The Soul can perceive things three ways, by the pure Ʋnderstanding, by the Imagination, and by the Senses.

It perceives by the pure Understanding, Spiritual and Universal Things, common Notions, the Idea of Perfection, and of an Infinitely perfect Being, and generally all its Thoughts, when it knows them by Self-reflection. It also perceives some Material Things by the pure Understanding, as Extension with its Pro∣perties, for 'tis only the pure Understanding which can perceive a Circle, a perfect Square, a Figure with a thousand Angles, and such like things. These kinds of Perceptions I call pure Intellections, or pure Perceptions, because 'tis not necessary for the Mind to form Corpo∣real Images in the Brain to represent all those things.

The Soul perceives only Material Things by the Imagination, which represents them when absent, as if they were present, by forming Images of them in the Brain. 'Tis thus that we imagine all sorts of Figures, as a Circle, a Triangle, a Face, a Horse, Cities, Cam∣paignes, &c. whether we have ever seen them or not. These sorts of Perceptions I call Imaginations, because the Soul represents these things by forming Images of them in the Brain; and because we cannot form Images of Spiritual Things, it follows, that the Soul cannot imagine them, which ought to be well observed.

In fine, the Soul only perceives sensible and gross Objects by the Senses, which, when present, make an Impression upon the External Organs of its Body; Thus it sees Plains and Rocks, when presented to its Eyes, and feels the hardness of Iron, the point of a Sword, and such like things, and these sorts of Per∣ceptions I call Sentiments or Sensations.

The Soul then only perceives things after these three ways, which is evident, if we consider that all things we perceive are either Spiritual or Material; if they are Spiritual, 'tis only the pure Ʋnderstanding which can know them; but if they are Material, they will be either present or absent; if they are absent, the Soul perceives them only by the Imagination; if present, by the Impression which they make upon its Senses; and thus, as we said before, our Souls only perceive things after three ways, by the pure Ʋnder∣standing, by the Imagination, and by the Senses.

We may then look upon these three Faculties, as certain Heads, to which we may refer Mens Errors, and the Causes of these Errors, and so avoid the Con∣fusion wherein their great number would infallibly in∣volve us, if we should speak of 'em without any Method.

But our Inclinations and Passions act also very strongly upon us, they dazle our Minds by their false lights, they cover and fill it with darkness; Thus our Inclinations and Passions engage us in an infinite num∣ber of Errors, when we follow this false light which they produce in us. We must then consider them, with the three Faculties of the Mind, as the Sources of our Errors and Miscarriages, and to the Errors of the Senses, Imagination, and pure Ʋnderstanding, also join these that may be attributed to the Passions and Natural Inclinations. Thus we may refer all the Errors of Men, and the Causes of these Errors, to Five Heads, of which we shall Treat as follows.

First we shall speak of the Errors of the Senses, se∣condly of the Errors of the Imagination, thirdly of the Errors of the pure Ʋnderstanding, fourthly of the Errors of the Inclinations, fifthly of the Errors of the Passions. In fine, after having essayed to free the Mind from these Errors, to which it is subject, we shall give a General Method to conduct it in a Search after Truth.

Let us first Explain the Errors of our Senses, or rather the Errors which we fall into for want of making a right Use of our Senses. We shall not insist

so much upon particular Errors, which are almost in∣finite, as upon the General Causes of these Errors, and of such things as we believe necessary for the Knowledge of the Nature of Mans Mind.

Notes

• * 1.1

  I. Of the Occasional Causes of these there are Five principal ones.