There is
one way of avoiding at least partly the occult appearance of the
process of thinking, and it is, to replace in these processes any
working of the imagination by looking at real
6.
objects. Thus it
may seem essential that, at least in certain cases, when I hear the
word “red” with understanding, a red image should
be before my mind's eye. But why should I not
substitute seeing a red bit of paper for imagining a red
patch? The visual image will only be the more
vivid. You can easily imagine a man carrying a sheet of
paper in his pocket on which the names of colours are coordinated
with coloured patches. You may say that it would be a
nuisance to carry such a table of samples about with you, and that
the mechanism of association is what we always use instead of
it. But this is irrelevant; and in many cases it is not
even true. If, for instance, you were ordered to paint a
particular shade of blue, called “Prussian
Blue”, you might have to use a table to lead you
from the word “Prussian Blue” to a sample
of the colour, which would serve you as a copy.