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claims that there can be an ignorance of that of which there can be no knowledge. It is corrected by appealing to the fact that
Ignorance is a defect, and argues that there is no defect in not knowing what cannot be known by any intelligence (for example, that two and two make five), and therefore
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as the basis of the whole philosophical system. In addition, the only possible kind of knowable is one which is both known of an object and known by a subject (Object + Subject, or Thing + Intelligence). This leads to the conclusion that the only independent
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forms a discussion of the origin of knowledge, in which
Ferrier traces all the perplexities and errors of philosophers to the assumption of the absolute existence of matter. The conclusion arrived at is that the only true real and independent existences are
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there can be an ignorance only of that of which there can be a knowledge, that is, of some-object-plus-some-subject. Therefore, the knowable alone is the ignorable. Ferrier lays special claim to originality for this division of the
Institutes.
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Consciousness is manifest only when the man has used the word with full knowledge of what it means. This notion he must originate within himself. Consciousness cannot spring from the states which are its object, for it is in
275:, but the perception of matter is the existence independent of the individual's thought. However, he says, it cannot be independent of thought; it must belong to some mind, and is therefore the property of the
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317:. These are all-comprehensive, and are therefore the departments into which philosophy is divided, for the sole end of philosophy is to correct the inadvertencies of ordinary thinking.
412:- the doctrine or theory of knowing, just as ontology is the doctrine or theory of being." See Third Edition, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1875, Introduction, §55, p. 48. See also
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minds-together-with-that-which-they-apprehend, and that the one strictly necessary absolute existence is a supreme and infinite and everlasting mind in synthesis with all things.
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in this work, p. 46). It explains that the fact that any intelligence, in addition to knowing whatever it knows, must as the ground or condition of its knowledge have some
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shows the latter alone to be analysable. Metaphysics separates the subjective element, our apprehension, from the objective element, the perception of matter; not matter
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301:(1854), in which he claims to have met the twofold obligation resting on every system of philosophy, that it should be reasoned and true. His method is that of
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adjudges
Ferrier's works as remarkable for their unusual charm and simplicity of style, qualities which are especially noticeable in the
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to them. It originates in the will, which in the act of consciousness puts the "I" in the place of our sensations.
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James
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and metaphysics in 1856, after
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which any mind can think of is the universe in synthesis with some other mind or ego.
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These articles were succeeded by a number of others, of which the most important were
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of thought, and declares that Reid, for presuming to analyse it, is in fact a
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at
Edinburgh University, still living at Carlton Street. In 1845 professor of
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Self-evident truths concerning knowing and the known are discussed in the
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Ferrier's first contribution to metaphysics was a series of articles in
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In 1840 he is listed as an advocate living at 14 Carlton Street in the
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
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Ferrier's matured philosophical doctrines find expression in the
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Section II: THE AGNOIOLOGY, OR THEORY OF IGNORANCE, p. 405f.
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Institutes of
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The leading contradiction which is corrected in the
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People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
172:(possibly of syphilis) and is buried with his aunt
200:An Introduction to the Philosophy of Consciousness
404:The word is used for the first time in his book,
127:on Wilson's resignation in 1852, and for that of
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35:writer and philosopher. He introduced the word
402:(3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2014.
161:. He was also the great-great-grandfather of
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