Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

by Jane Goodall

REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM (Lines written after reading the philosophy of Hume) Now if you take an orange And hold it in your hand, It isn’t really there at all— Or so I understand. A sensationalist will prove to you That though you know it’s there, It’s only just sensations Of which you are aware. Seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, Sensations he will call, And all these things exist in you Not in the fruit at all. “Now eat it!” he may say to you, “Sensation once again.” (Though since he says it isn’t there To eat would seem in vain!) But still you feel he must be wrong And so you will persist, And tell him plainly you’re quite sure That matter does exist. “It can’t be seen or touched or heard And so it can’t be known, So why assume it’s there at all When truth can ne’er be shown?” Thus he’ll reply, and after that Maybe he will declare That you are only his sensation And so you can’t be there. “But I’m as real as you!” you cry— To this he must agree, And so maintains that he himself Is unreality. It follows thus that everything Which you would say exists, Is non-existent and unreal To the sensationalists. And therefore I will cease to write Since I cannot be here, And none can ever read these lines For nobody is there!