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3 a. Thus, the musical chord c e g has a corresponding total feeling of harmony whose
last elements, or partial feelings of the first order, are the feelings corresponding to the
single clangs c, e, and g. Between these two kinds of feeling stand, as partial feelings of
the second order, the three feelings of harmony from the double clangs c e, e g and c g.
The character of the total feeling may have four different shades according as one of
these partial feelings of the second order predominates, or all are equally strong. The
cause of the predominance of one of these complex partial feelings may be either the
greater intensity of its sensational components, or the influence of preceding feelings. If,
for example, c e g follows c e g the effect of cb e g will be intensified, while if c e g
follows c e a the same will hold for c g. Similarly, a number of colors may have a
different effect according as one or the other partial combination predominates. In the last
case, however, because of the extensive arrangement of the impressions, the spacial
proximity has an influence antagonistic to the variation in the manner of combination
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OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY
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and, furthermore, the influence of the spacial form with all its accompanying conditions
is an essentially complicating factor.
4. The structure of composite feelings is, thus, in general exceedingly complicated. Still,
there are different degrees of development even here. The complex feelings arising from
impressions of touch, smell, and taste are essentially simpler [p. 161] in character than
those connected with auditory and visual ideas.
The total feeling connected with outer and inner tactual sensations is designated in
particular as the common feeling, since it is regarded as the feeling in which our total
state of sensible comfort or discomfort expresses itself. From this point of view, the two
lowest chemical senses, those of smell and taste, must also be regarded as contributors to
the sensational substratum of the common feeling, for the partial feelings that arise from
these two senses unite with those from touch to form inseparable affective complexes. In
single cases, to be sure, one or the other of these feelings may play such an important part
that the others disappear entirely. Still, in the midst of all this change in its sensational
substratum, the common feeling is always the immediate expression of our sensible
comfort and discomfort, and is, therefore, of all our composite feelings most closely
related to the simple sense-feelings. Auditory and visual sensations, on the other hand,
contribute to the sensational substratum of the common feeling only in exceptional cases,
especially when the intensity is unusually great.
4a. The combination of partial feelings to a composite feeling was first noticed in the case
of the common feeling. The psychological laws of this combination were indeed
misunderstood, and, as is usually the case in physiology, the feeling was not
distinguished from its underlying sensations. Common feeling was, thus, sometimes
defined as the "consciousness of our sensational state", or again as the "totality, or
unanalyzed chaos of sensations" which come to us from all parts of our body. As a matter
of fact, the common feeling consists of a number of partial feeling. But it is not the mere
sum of these feelings; it is rather a resultant total feeling of unitary character. At the same
time it is, however, a total feeling of the simplest possible composition, made up of
partial feelings of the first [p. 162] order, that is, of single sense-feelings which generally
do not unite to form partial feelings of the second or of higher orders. In the resultant
feeling a single partial feeling is usually predominant. This is regularly the case when a
very strong local sensation is accompanied by a feeling of pain. On the other hand,
weaker sensations may determine the predominant affective tone through their relatively
greater importance. This is especially frequent in the case of sensations of smell and taste,
and also in the case of certain sensations connected with the regular functioning of the
organs, such as the inner tactual sensations accompanying the movements of walking.
Often the relatively greater importance of a single sensation is so slight that the
predominating feeling can not be discovered except by directing our attention to our own
subjective state. In such a case the concentration of the attention upon it can generally
make any partial feeling whatever predominant.
5. The common feeling is the source of the distinction between pleasurable and
unpleasurable feelings. This distinction is then carried over to the single simple feelings
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OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY
96
that compose it, and sometimes even to all feelings. Pleasurable and unpleasurable are
expressions well adapted to the indication of the chief extremes between which the
common feeling, as a total feeling corresponding to the sensible comfort or discomfort of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]