Petites perceptions

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According to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), petites perceptions ( French : small perceptions) are small, imperceptible sensations ( perceptions ). They do not become conscious of individual contents as such, but rather only in their overall effect ( summation or emergence ?), Similar to how the noise of a wave is caused by the movement of many individual drops of water. Leibniz recognized “ ideas ” in these “indefinite” elementary psychological processes , which are to be understood as “confused” preliminary stages of conscious and attentive perception ( apperception ). Leibniz tried using this terminology in its Monadology the Cartesianism to overcome the physical and mental processes separated from each other (res extensa and res cogitans). He used the term to explain pre-established harmony . (a)

Classification of intellectual history

Leibniz knew on the one hand Descartes' philosophy, on the other hand he had developed the theory of apperception himself , which he sought to supplement. (b) “Cogito, ergo sum” therefore became an act of thinking endowed with self-confidence. As a result, Leibniz contrasted apperception as that which is perceived clearly and with self-confidence with perception as a vague and fuzzy preliminary stage of thinking and also distinguished a “small perception” that is imperceptible and remains below the threshold of consciousness , as it is blurred by many Sensations emerge.

“This 'I don't know what' is based on them, these taste perceptions, these images of sensual qualities, all of which are clear in their being together, but their individual parts are confused. The infinite impressions that the bodies surrounding us make on us, and thus the connection in which every being stands with the rest of the universe, are based on them. Yes, one can say that by virtue of these small perceptions the present meets the future and is filled with the past, that everything coincides with one another [...] and that eyes that would be as penetrating as God's, in the least substance could read the whole sequence of the movements of the universe. "

- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz :

By making concepts such as sleep and dream the subject of his treatises, Leibniz opened up new perspectives for philosophy on the subject of the unconscious . By assuming a parallelism of physical and mental factors ( psychophysical parallelism ), Leibniz paved the way for the unified doctrine as it was already formulated by Spinoza (1632–1677) and was further affirmed by Schelling (1775–1854) through his philosophy of identity ). The psychophysics of Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) also took up this point of view. (a) The mind-body problem is now the subject of model concepts such as the psychophysical interaction .

Criticism of Descartes

Leibniz's criticism of René Descartes (1596–1650) was directed against the assumption made by him of the interaction between body and soul. In the case of the psychological influence on the body - according to Descartes - the corresponding influence must be understood without the categories of res extensa, because otherwise the soul itself is to be understood with these (physical) categories. Instead, Leibniz advocated the thesis of psychophysical parallelism . It says that both causal series, the physical and mental, exist independently and side by side. According to Leibniz, the agreement of the different causal series is guaranteed by the divine foresight at the beginning of creation. However, this means that a deus ex machina is required (see also → parable of clocks ). (b)

Significance for the further development of the theory of consciousness

In the context of psychophysics , Leibniz's description of the "petites perceptions" provided a boost for the discovery of the sensory threshold and thus certainly also for the theory of consciousness, which was first developed by Christian Wolff (1679–1754) in 1720 and the term "consciousness" as a German term was introduced. Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) contributed to this research in the context of psychophysics. (c) From him comes the statement: "When an idea falls below the threshold of consciousness, it continues to live in a latent way, in constant effort to return over the threshold and to suppress the other ideas." Leibniz applies alongside Isaac Newton (1643–1727) as the founder of infinitesimal calculus . Determined by this previous knowledge and the associated terminology of the limit value , Leibniz called the “petites perceptions” “consciousness differentials” because they are not perceptible in themselves, but constitute consciousness through their interaction or through their heightening. Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) confirms that Leibniz was the first of a series of later philosophers to use the term unconscious . Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was the first to use it empirically, without starting from philosophical premises. (a) The philosophically oriented authors consider Augustine (354–430) and Thomas Aquinas (* around 1225– † 1274) and Kant (1724–1804) to be the first to describe the concept of the unconscious. (c) Jung used the term “subliminal perception” in a related way, just as Leibniz did that of “petites perceptions”. (b) However, Jung uses the term complex instead of the term concept used by Leibniz and Herbart. (c) Elemental psychology is to be seen as a continuation of a diverse subdivision of the complex quality of consciousness .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Descartes' sentence characteristic of the rationalism of his time: “I think, therefore I am”. However, the ego- relatedness of consciousness is already emerging here .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz : New treatises on the human mind . German Translation. Original title: Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain . Made 1701–1704, first print in: Œuvres philosophiques latines et françoises. Amsterdam / Leipzig 1765; Preface online.
  2. ↑ a b c Heinrich Schmidt : Philosophical dictionary (= Kröner's pocket edition. 13). 21st edition, revised by Georgi Schischkoff . Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 : (a) p. 524 on Wb.-Lemma “Petites perceptions”; (b) p. 33 on Wb.-Lemma “Apperception”; (c) p. 499 to Wb.-Lemma "upper consciousness".


  3. ^ "Ce sont elles, qui forment ce je ne sais quoy, ces gouts, ces images des qualités des sens, claires dans l'assemblage, mais confuses dans les parties; ces impressions que les corps environnans font sur nous, et qui envellopent l'infini; cette liaison que chaque estre a avec tout le reste de l'univers. On peut même dire qu'en consequence de ces petites perceptions le present est plein de l'avenir, et chargé du passé, que tout est conspirant (σύμνοια πάντα, comme disoit Hippocrate), et que dans la moindre des substances, des yeux aussi perçans que ceux de Dieu pourroient lire toute la suite des choses de l'univers. »Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Nouveaux Essais sur l'entendement humain (1703-5), Préface , in: Complete Writings and Letters, Vol. VI.6, Berlin 1990, 54 f.]
  4. ↑ Kurt Flasch : Battlegrounds of Philosophy: Great Controversies from Augustin to Voltaire , Klostermann, Frankfurt 2008, p. 308.
  5. ↑ a b c Peter R. Hofstätter (Ed.): Psychology . The Fischer Lexicon, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, ISBN 3-436-01159-2 : (a) p. 207 to chap. "Body-soul problem"; (b) p. 208, on “Gustav Theodor Fechner” (c) pp. 87, 208, 257 f. to chap. "Consciousness, Psychophysics".


  6. ↑ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: La Monadologie. 1714 (German version 1720 with the title "Monadology") § 80 f.
  7. ↑ Christian Wolff : Reasonable thoughts of God, the world and the soul of man, also of all things in general, communicated to lovers of truth. 7th edition, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1738, §§ 1, 728 f., 732-35, 752, 924.
  8. ↑ Guido Villa : Introduction to contemporary psychology . Translation. Leipzig 1902; P. 339 to resident “Herbart, Johann Friedrich”.
  9. ^ Richard Knerr: Lexicon of Mathematics . Lexicographical Institute Munich, 1984; P. 63 on the lemma “differential calculus”.
  10. ^ A b Rudolf Eisler : Dictionary of Philosophical Terms . 2 vols. Historically-source-wise edit. v. Rudolf Eisler. 2nd edition, Berlin 1904. Vol. 2: O – Z. 942 p .; (a) / (b) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Sources and quotations translated into French. Urtext in: Lemma "Unconscious - Descartes, Locke, Plattner, Leibniz", online (c) Immanuel Kant : Anthropology in a pragmatic way . Part I, § 5 in: Lemma "Unconscious - Kant, Maas, Fichte, Schelling, Beneke" online .

  11. ↑ a b c Carl Gustav Jung : The dynamic of the unconscious . In: Collected Works. Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, volume 8, ISBN 3-530-40083-1 : (a) p. 121, § 212 on Stw. “Leibniz”; (b) p. 339 f. § 588 on tax "subliminal perception"; (c) p. 189 § 350 on tax “complex”.


  12. ↑ Hans Walter Gruhle : Understanding Psychology . Experiential theory. 2nd edition, Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 1956; P. 12 on residence "Thomas von Aquino".