Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind

Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind is by James Mill. The text says that in the phrases in which smell is called a sense, the term imports the organ as existing continuously, the sensation as existing only under a certain condition, and that condition the presence of the object. The text asks what any person means by saying he has the power of smelling, and answers that he has an organ, and that when the object of that organ is presented to it, sensation is the consequence.

The text says it is obvious, and certain, that men were led to class solely for the purpose of economizing in the use of names. The text adds that, could naming and discourse have been as conveniently managed by a name for every individual, the names of classes, and the idea of classification, would never have existed. The text says that memory, therefore, by the very fact of its being different from Imagination, implies an Ego who formerly experienced the facts remembered.