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576. Nor is this, by any means, all. A man is capable of a spiritual consciousness, which constitutes him one of the eternal verities, which is embodied in the universe as a whole. This as an archetypal idea can never fail; and in the world to come is destined to a special spiritual embodiment.
Peirce: CP 7.577 Cross-Ref:††
577. A friend of mine, in consequence of a fever, totally lost his sense of hearing. He had been very fond of music before his calamity; and, strange to say, even afterwards would love to stand by the piano when a good performer played. So then, I said to him, after all you can hear a little. Absolutely not at all, he replied; but I can feel the music all over my body. Why, I exclaimed, how is it possible for a new sense to be developed in a few months! It is not a new sense, he answered. Now that my hearing is gone I can recognize that I always possessed this mode of consciousness, which I formerly, with other people, mistook for hearing. In the same manner, when the carnal consciousness passes away in death, we shall at once perceive that we have had all along a lively spiritual consciousness which we have been confusing with something different.
Peirce: CP 7.578 Cross-Ref:††
It is in ordinary experience that the most profound senses of Reality are clear and present. Peirce understood what consciousness is. He understood how porous Reality is. He understood that continuity and fallibility are aspects of our living here. He was fully aware of how unique each individual is and of the utter commonality of all.
If he tended to see races as separate, this error was a product of his time for which no excuse remains.
Peirce: CP 7.577 Cross-Ref:††
577. A friend of mine, in consequence of a fever, totally lost his sense of hearing. He had been very fond of music before his calamity; and, strange to say, even afterwards would love to stand by the piano when a good performer played. So then, I said to him, after all you can hear a little. Absolutely not at all, he replied; but I can feel the music all over my body. Why, I exclaimed, how is it possible for a new sense to be developed in a few months! It is not a new sense, he answered. Now that my hearing is gone I can recognize that I always possessed this mode of consciousness, which I formerly, with other people, mistook for hearing. In the same manner, when the carnal consciousness passes away in death, we shall at once perceive that we have had all along a lively spiritual consciousness which we have been confusing with something different.
Peirce: CP 7.578 Cross-Ref:††
It is in ordinary experience that the most profound senses of Reality are clear and present. Peirce understood what consciousness is. He understood how porous Reality is. He understood that continuity and fallibility are aspects of our living here. He was fully aware of how unique each individual is and of the utter commonality of all.
If he tended to see races as separate, this error was a product of his time for which no excuse remains.
