Objective and SubjectiveObjective and Subjective That is spoken of as objective which is presented as an object, and that to which the presentation is made as being affected by it is called the subject. According to the Kantian philosophy the mind is the only subject, and therefore all that is external to it if known at all is known only subjectively
As terms of art indeed their revival has been hailed both by Coleridge and Sir W. Hamilton. It has not always been noticed, however, that the said revival has been accompanied by what is almost a reversal of their meaning. By the schoolmen the outward taken by itself was spoken of as taken subjectively, viewed as in itself, apart from the perceiving and thinking mind. The thing in itself is το ὑποκεῑμενον, the thing as perceived and thought is objective. This, as may easily be seen, has been reversed in modern language. The old scholastic force of the terms survived among English writers down to the middle of the seventeenth century. Thus speaks the celebrated Mede, «Though the Eucharist be a sacrifice (that is, an oblation wherein the offerer banquets with his God), yet is Christ in this sacrifice no otherwise offered, than by way of commemoration only of his sacrifice once offered upon the Cross, as a learned prelate of ours (1) hath lately written objectivè only, not subjectivè How completely this reverses the polemical terms of the present day I need not show. __________ (1) Bishop Morton. |
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