Mallory has said: "I suggest that beauty is a type of human experience that arises in our mind/body when we contemplate certain non-notional objects. In other words, 'beauty' is a label for a kind of subjective state, just as 'pain' or 'itching' is."
To which William remarks: > So how is it that there is something inside (beauty) > that was never outside (beauty)? Aristotle: There is > nothing in the mind (memory) that was not first in > the senses (phantasia). > In other words, William suggests all subjective experience can be traced back to sense data. I'd defend Mallory like this. Mallory uses the word 'beauty' to label a kind of subjective experience. Terror, disgust, worry, glee, sexual desire for a particular person -- these too are comparable subjective experiences, and none of them was ever "outside" in the sense I infer William is using. And none was ever itself a sense datum, though they all may to some extent originate in sense data. Moreover, I'd say many notions are hard to track back to sense data. They seem notional abstractions that are the product of the ratiocinating mind manipulating other abstractions. Here are a few. Take a notion like "implication", the term in first order logic. Indeed, take the word 'logic'. Or the word 'fallacy'. Or the word 'unique'. I can think of many such words I'd be hard put to trace back to sense data. Meaning Idea Concept Fact Truth Statement Saying Relations Property Having Possessing Belonging Own, owning Mine Giving Denoting Designating Naming Signifying Referring Mentioning Expressing Knowing (and knowledge) Understanding Aboutness Truth Clarity Category Explanation Rule Purpose Intending Being (as an action) Disposition belief Satisfy Value Life Unique Original Important Content Fairness Art Class Taste ************** Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001)
