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THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF CHANGEABLE BEING By changeable being in general we here understand everything which is capable of successive motion or change such as that which we perceive by our senses. Various names are employed to designate this object. It is called sensible reality, or that which is perceptible by sense. It is called the sensible universe, or the whole consisting of things perceptible by sense. We speak of it as the material and the physical universe or nature" that is, the whole which consists of things capable of successive motion or change. We call it the corporeal universe, or the whole consisting of extended parts. We call it the sensible world, or the venerable whole perceptible by sense. We name it the cosmos, that is, the whole which consists of many different parts disposed in an orderly way and constiiuting a beautiful system. Through our sensory experience we are aware that there is something which appears changing and various. Sensible objects appear and disappear independently of our will. That which appears to us has the aspect or reason of being: it is something not only sensible but also intelligible. We apprehend the disappearance of an object from our experience as something opposed to being, and called non-being. We judge that being is not non-being, and thus we divide non-being from being. We understand that a being such as the self is undivided or one, and that one being is divided or distinct from anything else which we experience, as the self is distinct from our sensory activities. We experience many sensible objects, especially the objects of touch, as things opposed to our knowledge of them. We sense them acting sensibly upon us. So:me of thes€ objects are pleasant and we enjoy experiencing them. Others are painful and excite cmr grief. We cannot sense si.mply at will. Fre27 28 W. H. KANE quently we can touch that which. we choose to touch or escape that which we dislike by reaching for it or withdrawing or otherwise moving ourselves. The sensible world appears and acts sensibly as being distinct from our knowledge of it. In particular we are aware of the self, and we know that the self is not only something sensible but also something permanent and distinct from our knowledge of self. Through sensory experience and through our knowledge of being and non-being we know that th~ objects of our knowledge are somehow distinct from our knowledge itself. Non-being can exist only in our knowledge, and as an object known, whereas the cosmos manifestly is in itself or has being of its own. We can initiate certain changes in the sensible world, and we understand some of the reasons for the things which we make, such as clothing and houses. When producing works of art we proceed from definite principles to certain ends. In this respect human art seems to imitate nature working through determined means to certain ends, as birds make nests for their young, and their young grow feathers for protection and for flying. Hence it seems that the cosmos is a work of intelligence and can be understood by us. The pageant of the changing world in which we actively participate excites our admiration and curiosity. Sometimes we observe it with wonder, and ask the solemn question: What is it? What is this reality which- undergoes sensible change? What manner of being is this, whose parts come sensibly into being and sensibly cease to be? What is its very essence? From what is it made? This question gives birth to philosophy , because the cosmos is the first reality which challenges the power of human reason to achieve a clear understanding of all that is. We are convinced that we understand a thing which has principles, causes or elements when we know what its principles , causes or elements are. Our scientific knowledge of a subject is derived from certain first principles which are the necessary sources of the being of the subject, or of its becoming, and of its bein.g understood by us. The first principles of THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF CHANGEABLE BEING 29 changeable being in general...

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