The World as Percept 67given to naive consciousness of the thing perceived. Then
it shows that everything found there would be non-exis-
tent for us if we had no senses. No eye, no color. So color
is not yet present in what affects the eye. It first arises
through the interaction of the eye with the object. The ob-
ject, then, is colorless. But the color is not present in the
eye either. In the eye there is a chemical or physical pro-
cess that is first led through the nerve to the brain, where
it sets off another process. This process is still not yet col-
or. It is only through the brain process that the color is
evoked in the soul. There, it still does not yet enter my
consciousness, but is first transferred outward by the soul
onto a body. Finally I believe I am perceiving it there. We
have come full circle. We have become conscious of a
colored body. That comes first. Now the thought-opera-
tion begins. If I had no eyes, the body would be colorless
for me. Therefore I cannot attribute color to the body. I go
looking for it. I look for it in the eye, in vain; in the nerve,
also in vain; in the brain, again in vain. Finally, I look for
it in the soul. There I find it, to be sure, but unconnected
with the body. I find the colored body only where I began.
The circle has been closed. I recognize as the product of
my soul what the naive human being imagines as exter-
nally present in space.
As long as we keep to this, everything seems to fit
beautifully. But we must begin again at the beginning.
After all, so far I have been dealing with an entity, the ex-
ternal percept, of which, as a naive human being, I had
an altogether false view. I believed that it had an objec-
tive permanence just as I perceived it. Now I notice that