[MD] What's Personalism?

[John Carl]

How does it (thought) go on?  We notice immediately five important
characteristics -

1.  Every thought tends to be part of a PERSONAL consciousness.

2.  Within each personal consciousness thought is allways changing.

3.  Within each personal conscousness thought is sensibly continuous.

4.  It always appears to deal with objects independent of itself.

5.  It cares about some parts of these objects to the exclusion of
others, and chooses from among them, all the while.

 when we are discussing Personalism, we are discussing the modality of
thought.  This is one of the most difficult philosophic tasks.  We
know what it is, as long as we don't try and define it.   "The only
states of consciousness that we naturally deal with are found in the
personal consciousness, minds, selves, concrete particular I's and
you's." James, Princ. of Psych, 225-226.

He does use the term "self" as synonomous here, but that sense of the
term is one he later rejected.  The issue here is not the existence of
conciousness, bu its tendency to appear only in personal form.  We are
hard-pressed to suppose, radically empirically speaking, that such
experience ever takes another form.

to be continued...

John

(borrowed Liberally from Auxier, and glad to provide scholarship upon request)