Chapter XXX: Epilogue: Psychology and Philosophy
=What the Word Metaphysics means.=--In the last chapter we handed the question of free-will over to 'metaphysics.' It would indeed have been hasty to settle the question absolutely, inside the limits of psychology. Let psychology frankly admit that _for her scientific purposes_ determinism may be _claimed_, and no one can find fault. If, then, it turn out later that the claim has only a relative purpose, and may be crossed by counter-claims, the readjustment can be made. Now ethics makes a counterclaim; and the present writer, for one, has no hesitation in regarding her claim as the stronger, and in assuming that our wills are 'free.' For him, then, the deterministic assumption of psychology is merely provisional and methodological. This is no place to argue the ethical point; and I only mention the conflict to show that all these special sciences, marked off for convenience from the remaining body of truth (cf. p. 1), must hold their assumptions and results subject to revision in the light of each others' needs. The forum where they hold discussion is called metaphysics. Metaphysics means only an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently. The special sciences all deal with data that are full of obscurity and contradiction; but from the point of view of their limited purposes these defects may be overlooked. Hence the disparaging use of the name metaphysics which is so common. To a man with a limited purpose any discussion that is over-subtle for that purpose is branded as 'metaphysical.' A geologist's purposes fall short of understanding Time itself. A mechanist need not know how action and reaction are possible at all. A psychologist has enough to do without asking how both he and the mind which he studies are able to take cognizance of the same outer world. But it is obvious that problems irrelevant from one standpoint may be essential from another. And as soon as one's purpose is the attainment of the maximum of possible insight into the world as a whole, the metaphysical puzzles become the most urgent ones of all. Psychology contributes to general philosophy her full share of these; and I propose in this last chapter to indicate briefly which of them seem the more important. And first, of the
=Relation of Consciousness to the Brain.=--When psychology is treated as a natural science (after the fashion in which it has been treated in this book), 'states of mind' are taken for granted, as data immediately given in experience; and the working hypothesis (see p. 6) is the mere empirical law that to the entire state of the brain at any moment one unique state of mind always 'corresponds.' This does very well till we begin to be metaphysical and ask ourselves just what we mean by such a word as 'corresponds.' This notion appears dark in the extreme, the moment we seek to translate it into something more intimate than mere parallel variation. Some think they make the notion of it clearer by calling the mental state and the brain the inner and outer 'aspects,' respectively, of 'One and the Same Reality.' Others consider the mental state as the 'reaction' of a unitary being, the Soul, upon the multiple activities which the brain presents. Others again comminute the mystery by supposing each brain-cell to be separately conscious, and the empirically given mental state to be the appearance of all the little consciousnesses fused into one, just as the 'brain' itself is the appearance of all the cells together, when looked at from one point of view.
We may call these three metaphysical attempts the _monistic_, the _spiritualistic_, and the _atomistic_ theories respectively. Each has its difficulties, of which it seems to me that those of the spiritualistic theory are _logically_ much the least grave. But the spiritualistic theory is quite out of touch with the facts of multiple consciousness, alternate personality, etc. (pp. 207-214). These lend themselves more naturally to the atomistic formulation, for it seems easier to think of a lot of minor consciousnesses now gathering together into one large mass, and now into several smaller ones, than of a Soul now reacting totally, now breaking into several disconnected simultaneous reactions. The localization of brain-functions also makes for the atomistic view. If in my experience, say of a bell, it is my occipital lobes which are the condition of its being seen, and my temporal lobes which are the condition of its being heard, what is more natural than to say that the former _see_ it and the latter _hear_ it, and then 'combine their information'? In view of the extreme naturalness of such a way of representing the well-established fact that the appearance of the several parts of an object to consciousness at any moment does depend on as many several parts of the brain being then active, all such objections as were urged, on pp. 23, 57, and elsewhere, to the notion that 'parts' of consciousness _can_ 'combine' will be rejected as far-fetched, unreal, and 'metaphysical' by the atomistic philosopher. His 'purpose' is to gain a formula which shall unify things in a natural and easy manner, and for such a purpose the atomistic theory seems expressly made to his hand.
But the difficulty with the problem of 'correspondence' is not only that of solving it, it is that of even stating it in elementary terms.
"L'ombre en ce lieu s'amasse, et la nuit est la toute."
Before we can know just what sort of goings-on occur when thought corresponds to a change in the brain, we must know the _subjects_ of the goings-on. We must know which sort of mental fact and which sort of cerebral fact are, so to speak, in immediate juxtaposition. We must find the minimal mental fact whose being reposes directly on a brain-fact; and we must similarly find the minimal brain-event which can have a mental counterpart at all. Between the mental and the physical minima thus found there will be an immediate relation, the expression of which, if we had it, would be the elementary psycho-physic law.
Our own formula has escaped the metempiric assumption of psychic atoms by _taking the entire thought_ (even of a complex object) _as the minimum with which it deals on the mental_ side, and the entire brain as the minimum on the physical side. But the 'entire brain' is not a physical fact at all! It is nothing but our name for the way in which a billion of molecules arranged in certain positions may affect our sense. On the principles of the corpuscular or mechanical philosophy, the only realities are the separate molecules, or at most the cells. Their aggregation into a 'brain' is a fiction of popular speech. Such a figment cannot serve as the objectively real counterpart to any psychic state whatever. Only a genuinely physical fact can so serve, and the molecular fact is the only genuine physical fact. Whereupon we seem, if we are to have an elementary psycho-physic law at all, thrust right back upon something like the mental-atom-theory, for the molecular fact, being an element of the 'brain,' would seem naturally to correspond, not to total thoughts, but to elements of thoughts. Thus the real in psychics seems to 'correspond' to the unreal in physics, and _vice versa_; and our perplexity is extreme.
=The Relation of States of Mind to their 'Objects.'=--The perplexity is not diminished when we reflect upon our assumption that states of consciousness can _know_ (pp. 2-13). From the common-sense point of view (which is that of all the natural sciences) knowledge is an ultimate relation between two mutually external entities, the knower and the known. The world first exists, and then the states of mind; and these gain a cognizance of the world which gets gradually more and more complete. But it is hard to carry through this simple dualism, for idealistic reflections will intrude. Take the states of mind called pure sensations (so far as such may exist), that for example of _blue_, which we may get from looking into the zenith on a clear day. Is the blue a determination of the feeling itself, or of its 'object'? Shall we describe the experience as a quality of our feeling or as our feeling of a quality? Ordinary speech vacillates incessantly on this point. The ambiguous word 'content' has been recently invented instead of 'object,' to escape a decision; for 'content' suggests something not exactly out of the feeling, nor yet exactly identical with the feeling, since the latter remains suggested as the container or vessel. Yet of our feelings as vessels apart from their content we really have no clear notion whatever. The fact is that such an experience as _blue_, as it is immediately given, can only be called by some such neutral name as that of _phenomenon_. It does not _come_ to us _immediately_ as a relation between two realities, one mental and one physical. It is only when, still thinking of it as the _same_ blue (cf. p. 239), we trace relations between it and other things, that it doubles itself, so to speak, and develops in two directions; and, taken in connection with some associates, figures as a physical quality, whilst with others it figures as a feeling in the mind.
Our non-sensational, or conceptual, states of mind, on the other hand, seem to obey a different law. They present themselves immediately as referring beyond themselves. Although they also possess an immediately given 'content,' they have a 'fringe' beyond it (p. 168), and claim to 'represent' something else than it. The 'blue' we have just spoken of, for instance, was, substantively considered, a _word_; but it was a word with a _meaning_. The quality blue was the _object_ of the thought, the word was its _content_. The mental state, in short, was not self-sufficient as sensations are, but expressly pointed at something more in which it meant to terminate.
But the moment when, as in sensations, object and conscious state seem to be different ways of considering one and the same fact, it becomes hard to justify our denial that mental states consist of parts. The blue sky, considered physically, is a sum of mutually external parts; why is it not such a sum, when considered as a content of sensation?
The only result that is plain from all this is that the relations of the known and the knower are infinitely complicated, and that a genial, whole-hearted, popular-science way of formulating them will not suffice. The only possible path to understanding them lies through metaphysical subtlety; and Idealism and _Erkenntnisstheorie_ must say their say before the natural-science assumption that thoughts 'know' things grows clear.
=The changing character of consciousness= presents another puzzle. We first assumed conscious 'states' as the units with which psychology deals, and we said later that they were in constant change. Yet any state must have a certain duration to be _effective_ at all--a pain which lasted but a hundredth of a second would practically be no pain--and the question comes up, how long may a state last and still be treated as _one_ state? In time-perception for example, if the 'present' as known (the 'specious present,' as we called it) may be a dozen seconds long (p. 281), how long need the present as knower be? That is, what is the minimum duration of the consciousness in which those twelve seconds can be apprehended as just past, the minimum which can be called a 'state,' for such a cognitive purpose? Consciousness, as a process in time, offers the paradoxes which have been found in all continuous change. There are no 'states' in such a thing, any more than there are facets in a circle, or places where an arrow 'is' when it flies. The vertical raised upon the time-line on which (p. 285) we represented the past to be 'projected' at any given instant of memory, is only an ideal construction. Yet anything broader than that vertical _is_ not, for the _actual_ present is only the joint between the past and future and has no breadth of its own. Where everything is change and process, how can we talk of 'state'? Yet how can we do without 'states,' in describing what the vehicles of our knowledge seem to be?
=States of consciousness themselves are not verifiable facts.= But 'worse remains behind.' Neither common-sense, nor psychology so far as it has yet been written, has ever doubted that the states of consciousness which that science studies are immediate data of experience. 'Things' have been doubted, but thoughts and feelings have never been doubted. The outer world, but never the inner world, has been denied. Everyone assumes that we have direct introspective acquaintance with our thinking activity as such, with our consciousness as something inward and contrasted with the outer objects which it knows. Yet I must confess that for my part I cannot feel sure of this conclusion. Whenever I try to become sensible of my thinking activity as such, what I catch is some bodily fact, an impression coming from my brow, or head, or throat, or nose. It seems as if consciousness as an inner activity were rather a _postulate_ than a sensibly given fact, the postulate, namely, of a _knower_ as correlative to all this known; and as if '_scious_ness' might be a better word by which to describe it. But 'sciousness postulated as an hypothesis' is practically a very different thing from 'states of consciousness apprehended with infallible certainty by an inner sense.' For one thing, it throws the question of _who the knower really is_ wide open again, and makes the answer which we gave to it at the end of Chapter XII a mere provisional statement from a popular and prejudiced point of view.
=Conclusion.=--When, then, we talk of 'psychology as a natural science,' we must not assume that that means a sort of psychology that stands at last on solid ground. It means just the reverse; it means a psychology particularly fragile, and into which the waters of metaphysical criticism leak at every joint, a psychology all of whose elementary assumptions and data must be reconsidered in wider connections and translated into other terms. It is, in short, a phrase of diffidence, and not of arrogance; and it is indeed strange to hear people talk triumphantly of 'the New Psychology,' and write 'Histories of Psychology,' when into the real elements and forces which the word covers not the first glimpse of clear insight exists. A string of raw facts; a little gossip and wrangle about opinions; a little classification and generalization on the mere descriptive level; a strong prejudice that we _have_ states of mind, and that our brain conditions them: but not a single law in the sense in which physics shows us laws, not a single proposition from which any consequence can causally be deduced. We don't even know the terms between which the elementary laws would obtain if we had them (p. 464). This is no science, it is only the hope of a science. The matter of a science is with us. Something definite happens when to a certain brain-state a certain 'sciousness' corresponds. A genuine glimpse into what it is would be _the_ scientific achievement, before which all past achievements would pale. But at present psychology is in the condition of physics before Galileo and the laws of motion, of chemistry before Lavoisier and the notion that mass is preserved in all reactions. The Galileo and the Lavoisier of psychology will be famous men indeed when they come, as come they some day surely will, or past successes are no index to the future. When they do come, however, the necessities of the case will make them 'metaphysical.' Meanwhile the best way in which we can facilitate their advent is to understand how great is the darkness in which we grope, and never to forget that the natural-science assumptions with which we started are provisional and revisable things.
THE END.
INDEX.
Abstract ideas, 240, 25;
characters, 353;
propositions, 354
Abstraction, 251;
see _Distraction_
_Accommodation_, of crystalline lens, 32;
of ear, 49
Acquaintance, 14
Acquisitiveness, 407
Action, what holds attention determines, 448
After-images, 43-5
AGASSIZ, 132
Alexia, 113
ALLEN, GRANT, 104
Alternating personality, 205 ff.
AMIDON, 132
Analysis, 56, 248, 251, 362
Anger, 374
Aphasia, 108, 113;
loss of images in, 309
Apperception, 326
Aqueduct of Silvius, 80
Arachnoid membrane, 84
Arbor vitæ, 86
ARISTOTLE, 318
Articular sensibility, 74
Association, Chapter XVI;
the order of our ideas, 253;
determined by cerebral laws, 255;
is not of ideas, but of things thought of, 255;
the elementary principle of, 256;
the ultimate cause of is habit, 256;
indeterminateness of its results, 258;
total recall, 259;
partial recall and the law of interest, 261;
frequency, recency, vividness, and emotional congruity
tend to determine the object recalled, 264;
focalized recall or by similarity, 267, 364;
voluntary trains of thought, 271;
problems, 273
Atomistic theories of consciousness, 462
Attention, Chapter XIII;
its relation to interest, 170;
its physiological ground, 217;
narrowness of field of consciousness, 217;
to how many things possible, 219;
to simultaneous sight and sound, 220;
its varieties, 220;
voluntary, 224;
involuntary, 220;
change necessary to, 226;
its relation to genius, 227;
physiological conditions of, 228;
the sense-organ must be adapted, 229;
the idea of the object must be aroused, 232;
pedagogic remarks, 236;
attention and free-will, 237;
what holds attention determines action, 448;
volitional effort is effort of attention, 450
Auditory centre in brain, 113
Auditory type of imagination, 306
AUSTEN, Miss, 261
Automaton theory, 10, 101
AZAM, 210
BAHNSEN, 147
BAIN, 145, 367, 370
BERKLEV, 302, 303, 347
BINET, 318, 332
Black, 45-6
Blind Spot, 31
BLIX, 64, 68
Blood-supply, cerebral, 130
Bodily expression, cause of emotions, 375
BRACE, JULIA, 252
Brain, the functions of, Chapter VIII, 91
_Brain_, its connection with mind, 5-7;
its relations to outer forces, 9;
relations of consciousness to, 462
Brain, structure of, Chapter VII, 78 ff.;
vesicles, 78 ff.;
dissection of sheep's, 81;
how to preserve, 83;
functions of, Chapter VIII, 91 ff.
BRIDGMAN, LAURA, 252, 308
BROCA, 109, 113, 115
Broca's convolution, 109
BRODHUN, 46
BROOKS, Prof. W. K., 412
Brutes, reasoning of, 367
Calamus scriptorius, 84
_Canals_, semicircular, 50
CARPENTER, 223, 224
CATTELL, 125, 126, 127
Caudate nucleus, 81, 86
Centres, nerve, 92
Cerebellum, its relation to equilibrium, 76;
its anatomy, 79, 84
Cerebral laws, of association, 255
Cerebral process, see _Neural Process_
Cerebrum, see _Brain_, _Hemisphere_
Changing character of consciousness, 152, 466
CHARCOT, 113, 309
Choice, see _Interest_
Coalescence of different sensations into the same 'thing,' 339
_Cochlea_, 51, 52
Cognition, see _Reasoning_
Cold, sensations of, 63 ff.;
nerves of, 64
_Color_, 40-3
Commissures, 84
Commissure, middle, 88 ff.;
anterior, 88;
posterior, 88
Comparison of magnitudes, 342
_Compounding_ of sensations, 23, 43, 57
Compound objects, analysis of, 248
Concatenated acts, dependent on habit, 140
Conceiving, mode of, what is meant by, 354
Conceptions, Chapter XIV;
defined, 239;
their permanence, 239;
different states of mind can mean the same, 239;
abstract, universal, and problematic, 240;
the thought of 'the same' is not the same thought over again, 243
Conceptual order different from perceptual, 243
Consciousness, stream of, Chapter XI, 151;
four characters in, 152;
personal, 152;
is in constant change, 152, 466;
same state of mind never occurs twice, 154;
consciousness is continuous, 157;
substantive and transitive states of, 160;
interested in one part of its object more than another, 170;
double consciousness, 206 ff.;
narrowness of field of, 217;
relations of to brain, 462
Consciousness and Movement, Chapter XXIII;
all consciousness is motor, 370
Concomitants, law of varying, 251
Consent, in willing, 452
Continuity of object of consciousness, 157
_Contrast_, 25, 44-5
_Convergence_ of eyeballs, 31, 33
Convolutions, motor, 106
Corpora fimbriata, 86
Corpora quadrigemma, 79, 86, 89
Corpus albicans, 84
Corpus callosum, 81, 84
Corpus striatum, 81, 86, 108
_Cortex_, 11, note
Cortex, localization in, 104;
motor region of, 106
_Corti's_ organ, 52
Cramming, 295
Crura of brain, 79, 84, 108
Curiosity, 407
Currents, in nerves, 10
CZERMAK, 70
DARWIN, 388, 389
Deafness, mental, 113
DELAGE, 76
Deliberation, 448
Delusions of insane, 207
Dermal senses, 60 ff.
Determinism and psychology, 461
Decision, five types, 429
Differences, 24;
directly felt, 245;
not resolvable into composition, 245;
inferred, 248
Diffusion of movements, the law of, 371
Dimension, third, 342, 346
Discharge, nervous, 120
Discord, 58
Discrimination, Chapter XV, 59;
touch, 62;
defined, 244;
conditions which favor, 245;
sensation of difference, 246;
differences inferred, 248;
analysis of compound objects, 249;
to be easily singled out a quality should already be
separately known, 250;
dissociation by varying concomitants, 251;
practice improves discrimination, 252;
of space, 338
See _Difference_
'Disparate' retinal points, 35
Dissection, of sheep's brain, 81
_Distance_, as seen, 39;
between members of series, 24;
in space, see _Third dimension_
Distraction, 218 ff.
Division of space, 338
DONALDSON, 64
Double consciousness, 206 ff.
Double images, 36
Double personality, 205
Duality of brain, 205
DUMONT, 135
Dura mater, 82
Duration, the primitive object in time-perception, 280;
our estimation of short, 281
Ear, 47 ff.
Effort, feeling of, 434;
feels like an original force, 442;
volitional effort is effort of attention, 450;
ethical importance of the phenomena of effort, 458
Ego, see _Self_
Embryological sketch, Chapter VII, 78
Emotion, Chapter XXIV;
compared with instincts, 373;
varieties of, innumerable, 374;
causes of varieties, 375, 381;
results from bodily expression, 375;
this view not materialistic, 380;
the subtler emotions, 384;
fear, 385;
genesis of reactions, 388
Emotional congruity, determines association, 264
Empirical self, see _Self_
Emulation, 406
End-organs, 10;
of touch, 60;
of temperature, 64;
of pressure, 60;
of pain, 67
Environment, 3
Essence of reason, always for subjective interest, 358
Essential characters, in reason, 354
Ethical importance of effort, 458
Exaggerated impulsion, causes an explosive will, 439
EXNER, 123, 281
Experience, 218, 244
Explosive will, from defective inhibition, 437;
from exaggerated impulsion, 439
Expression, bodily, cause of emotions, 375
Extensity, primitive to all sensation, 335
Exteriority of objects, 15
External world, 15
Extirpation of higher nerve-centres, 95 ff.
Eye, its anatomy, 28-30
Familiarity, sense of, see _Recognition_
Fear, 385, 406, 407
FECHNER, 21, 229
Feeling of effort, 434
FÉRÉ, 311
FERRIER, 132
Fissure of Rolando, seat of motor incitations, 106
Fissure of Sylvius, 108
Foramen of Monro, 88
Force, original, effort feels like, 442
Forgetting, 300
Fornix, 81, 86, 87, 89
Fovea centralis, 31
FRANKLIN, 121
FRANZ, Dr., 308
Freedom of the will, 237
Free-will and attention, 237;
relates solely to effort of attention, 455;
insoluble on strictly psychologic grounds, 456;
ethical importance of the phenomena of effort, 458
Frequency, determines association, 264
"Fringes" of mental objects, 163 ff.
Frogs' lower centres, 95
Functions of the Brain, Chapter VIII, 91;
nervous functions, general idea of, 91
Fusion of mental states, 197, 245, 339
Fusion, of sensations, 23, 43, 57
GALTON, 126, 265, 303, 306
Genius, 227, 327
GOETHE, 146, 157
GOLDSCHEIDER, 11, 64, 68
GOLTZ, 100
GUITEAU, 185
GURNEY, EDMUND, 331, 334
Habit, Chapter X, 134 ff.;
has a physical basis, 134;
due to plasticity, 135;
due to pathways through nerve-centres, 136;
effects of, 138;
practical use of, 138;
depends on sensations not attended to, 141;
ethical and pedagogical importance of 142 ff.;
habit the ultimate cause of association, 256
HAGENAUER, 386
HALL, ROBERT, 223
Hallucinations, 330 ff.
HAMILTON, 260, 268
Harmony, 58
HARTLEY, 255
Hearing, 47 ff.;
centre of, in cortex, 113
Heat-sensations, 63 ff.;
nerves of, 64
HELMHOLTZ, 26, 42, 43, 55, 56, 58, 121, 226, 227, 231, 233, 234, 321
Hemispheres, general notion of, 97;
chief seat of memory, 98;
effects of deprivation of, on frogs, 92;
on pigeons, 96
HERBART, 222, 326
HERBARTIAN SCHOOL, 157
HERING, 24, 26
HERZEN, 123, 124
HIPPOCAMPI, 88
HODGSON, 262, 264, 280, 283
HOLBROOK, 297
HORSLEY, 107, 118
HUME, 161, 244
Hunger, sensations of, 69
HUXLEY, 143
Hypnotic conditions, 301
Ideas, the theory of, 154 ff.;
never come twice the same, 154;
they do not permanently exist, 157;
abstract ideas, 240, 251;
universal 240;
order of ideas by association, 253
'Identical retinal points,' 35
Identity, personal, 201;
mutations of, 205 ff.;
alternating personality, 205
Ideo-motor action the type of all volition, 432
Illusions, 317 ff., 330
Images, mental, compared with sensations, 14;
double, in vision, 36;
'after-images,' 43-5;
visual, 302;
auditory, 306;
motor, 307;
tactile, 308
Imagination, Chapter XIX;
defined, 302;
differs in individuals, 302;
Galton's statistics of, 302;
visual, 302;
auditory, 306;
motor, 307;
tactile, 308;
pathological
differences, 308;
cerebral process of, 310;
not locally distinct from that of sensation, 310
Imitation, 406
Inattention, 218, 236
Increase of stimulus, 20;
serial, 24
Infundibulum, 82, 84, 88
Inhibition, defective, causes an Explosive Will, 437
Inhibition of instincts by habits, 399
Insane delusions, 207
Instinct, Chapter XXV;
emotions compared with, 373;
definition of, 391;
every instinct is an impulse, 392;
not always blind or invariable, 395;
modified by experience, 396;
two principles of non-uniformity, 398;
man has more than beasts, 398, 406;
transitory, 402;
of children, 406;
fear, 407
Intellect, part played by, in space-perception, 349
Intensity of sensations, 16
Interest, selects certain objects and determines thoughts 170;
influence in association, 262
Introspection, 118
JANET, 211, 212, 301
JACKSON, HUGHLINGS, 105, 117
Joints, their sensibility, 74
KADINSKY, 330
Knowledge, theory of, 2, 464, 467;
two kinds of, 14
KÖNIG, 46
KRISHABER, 208
Labyrinth, 47, 49-52
LANGE, K., 329
Laws, cerebral, of association, 255
Law, Weber's, 17;
--, Fechner's 21;
--, of relativity, 24
LAZARUS, 300, 323
Lenticular nucleus, 81
LEWES, 11, 232, 326
Likeness, 243, 364
LINDSAY, Dr., 413
Localization of Functions in the hemispheres, 104 ff.
Localization, Skin, 61
Locations, in environment, 340;
serial order of, 341
LOCKE, 244, 302, 357
LOCKEAN SCHOOL, 157
Locomotion, instinct of, 406
LOMBARD, 131
Longituditional fissure, 84
LOTZE, 175
Love, 407
Lower Centres, of frogs and pigeons, 95 ff.
LUDWIG, 130
MACH, 75
Mamillary bodies, 84
Man's intellectual distinction from brutes, 367
MANTEGAZZA, 390
MARTIN, 40, 44, 45, 49, 52, 53, 60, 61, 65, 69
MARTINEAU, 251
Materialism and emotion, 380
MATTEUCI, 120
MAUDSLEY, 138
Measurement, of sensations, 22;
of space, 342
'Mediumships,' 212
Medulla oblongata, 84, 108
Memory, Chapter XVIII;
hemispheres physical seat of, 98;
defined, 287;
analysis of the phenomenon of memory, 287 ff.;
return of a mental image is not memory, 289;
association explains recall and retention, 289;
brain-scheme of, 291;
conditions of good memory, 292;
multiple associations favor, 294;
effects of cramming on, 295;
how to improve memory, 298;
recognition, 299;
forgetting, 300;
hypnotics, 301
Mental blindness, 112
Mental images, 14
Mental operations, simultaneous, 219
Mental states, cannot fuse, 197;
relation of, to their objects, 464
MERKEL, 59, 66
Metaphysics, what the word means, 461
MEYER, G. H., 308, 311
MEYNERT, 105, 117
MILL, JAMES, 196, 276, 289
MILL, J. S., 147, 157
Mimicry, 406
Mind depends on brain conditions, 3-7;
states of, their relation to their objects, 464;
see _Consciousness_
Modesty, 407
Monistic theories of consciousness, 462
MORGAN, LLOYD, 368
MOSSO, 130, 131
Motion, sensations of, Chapter VI, 70 ff.;
feeling of motion over surfaces, 70
Motor aphasia, 108
Motor region of cortex, 106
Motor type of imagination, 307
Movement, consciousness and, II, Chapter I;
images of movement, 307;
all consciousness is motor, 370
MUNK, 110
MÜNSTERBERG, 23, 311
Muscular sensation, 65 ff.;
relations to space, 66, 74;
muscular centre in cortex, 106
MUSSEY, DR., 440
NAUNYN, 115
_Nerve-currents_, 9
Nervous discharge, 120
Nerve-endings in the skin, 60;
in muscles and tendons, 66-67;
Pain, 67 ff.;
nerve-centres, 92
Nerves, general functions of, 91 ff.
Neural activity, general conditions of, Chapter IX, 120;
nervous discharge, 120
Neural functions, general idea of, 91
Neural process, in habit, 134 ff.;
in association, 255 ff.;
in memory, 291;
in imagination, 310;
in perception, 329
Nucleus lenticularis, 81, 108;
caudatus, 81, 108
Object, the, of sensation, 13-15;
of thought, 154, 163;
one part of, more interesting than another, 170;
object must change to hold attention, 226;
objects as signs and as realities, 345;
relation of states of mind to their object, 464
Occipitel lobes, seat of visual centre, 110
Old-fogyism vs. genius, 327
Olfactory lobes, 82, 84
Olivary bodies, 85
Optic nerve, 82, 89
Optic tracts, 84
Original force, effort feels like one, 442
Overtones, 55
Pain, 67 ff.;
pain and pleasure as springs of action, 444
PASCAL, 223
Past time, known in a present feeling, 285;
the immediate past is a portion of the present duration-block, 280
PAULHAN, 219, 220
Pedagogic remarks on habit, 142;
on attention, 236
Peduncles, 84, 85, 86
Perception, Chapter XX;
compared with sensation, 312;
involves reproductive processes, 312;
the perceptive state of mind is not a compound, 313;
perception is of definite and probable things, 316;
illusory perceptions, 317;
physiological process of perception, 329
Perception of Space, Chapter XXI
PEREZ, M., 408
Personal Identity, 201;
mutations of, 205 ff.;
alternating personality, 205 ff.
Personality, alterations of, 205 ff.
Philosophy, Psychology and, Epilogue, 461
Phosphorus and thought, 132
Pia mater, 82
Pigeons' lower centres, 96
Pitch, 54
Pituitary body, 82, 89
Place, a series of positions, 341
Plasticity, as basis of habit, defined, 135
PLATO, 240
Play, 407
Pleasure, and pain, as springs of action, 444
Psychology and Philosophy, Epilogue, 461
Pons Varolii, 79, 84, 108
Positions, place a series of, 341
Practice, improves discrimination, 252
Present, the present moment, 280
Pressure sense, 60
PREYER, 406
Probability determines what object shall be perceived, 316, 329
Problematic conceptions, 240
Problems, solution of, 272
Projection of sensations, eccentric, 15
Psychology, defined, 1;
a natural science, 2;
what data it assumes, 2;
Psychology and Philosophy, Chapter XXVII
Psycho-physic law, 17, 24, 46, 59, 66, 67
Pugnacity, 406
PURKINJE, 75
Pyramids, 85
Quality, 13, 23, 25, 56
Raehlmann, 349
Rationality, 173
Reaction-time, 120 ff.
Real magnitude, determined by æsthetic and practical interests, 344
Real space, 337
Reason, 254
Reasoning, Chapter XXIII;
what it is, 351;
involves use of abstract characters, 353;
what is meant by an essential character, 354;
the essence is always for a subjective interest, 358;
two great points in reasoning, 360;
sagacity, 362;
help from association by similarity, 364;
reasoning power of brutes, 367
Recall, 289
Recency, determines association, 264
'Recepts,' 368
Recognition, 299
Recollection, 289 ff.
Redintegration, 264
Reflex acts, defined, 92;
reaction-time measures one, 123;
concatenated habits are constituted by a chain of, 140
REID, 313
Relations, between objects, 162;
feelings of, 162
'_Relativity_ of knowledge,' 24
Reproduction in memory, 289 ff.;
voluntary, 271
Resemblance, 243
Retention in memory, 289
Retentiveness, organic, 291;
it is unchangeable, 296
Retina, peripheral parts of, act as sentinels, 73
Revival in memory, 289 ff.
RIBOT, 300
RICHET, 410
Rivalry of selves, 186
ROBERTSON, Prof. CROOM, 318
Rolando, fissure of, 106
ROMANES, 128, 322, 367
ROSENTHAL, 11
ROUSSEAU, 148
Rotation, sense of, 75
Sagacity, 362
Sameness, 201, 202
SCHAEFER, 107, 110, 118
SCHIFF, 131
SCHNEIDER, 72, 372, 392
_Science_, natural, 1
SCOTT, Prof., 311
Sea-sickness, accidental origin, 390
Seat of consciousness, 5
Selection, 10;
a cardinal function of consciousness, 170
Self, The, Chapter XII;
not primary, 176;
the empirical self, 176;
its constituents, 177;
the material self, 177;
the social self, 179;
the spiritual self, 181;
self-appreciation, 182;
self-seeking, bodily, social, and spiritual, 184;
rivalry of the mes. 186;
their hierarchy, 190;
teleology of self-interest, 193;
the I, or 'pure ego,' 195;
thoughts are not compounded of 'fused' sensations, 196;
the soul as a combining medium, 200;
the sense of personal identity, 201;
explained by identity of function in successive passing thoughts, 203;
mutations of the self, 205;
insane delusions, 207;
alternating personalities, 210;
medium-ships, 212;
who is the thinker? 215
Self-appreciation, 182
Self-interest, theological uses of, 193;
teleological character of, 193
Selves, their rivalry, 186
Semicircular canals, 50
Semicircular canals, their relation to sensations of rotation, 75
Sensations, in General, Chapter II, p. 9;
distinguished from perceptions, 12;
from images, 14;
_first_ things in consciousness, 12;
make us acquainted with qualities, 14;
their exteriority, 15;
intensity of sensations, 16;
their measurement, 21;
they are not compounds, 23
Sensations, of touch, 60;
of skin, 60 ff.;
of smell, 69;
of pain, 67;
of heat, 63;
of cold, 63;
of hunger, 69;
of thirst, 69;
of motion, 70;
muscular, 65;
of taste, 69;
of pressure, 60;
of joints, 74;
of movement through space, 75;
of rotation, 75;
of translation, 76
Sense of time, see _Time_
Sensory centres in the cortex, 113 ff.
Septum lucidum, 87
Serial order of locations, 341
Shame, 374
Sheep's brain, dissection of, 81
Sight, 28 ff.;
see _Vision_
Signs, 40;
sensations are, to us of other sensations, whose
space-value is held to be more real, 345 ff.
Similarity, association by, 267, 364;
see _Likeness_
Size, 40
Skin--senses, 60 ff.;
localizing power of, 61;
discrimination of points on, 247
Smell, 69;
centre of, in cortex, 116
SMITH, T. C., 311
Sociability, 407
Soul, the, as ego or thinker, 196;
as a combining medium, 200, 203
Sound, 53-59;
images of, 306
Space, Perception of, Chapter XXI;
extensity in three dimensions primitive to all sensation, 335;
construction of real space, 337;
the processes which it involves: (1) Subdivision, 338;
(2) Coalescence of different sensible data into one 'thing,' 339;
(3) Location in an environment, 342;
objects which are signs, and objects which are realities, 345;
the third dimension, 346;
Berkeley's theory of distance, 346;
part played by intellect in space-perception, 349
Space, relation of muscular sense to, 66, 74
SPALDING, 401 ff.
Span of consciousness, 219, 286
Specific energies, 11
Speech, centres of, in cortex, 109;
thought possible without it, 169;
see _Aphasia_
SPENCER, 103, 387, 390
Spinal cord, conduction of pain by, 68;
centre of defensive movements, 93
Spiritual substance, see _Soul_
Spiritualistic theories of consciousness, 462
Spontaneous trains of thought, 257;
examples, 257 ff., 271
STARR, 107, 113, 115
STEINTHAL, 327
Stream of Consciousness, Chapter XI, 151
STRICKER, 307
Subdivision of space, 338
Substantive states of mind, 160
Succession _vs._ duration, 280;
not known by successive feelings, 285
Summation of stimuli, 128
Surfaces, feeling of motion over, 70
Tactile centre in cortex, 116
Tactile images, 308
TAINE, 208
Taste, 69;
centre of, in cortex, 116
Teleological character of consciousness, 4;
of self-interest, 193
Temperature-sense, 63 ff.
Terminal organs, 10, 30, 52
Thalami, 80, 86, 89, 108
Thermometry, cerebral, 131
'Thing,' coalescence of sensations to form the same, 339
Thinking principle, see _Soul_
Third dimension of space, 346
Thirst, sensations of, 69
THOMSON, Dr. ALLEN, 129
Thought, the 'Topic' of, 167;
stream of, 151;
can be carried on in any terms, 167;
unity of, 196;
spontaneous trains of, 257;
the entire thought the minimum, 464
'Timbre,' 55
Time, sense of, Chapter XVII;
begins with duration, 280;
no sense of empty time, 281;
compared with perception of space, 282;
discrete flow of time, 282;
long intervals conceived symbolically, 283;
we measure duration by events that succeed in it, 283;
variations in our estimations of its length, 283;
cerebral processes of, 286
Touch, 60 ff.;
centre of, in cortex, 116;
images of, 308
Transcendental self or ego, 196
Transitive states of mind, 160
Translation, sense of, 76
Trapezium, 85
TURNER, Dr. J. E., 440
Tympanum, 48
Types of decision, 429
Unity of the passing thought, 196
Universal conceptions, 240
URBANTSCHITCH, 25
Valve of Vieussens, 80, 86
Variability of the emotions, 381
Varying concomitants, law of disassociation by, 251
Ventricles, 79 ff.
VIERORDT, 71
Vision, 28 ff.;
binocular, 33-9;
of solidity, 37
Visual centre of cortex, 110, 115
Visual imagination, 302
Visualizing power, 302
Vividness, determines association, 264
Volition, see _Will_
VOLKMANN, 285
Voluminousness, primitive, of sensations, 335
Voluntary acts, defined, 92;
voluntary attention, 224;
voluntary trains of thought, 271
Weber's law, 17, 24, 46, 59
Weber's law--weight, 66;
pain, 67
Weight, sensibility to, 66 ff.
WERNICKE, 109, 113, 115
WESLEY, 223
WHEATSTONE, 347
WIGAN, 300
Will, Chapter XXVI;
voluntary acts, 415;
they are secondary performances, 415;
no third kind of idea is called for, 418;
the motor-cue, 420;
ideo-motor action, 432;
action after deliberation, 428;
five types of decision, 429;
feeling of effort, 434;
healthiness of will, 435;
defects of, 436;
the explosive will: (1) from defective inhibition, 437;
(2) from exaggerated impulsion, 439;
the obstructed will, 441;
effort feels like an original force, 442;
pleasure and pain as springs of action, 444;
what holds attention determines action, 448;
will is a relation between the mind and its ideas, 449;
volitional effort is effort of attention, 450;
free-will, 455;
ethical importance of effort, 458
Willing terminates with the prevalence of the idea, 449
WUNDT, 11, 18, 25, 58, 122, 123, 125, 127, 220, 281
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the present volume I have given so much extension to the details of 'Sensation' that I have obeyed custom and put that subject first, although by no means persuaded that such order intrinsically is the best. I feel now (when it is too late for the change to be made) that the chapters on the Production of Motion, on Instinct, and on Emotion ought, for purposes of teaching, to follow immediately upon that on Habit, and that the chapter on Reasoning ought to come in very early, perhaps immediately after that upon the Self. I advise teachers to adopt this modified order, in spite of the fact that with the change of place of 'Reasoning' there ought properly to go a slight amount of re-writing.
[2] The subject may feel _pain_, however, in this experiment; and it must be admitted that nerve-fibres of every description, terminal organs as well, are to some degree excitable by mechanical violence and by the electric current.
[3] Thus the optic nerve-fibres are traced to the occipital lobes, the olfactory tracts go to the lower part of the temporal lobe (hippocampal convolution), the auditory nerve-fibres pass first to the cerebellum, and probably from thence to the upper part of the temporal lobe. These anatomical terms used in this chapter will be explained later. The _cortex_ is the gray surface of the convolutions.
[4] Vorlesungen über Menschen u. Thierseele, Lecture VII.
[5] In other words, _S_ standing for the sensation in general, and _d_ for its noticeable increment, we have the equation _d__S_ = const. The increment of stimulus which produces _d__S_ (call it _d__R_) meanwhile varies. Fechner calls it the 'differential threshold'; and as its _relative_ value to _R_ is always the same, we have the equation _d__R_/_R_ = const.
[6] Beiträge zur exp. Psychol., Heft 3, p. 4.
[7] I borrow it from Ziehen: Leitfaden d. Physiologischen Psychologie, 1891, p. 36, who quotes Hering's version of it.
[8] Successive ones also; but I consider simultaneous ones only, for simplicity's sake.
[9] The extreme case is where green light and red, _e.g._ light falling simultaneously on the retina, give a sensation of yellow. But I abstract from this because it is not certain that the incoming currents here affect different fibres of the optic nerve.
[10] The student can easily verify the coarser features of the eye's anatomy upon a bullock's eye, which any butcher will furnish. Clean it first from fat and muscles and study its shape, etc., and then (following Golding Bird's method) make an incision with a pointed scalpel into the sclerotic half an inch from the edge of the cornea, so that the black choroid membrane comes into view. Next with one blade of a pair of scissors inserted into this aperature, cut through sclerotic, choroid, and retina (avoid wounding the membrane of the vitreous body!) all round the eyeball parallel to the cornea's edge.
The eyeball is thus divided into two parts, the anterior one containing the iris, lens, vitreous body, etc., whilst the posterior one contains most of the retina. The two parts can be separated by immersing the eyeball in water, cornea downwards, and simply pulling off the portion to which the optic nerve is attached. Floating this detached posterior cap in water, the delicate retina will be seen spread out over the choroid (which is partly iridescent in the ox tribe); and by turning the cup inside out, and working under water with a camel's-hair brush, the vessels and nerves of the eyeball may be detected.
The anterior part of the eyeball can then be attacked. Seize with forceps on each side the edge of the sclerotic and choroid (not including the retina), raise the eye with the forceps thus applied and shake it gently till the vitreous body, lens, capsule, ligament, etc., drop out by their weight, and separate from the iris, ciliary processes, cornea, and sclerotic, which remains in the forceps. Examine these latter parts, and get a view of the ciliary muscle which appears as a white line, when with camel's-hair brush and scalpel the choroid membrane is detached from the sclerotic as far forward as it will go. Turning to the parts that cling to the vitreous body observe the clear ring around the lens, and radiating outside of it the marks made by the ciliary processes before they were torn away from its suspensory ligament. A fine capillary tube may now be used to insufflate the clear ring, just below the letter _p_ in Fig. 3, and thus to reveal the suspensory ligament itself.
All these parts can be seen in section in a frozen eye or one hardened in alcohol.
[11] This vertical partition is introduced into stereoscopes, which otherwise would give us three pictures instead of one.
[12] The simplest form of stereoscope is two tin tubes about one and one-half inches calibre, dead black inside and (for normal eyes) ten inches long. Close each end with paper not too opaque, on which an inch-long thick black line is drawn. The tubes can be looked through, one by each eye, and held either parallel or with their farther ends converging. When properly rotated, their images will show every variety of fusion and non-fusion, and stereoscopic effect.
[13] Martin: The Human Body, p. 530.
[14] Ibid.
[15] The ordinary mixing of _pigments_ is not an addition, but rather, as Helmholtz has shown, a subtraction, of lights. To _add_ one color to another we must either by appropriate glasses throw differently colored beams upon the same reflecting surface; or we must let the eye look at one color through an inclined plate of glass beneath which it lies, whilst the upper surface of the glass reflects into the same eye another color placed alongside--the two lights then mix on the retina; or, finally, we must let the differently colored lights fall in succession upon the retina, so fast that the second is there before the impression made by the first has died away. This is best done by looking at a rapidly rotating disk whose sectors are of the several colors to be mixed.
[16] Martin: _op. cit._
[17] Martin, pp. 525-8.
[18] In teaching the anatomy of the ear, great assistance will be yielded by the admirable model made by Dr. Auzoux, 56 Rue de Vaugirard, Paris, described in the catalogue of the firm as "No. 21--_Oreille, temporal de_ 60 cm., nouvelle édition," etc.
[19] This description is abridged from Martin's 'Human Body'.
[20] Martin: _op. cit._
[21] Martin: _op. cit._
[22] Martin: _op. cit._
[23] Martin: _op. cit._
[24] Martin: _op. cit._
[25] Martin: _op. cit._, with omissions.
[26] Martin: _op. cit._
[27] Vierteljahrsch. für wiss. Philos., II. 377.
[28] This chapter will be understood as a mere sketch for beginners. Models will be found of assistance. The best is the 'Cerveau de Texture de Grande Dimension,' made by Auzoux, 56 Rue de Vaugirard, Paris. It is a wonderful work of art, and costs 300 francs. M. Jules Talrich of No. 97 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris, makes a series of five large plaster models, which I have found very useful for class-room purposes. They cost 350 francs, and are far better than any German models which I have seen.
[29] All the places in the brain at which the cavities come through are filled in during life by prolongations of the membrane called _pia mater_, carrying rich plexuses of blood-vessels in their folds.
[30] The Physiology of Mind, p. 155.
[31] J. Bahnsen: 'Beiträge zu Charakterologie' (1867), vol. I. p. 209.
[32] De l'Intelligence, 3me édition (1878), vol. II. p. 461, note.
[33] Some of the evidence for this medium's supernormal powers is given in The Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. VI. p. 436, and in the last Part of vol. VII. (1892).
[34] Mental Physiol., § 124. The oft-cited case of soldiers in battle not perceiving that they are wounded is of an analogous sort.
[35] Physiol. Optik, p. 741.
[36] I refer to a recency of a few hours. Mr. Galton found that experiences from boyhood and youth were more likely to be suggested by words seen at random than experiences of later years. See his highly interesting account of experiments in his Inquiries into Human Faculty, pp. 191-203.
[37] Miss M. W. Calkins (Philosophical Review, I. 389, 1892) points out that the persistent feature of the going thought, on which the association in cases of similarity hinges, is by no means always so slight as to warrant the term 'focalized.' "If the sight of the whole breakfast-room be followed by the visual image of yesterday's breakfast-table, with the same setting and in the same surroundings, the association is practically total," and yet the case is one of similarity. For Miss Calkins, accordingly, the more important distinction is that between what she calls _desistent_ and _persistent_ association. In 'desistent' association all parts of the going thought fade out and are replaced. In 'persistent' association some of them remain, and form a bond of similarity between the mind's successive objects; but only where this bond is extremely delicate (as in the case of an abstract relation or quality) is there need to call the persistent process 'focalized.' I must concede the justice of Miss Calkins's criticism, and think her new pair of terms a useful contribution. Wundt's division of associations into the two classes of _external_ and _internal_ is congruent with Miss Calkins's division. Things associated internally must have some element in common; and Miss Calkins's word 'persistent' suggests how this may cerebrally come to pass. 'Desistent,' on the other hand, suggests the process by which the successive ideas become external to each other or preserve no inner tie.
[38] A common figure-alphabet is this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
t n m r l sh g f b s
d j k v p c
ch c z
g qu
[39] In Mind, IX. 206, M. Binet points out the fact that what is fallaciously inferred is always an object of some other sense than the 'this.' 'Optical illusions' are generally errors of touch and muscular sensibility, and the fallaciously perceived object and the experiences which correct it are both tactile in these cases.
[40] Romanes, Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 324.
[41] M. Lazarus: Das Leben d. Seele (1857), II. p. 32. In the ordinary hearing of speech half the words we seem to hear are supplied out of our own head. A language with which we are familiar is understood even when spoken in low tones and far off. An unfamiliar language is unintelligible under these conditions. The 'ideas' for interpreting the sounds by not being ready-made in our minds, as they are in our familiar mother-tongue, do not start up at so faint a cue.
[42] Einleitung in die Psychologie u. Sprachwissenschaft (1881), p. 171.
[43] The great maxim in pedagogy is to knit every new piece of knowledge on to a preëxisting curiosity--i.e., to assimilate its matter in some way to what is already known. Hence the advantage of "comparing all that is far off and foreign to something that is near home, of making the unknown plain by the example of the known, and of connecting all the instruction with the personal experience of the pupil.... If the teacher is to explain the distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask ... 'If anyone there in the sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?' 'Get out of the way,' would be the answer. 'No need of that,' the teacher might reply. 'You may quietly go to sleep in your room, and get up again, you may wait till your confirmation-day, you may learn a trade, and grow as old as I am,--_then_ only will the cannon-ball be getting near, _then_ you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun's distance!'" (K. Lange, Ueber Apperception, 1879, p. 76.)
[44] The writer of the present work is Agent of the Census for America, and will thankfully receive accounts of cases of hallucination of vision, hearing, etc., of which the reader may have knowledge.
[45] Cf. Raehlmann in Zeitschrift für Psychol. und Physiol. der Sinnesorgane, II. 79.
[46] Readers brought up on Popular Science may think that the molecular structure of things is their real essence in an absolute sense, and that water is H-O-H more deeply and truly than it is a solvent of sugar or a slaker of thirst. Not a whit! It is _all_ of these things with equal reality, and the only reason why _for the chemist_ it is H-O-H primarily, and only secondarily the other things, is that _for his purpose_ of laboratory analysis and synthesis, and inclusion in the science which treats of compositions and decompositions, the H-O-H aspect of it is the more important one to bear in mind.
[47] Mental Evolution in Man, p. 74.
[48] Origin of the Emotions (N. Y. ed.), p. 292.
[49] Spalding, Macmillan's Magazine, Feb. 1873, p. 287.
[50] _Ibid._, p. 289.
[51] Psychologie de l'Enfant, p. 72.
[52] Der Menschliche Wille, p. 224.
[53] Deutsches Archiv f. Klin. Medicin, xxii. 321.
[54] Medicinische Psychologie, p. 293.
[55] This _volitional_ effort pure and simple must be carefully distinguished from the _muscular_ effort with which it is usually confounded. The latter consists of all those peripheral feelings to which a muscular 'exertion' may give rise. These feelings, whenever they are massive and the body is not 'fresh,' are rather disagreeable, especially when accompanied by stopped breath, congested head, bruised skin of fingers, toes, or shoulders, and strained joints. And it is only _as thus disagreeable_ that the mind must make its _volitional_ effort in stably representing their reality and consequently bringing it about. That they happen to be made real by muscular activity is a purely accidental circumstance. There are instances where the fiat demands great volitional effort though the muscular exertion be insignificant, e.g. the getting out of bed and bathing one's self on a cold morning. Again, a soldier standing still to be fired at expects disagreeable sensations from his muscular passivity. The action of his will, in sustaining the expectation, is identical with that required for a painful muscular effort. What is hard for both is _facing an idea as real_.
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Psychology: Briefer CourseChapter XXX: Epilogue: Psychology and Philosophy
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