oscillations, and a statement as to its timbre depends upon the form of oscillation.
But the external motor-process (here the oscillation) is never more than the indirect condition, and only the internal motor-process, viz., change-process of the system C, is the direct condition; hence Avenarius endeavours to show in the latter also the corresponding characteristics to which particular statements may be assigned, as values dependent upon them.
He distinguishes in the change-process of system C the following characteristics: (1) Form, (2) magnitude, (3) direction, (4) relevancy (significance), and (5) familiarity. To these characteristics are assigned definite groups of E-values which Avenarius calls “fundamental values”. (1) To the form of the change-process are assigned all statements which are dependent upon the general sense (sense of touch, pressure, temperature), and upon the senses of hearing, smell, taste and sight; all, therefore, which Psychology has hitherto liked to call “sensational quality”. Avenarius does not use this expression, as for him “sensation” itself is only an E-value, not a metaphysical something which individuals merely “have” or “possess,” and which can be investigated apart from its conditions, i.e., from the appropriate changes of system C.[1]
(2) Next, the E-values of intensity, as, e.g., “strong,” “weak,” are logically assigned to the magnitude of the change-process.
(3) The statements “pleasure” and “pain” are made to depend upon the direction of the change-process; the E-value “pain” is conditioned by disturbance of the vital maintenance-maximum, and the E-value “pleasure” by reapproach to this maximum.
(4) The relevance of the change-process forms a further characteristic. This does not depend upon the magnitude and strength, but upon the significance which the partial system just affected has for the whole central organ. The magnitude depends upon the divergence from equilibrium; the significance, on the other hand, upon natural disposition and training. According, therefore, as the change-process affects a partial system which is or is not highly developed by its disposition and training, it will assume a different value although the magnitude may be the same. The E-values of
- ↑ Compare with this important question the article of Jos. Kodis, Ph.D., “Der Empfindungsbegriff auf empiriokritischer Grundlage,” in Vierteljahrsschrift f. wissenschaftliche Philosophie, 1894, xxi., 4, p. 425 ff.
