They are, however, inherited. Just as the teeth and the beard are not
usually innate in man, but come and grow like those of the parents and
are already implanted, piece for piece, in the new-born child, and are
thus hereditary, so the first ideas of the infant, his first concepts,
which arise unconsciously, without volition and without the possibility
of inhibition, in every individual in the same way, must be called
hereditary. Different as are the teeth from the germs of teeth in the
newly-born, so different are the man's concepts, clear, sharply defined
by words, from the child's ill-defined, obscure concepts, which arise
quite independently of all language (of word, look, or gesture).
In this wise the old doctrine of "innate ideas" becomes clear. Ideas or
thoughts are themselves either representations or combinations of
representations. They thus presuppose perceptions, and can not
accordingly be innate, but may some of them be inherited, those, viz.,
which at first, by virtue of the likeness between the brain of the child
and that of the parent, and of the similarity between the external
circumstances of the beginnings of life in child and parent, always
arise in the same manner.
The principal thing is the innate aptitude to perceive things and to
form ideas, i. e., the innate intellect. By aptitude (Anlage), however,
can be understood nothing else at present than a manner of reacting, a
sort of capability or excitability, impressed upon the central organs of
the nervous system after repeated association of nervous excitations
(through a great many generations in the same way).
Pages:
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287