Chapter XX (part 2)

Only by the repudiation of everything will the possibility of entering into a new life be realized. With the beginning of the gradual loss of the old world, the logic of the two-dimensional being—or that which stood for it for logic—will suffer continual violation, and its strongest impression p. 245 will be that there is no logic at all , that no laws of any sort even exist. Formerly, when it was an animal, it reasoned: This is this . This house is my own . That is that . That house is strange . This is not that . The strange house is not my own . The strange house and its own house the animal regards as different objects , having nothing in common. But now it will surprisedly understand that the strange house and its own house are EQUALLY houses. How will it express this in its language of perceptions? Strictly speaking, it will not be able to express this at all, because it is impossible to express concepts in the language of an animal. The animal will simply mix up the sensations of the strange house and its own house. Confusedly, it will begin to feel some new properties in houses, and along with this it will feel less clearly those properties which made the strange house strange. Simultaneously with this, the animal will begin to sense new properties which it did not know before. As a result it will undoubtedly experience the necessity for a system of generalization of these new proper. ties—the necessity for a new logic expressing the relations of the new order of things. But having no concepts it will not be in a position to construe the axioms of Aristotelian logic, and will express its impression of the new order in the form of the entirely absurd but more nearly true proposition: This is that . Or let us imagine that to the animal with the rudimentary logic expressing its sensations , This is this . That is that . This is not that . somebody tries to prove that two different objects, two houses—its own and a strange one —are similar, that they represent one and p. 246 the same thing , that they are both houses . The animal will never credit this similarity . For it the two houses, its own, where it is fed , and the strange one, where it is beaten if it enters, will remain entirely different . There will be nothing in common in them for it, and the effort to prove to it the similarity of these two houses will lead to nothing until it senses this itself . Then, sensing confusedly the idea of the likeness of two different objects, and being without concepts, the animal will express this as something illogical from its own point of view. The idea, this and that are similar objects , the articulate two-dimensional being will translate into the language of its logic, in the shape of the formula: this is that ; and of course will pronounce it an absurdity, and that the sensation of the new order of things leads to logical absurdities. But it will be unable to express that which it senses in any other way. We are in exactly the same position— when we dead awaken —i.e., when we men , come to the realization of that other life, to the comprehension of higher things. The same fright, the same loss of the real , the same impression of utter and never-ending illogicality, the same formula: "this is that," will afflict us. In order to realize the new world , we must understand the new logical order of things . _____ Our usual logic assists us in the investigation of the relations of the phenomenal world only. Many attempts have been made to define what logic is . But logic is just as essentially undefinable as is mathematics. What is mathematics? The science of magnitudes. What is logic? The science of concepts. But these are not definitions, they are only the translation of the name.