Skip to main content

Full text of "Psychological review"

See other formats


THE 


Psychological    Review 

EDITED  BY 
J.  MARK  BALDWIN  HOWARD  C.  WARREN 

JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY  AND  PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 

CHARLES  H.  JUDD,  Yale  University  (Editor  of  the  Monograph  Series). 
WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION  FOR  THIS  SECTION  OP 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG,  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  ;  ALFRED  BINET,  ECOLE  DES  HAUTRS- 
£TUDES,  PARIS;  W.  L.  BRYAN,  INDIANA  UNIVERSITY;  WILLIAM  CALDWELL,  Mc- 
GILL  UNIVERSITY;  MARY  W.  CALKINS,  WELLESLEY  COLLEGE;  JOHN  DEWEY, 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  ;  J.  R.  ANGELL,  UNIVERSITY  OP  CHICAGO  ;  C.  LADD  FRANKLIN, 
BALTIMORE;  H.  N.  GARDINER,  SMITH  COLLEGE;  G.  H.  HOWISON,  UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA  ;  P.  JANET, COLLEGE  DE  FRANCE;  JOSEPH  JASTROW,  UNIVERSITY  OF  WIS- 
CONSIN; ADOLF  MEYER,  N.  Y.  PATHOL.  INSTITUTE;  C.  LLOYD  MORGAN,  UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE,  BRISTOL;  HUGO  MtfNSTERBERG,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY;  E.  A.  PACE, 
CATHOLIC  UNIVERSITY,  WASHINGTON;  G.  T.  W.  PATRICK,  UNIVERSITY  OF  IOWA; 
R.  W.  WENLEY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN. 


Volume   XIV.,    1907. 


THE  REVIEW  PUBLISHING  CO., 

41  NORTH  QUEEN  ST.,  LANCASTER,  PA. 
BALTIMORE,  MD. 

AGKWTS:  G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO.,  LONDON  (2  Star  Yard,  Carey  St.,  W.  C); 

LEIPZIG  (Hospital  St.,  10);  PARIS  (76  ruede  Rennes); 

MADRID,  D.  Jorro  (Calle  de  la  Paz,  23). 


P7 
(/•It 


PRESS  OF 

THI  New  ERA  PRINTIN 
LANCASTER,  P 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  XIV. 

January 

Definition  and  Analysis  of  the  Consciousness  of  Value  (i):  W.  M.  URBAN,  i, 

Some  Important  Situations  and  their  Attitudes.    A.  H.  LLOYD,  37. 

Discussion :  Genetic  Modes  and  the  Meaning  of  the  Psychic.    The  late  C.  L.  HERRICK 

54.     Corrigenda,  60. 
March 

The  Province  of  Functional  Psychology.    JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL,  61. 
Definition  and  Analysis  of  the  Consciousness  of  Value  (n).    W.  M.  URBAN,  92. 
A  Study  of  After-images  on  the  Peripheral  Retina.    HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  and  KATE 

GORDON,  122. 
Editors'  Announcement,  168. 

May 

Studies  from  the  Laboratory  of  the  University  of  Chicago :  Communicated  by  J.  R. 

ANGELL.    The  Pendular  Whiplash  Illusion  of  Motion:  H.  CARR,  169. 
Thought  and  Language.    J.  MARK  BALDWIN,  181. 
The  Nature  of  the  Soul  and  the  Possibility  of  a  Psycho-Mechanic :  The  late  C.  Iy. 

HERRICK,  205. 

July 

Studies  from  the  Laboratory  of  the  University  of  Chicago:  Communicated  by  J.  R. 
ANGELL.     The  Role  of  the    Tympanic   Mechanism    in    Audition.     W,   V.    D. 

BlNGHAM,  229. 

On  the  Method  of  Just-perceptible  Differences.    F.  M.  URBAN,  244. 

The  Ultimate  Value  of  Experience.    S.  S.  COLVIN,  254. 

On  Truth.    J.  MARK  BALDWIN,  264. 

Discussion:  A  Further  Application  of  a  Result  Obtained  in  Experimental  ^Esthetics. 

E.  H.  ROWLAND,  288.    Experience,  Habit  and  Attention.    A.  W.  MOORE,  292. 

Comment  on  Prof.  Moore's  Paper:  J.  MARK  BALDWIN,  297. 

September 

The  Nature  of  Feeling  and  Will  and  their  Relations.    W.  M.  URBAN,  299. 

A  Fourth  Progression  in  the  Relation  of  Body  and  Mind.    R.  W.  SELLARS,  315. 

Sensory  Affection  and  Emotion:    HELEN  T.  WOOLLEY,  329. 

Discussion.     An  Experimental  Course  in  ^Esthetics.    MAX  MEYER,  345. 

November 

Apparent  Control  of  the  Position  of  the  Visual  Field.    H.  CARR,  357. 

Concerning  Animal  Perception.    G.  H.  MEAD,  383. 

A  Study  in  Vertical  Symmetry.    E.  H.  ROWLAND,   391. 

Logical  Community  and  the  Difference  of  Discernibles.    J.  MARK  BALDWIN,  395. 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  i.  January,  1907 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


DEFINITION  AND  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  CONSCIOUS- 
NESS OF  VALUE.1    I. 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILBUR  M.  URBAN, 
Trinity  College. 

A  cursory  examination  of  the  more  general  terms  of  worth 
description,  good  and  bad,  useful  and  useless,  beautiful  and 
ugly,  noble  and  ignoble,  etc.,  or  indeed  the  terms  worth  and 
worthless,  valuable  and  valueless  themselves,  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  applied,  makes  us  immediately  aware  of  the 
fact  that  for  the  unreflective  worth  consciousness  they  are  at  first 
tertiary  qualities  as  much  a  part  of  the  object  as  the  so-called  pri- 
mary and  secondary  qualities  are  parts  of  the  physical  object 
of  cognition.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  case  of  the 
ethical  and  aesthetic  predicates  but  it  is  no  less  true  of  the 
unreflective  use  of  the  terms  utility  and  value,  as  for  instance 
when  we  say  that  iron  has  utility  or  value  even  when  the  con- 
ditions of  its  applicability  are  lacking.  The  intrinsic  worth 
judgment  is  psychologically  the  more  fundamental  whatever 
may  be  inferred  upon  closer  inspection  and  reflection. 

But  while  they  appear  at  first  sight  to  be  tertiary  qualities  of 
the  object,  on  closer  examination  these  predicates  are  seen  to  be 
acquired  meanings  of  the  object  for  the  subject.  Without  inquir- 
ing too  closely  for  the  present  into  the  question  whether  or  not 
such  qualities  may  be  in  some  sense  objective,  it  may  be  asserted 

1  This  paper,  part  of  a  larger  study  now  completed,  was  ready  for  publication 
six  months  ago.  The  appearance  in  July  of  Baldwin's  Thought  and  Things 
showed  such  substantial  agreement  in  general  point  of  view  and  method,  that  it 
has  seemed  desirable  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  make  certain 
minor  changes  in  terminology,  most  of  which  are  specifically  noted. 

I 


2  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

unhesitatingly  that  they  are  meanings  pre-determined  by  ante- 
cedent psychical  processes.  As  thus  pre-determined,  they  may 
be  described  as  selective  and  funded  meanings.  They  are 
*  selective  meanings ' 1  in  that  they  represent  differentiation  of 
aspects  of  objects  acquired  in  processes  of  feeling  and  will. 
They  are  funded  meanings  in  that  they  represent  the  accumu- 
lation of  meaning  of  these  processes.  We  may  therefore  define 
the  worth  predicates  briefly  as  the  selective  funded  affective- 
volitional  meanings  of  objects. 

For  the  purposes  of  our  study  the  funded  meaning  of  worth 
predicates  should  be  distinguished  from  the  *  founded '  mean- 
ings or  objects  of  cognitive  experience.  By  a  '  founded  ' 2  object 
in  general  we  understand  one  built  up  by  processes  of  presenta- 
tion or  judgment  upon  primary  sensations  and  perceptions.  Such 
a  founded  object  Is  strictly  speaking  not  the  object  of  perception 
but  of  presentation  or  judgment  and  may  be  said  to  be  pre-deter- 
mined by  these  processes.  Thus  certain  ideal  objects  of  presenta- 
tion and  judgment,  while  themselves  not  sensed  or  perceived,  may 
be  said  to  be  founded  on  sensation  and  perception.  They  are 
ideal  constructions,  and  as  such  selective  cognitive  meanings. 
The  objects  of  the  funded  meanings  of  worth  predication  may 
be  either  primary  or  founded  objects,  objects  of  perception  or  of 
ideal  construction.  Thus  to  take  a  single  illustration,  the  proc- 
esses of  sympathetic  realization  of  the  feelings  of  another,  are 
in  the  first  place  perceptual  in  character,  but  upon  the  basis  of 
these  processes  certain  ideal  objects,  the  self  and  its  dispositions 
are  built  up  which  become  the  objects  of  imputed  values.  To 
them  is  imputed  the  funded  meaning  of  the  processes  of  feeling 
and  conation  involved  in  their  construction. 

The  worth  predicates  are  then  the  funded  meanings  of  pri- 
mary and  founded  objects.  When,  now,  we  attempt  a  further 
analysis  of  the  predicates,  we  are  confronted  with  peculiar  dif- 
ficulties, which  arise  from  equivocations  in  their  meaning, 
equivocations  so  confusing  upon  first  appearance  that  more 

1  This  use  of  l  selective  meaning  '  as  in  contrast  to  '  recognitive  meaning  '  is 
suggested  and  developed  by  Baldwin  in  his  Thought  and  Things  or  Genetic 
Logic,  I.,  Chap.  VII. 

2  The  term  *  founded  '  is  a  translation  of  Meinong's  expression  fundierte 
(Gegenstand,  Inhalt)  wrongly  translated  by  some  funded. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  3 

than  one  thinker  has  counseled  entire  scepticism  in  the  matter, 
not  without  a  show  of  reason,  it  must  be  admitted.  But  that 
this  initial  scepticism  is  merely  a  salutary  warning  will  become 
apparent  as  we  follow  these  equivocations  to  their  sources  for  it 
is  precisely  in  this  process,  this  study  of  the  grammar  of  the 
worth  consciousness,  that  we  shall  find  both  the  nature  of  the 
processes  through  which  these  funded  meanings  are  acquired 
and  the  basis  of  their  classification. 

These  worth  equivocations  make  themselves  felt,  precisely 
as  certain  contradictions  in  cognitive  predication,  through  ab- 
straction of  the  predicates,  as  qualities  of  the  objects,  from  the 
processes  of  acquirement  of  meaning  through  which  the  funded 
meanings  and  founded  worth  objects  arise.  The  character  of 
the  confusion  may  be  seen  at  a  glance  by  observing  the  distinc- 
tions which  worth  analysis  has  developed  (in  all  the  concrete 
worth  sciences,  economics,  ethics,  aesthetics)  for  the  removal  of 
the  equivocations.  Worths  are  said  to  be  subjective  or  objec- 
tive, real  or  ideal,  actual  or  imputed,  intrinsic  or  instrumental. 

The  first  distinction,  between  subjective  and  objective  worths 
or  values,  gives  the  key  to  the  situation.  The  same  objects,  let 
us  say  diamonds,  may  have  little  worth  or  indeed  be  distasteful 
to  me  personally,  although  in  another  attitude  I  may  ascribe 
great  value  to  them  and,  indeed,  think  of  them  as  intrinsically 
valuable.  My  friend's  action  may  be  sanctioned  by  me  in  im- 
mediate appreciation,  although  from  an  objective,  moral  point  of 
view  I  must  needs  condemn  it.  Such  contradictions  can  only  be 
resolved  by  a  distinction  between  subjective  and  objective  values. 
Closely  connected  with  this  equivocation  is  that  which  arises 
when  the  distinction  between  intrinsic  and  instrumental  values 
is  ignored.  An  object  which  is  worthless,  or  indeed  the  object 
of  negative  worth  judgments  of  harmful  or  bad,  may  acquire  the 
predicate  worth  when  it  becomes  instrumental  to  some  object  of 
immediate  or  intrinsic  worth.  And  within  the  sphere  of  instru- 
mental values  or  utilities,  i.  e.,  the  economic,  we  find  an  equiv- 
ocation which  can  be  removed  only  by  the  use  of  the  distinction 
between  subjective  and  objective.  On  the  one  hand,  if  any 
thing  is  of  worth  because  it  is  utilizable,  it  is  always  so  for  a 
subject  and  with  reference  to  concrete  conditions.  But  on  the 


4  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

other  hand,  we  are  led  to  ascribe  value  to  an  object  (for  instance 
when  we  say  that  iron  has  value)  irrespective  of  its  relation  to 
an  individual  subject  and  to  concrete  conditions  ;  by  a  process  of 
abstraction  we  give  the  object  value  in  itself.  For  these  dif- 
ferences in  meaning  the  economists  have  used  the  terms  subjec- 
tive and  objective  value,  or  the  latter  is  sometimes  called  objec- 
tive exchange  value.  From  these  illustrations  we  see  that  the 
attitude  expressed  by  a  worth  judgment,  whether  the  worth  be 
described  as  subjective  or  objective,  is  an  attitude  of  a  subject, 
but  the  difference  in  attitude  is  determined  by  the  inclusion  or 
exclusion  of  certain  presuppositions,  the  nature  of  which  is  to  be 
determined. 

The  other  distinctions,  between  real  and  ideal,  actual  and 
imputed,  values  show  the  same  desire  to  remove  the  equivoca- 
tions inherent  in  worth  predicates.  Sometimes  we  attribute 
worth  to  an  object  when  we  mean  that  it  deserves  to  be  valued 
irrespective  of  its  actual  valuation  by  any  person  or  groups 
of  persons.  Such  value  is  said  to  be  ideal.  Again  there 
are  objects  of  valuation,  the  existence  or  non-existence,  or  the 
possibility  or  probability  of  realization  of  which,  are  not 
inquired  into,  but  which  are  abstractly  valued  and  said  to 
be  ideal  values  in  contrast  to  the  real  value  of  objects  where 
the  judgments  of  existence  or  possibility  are  true  or  grounded 
judgments.  In  both  cases  the  real  and  the  ideal  values  are 
equally  functions  of  the  relation  of  the  object  to  the  subject. 
The  difference  lies  in  the  attitude  of  the  subject,  in  the  different 
presuppositions  of  the  feeling,  in  the  two  cases.  Confusion  of 
meaning  arises  only  when  these  presuppositions  are  not  made 
explicit. 

The  distinction  between  actual  and  imputed  values,  like  the 
other  distinctions  considered,  is  one  which  is  found  not  in  the 
immediate  worth  experience  itself  but  which  develops  when 
the  presuppositions  of  the  worth  judgment  are  made  explicit 
through  reflective  analysis.  The  total  worth  predicated  of  an 
object  is  often  seen  to  have  more  than  one  determinant  and, 
under  certain  circumstances,  the  element  in  the  total  value 
corresponding  to  one  subjective  determinant  will  be  described  as 
actual,  while  the  other  element  will  be  described  as  imputed. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  5 

Thus  the  elements  of  a  total  complex  (food  for  instance)  will  each 
be  said  to  have  its  actual  value  arising  from  its  capacity  to 
satisfy  separate  desires,  or  to  satisfy  desire  when  consumed 
separately.  Such  worth  as  an  element  may  get  from  its  com- 
bination with  the  other  elements  is  said  to  be,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  imputed  value.  In  a  similar  way,  when  an  act  of  a 
person  has  value  as  manifesting  a  disposition  instrumental  to  the 
fulfillment  of  social  ends,  this  is  described  as  its  actual  value, 
while  an  additional  value  attributed  to  it  as  a  part,  or  manifes- 
tation of  the  total  personality,  is  described  as  an  imputed  value 
over  and  above  the  actual  value  of  the  act.  It  is  obvious  from 
these  illustrations  that  the  different  moments  in  the  total  worth  of 
the  object  have  different  subjective  determinants  and  that  these 
go  back  to  the  different  objects  or  aspects  of  the  object  upon 
which  judgment  is  directed,  to  the  cognitive  presuppositions. 

The  selective  meanings  thus  differentiated  may  be  described 
as  the  existence-meanings  of  the  worth  predicates  and,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  purely  appreciative  meanings  previously  con- 
sidered, represent  modifications  in  worth  predication  determined 
by  differences  in  cognitive  attitude  toward  the  object.  The 
necessity  of  such  distinctions  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  appre- 
ciative meanings  are  not  wholly  independent  of  the  reference  to 
reality  involved.  As  simple  acts  of  appreciation,  the  presuppo- 
sition of  existence  may  not  be  explicit,  and  indeed  the  most  primi- 
tive judgments  of  worth  are  assertorial  —  without  any  condi- 
tional element  whatever.  But  as  soon  as  the  question  of 
evaluation  of  the  worth  predicates  themselves  is  considered,  as 
soon  as  the  axiological1  problem  of  the  differentiation  of  subjec- 
tively conditioned  values  from  objectively  conditioned,  is  raised, 
then  the  presuppositions  of  reality  must  be  made  explicit. 

II. 

From  this  study  of  the  various  selective  meanings  of  the 
worth  predicates,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  worth  judgments 

'The  term  axiological  (constructed  ou  the  analogy  of  the  term  epistemo- 
logical},  is  here  used  to  distinguish  the  problem  of  validity  or  evaluation  of 
worth  predicates  from  the  psychological  problem  of  their  description  and  gene- 
sis. Its  value  and  use  become  more  apparent  as  the  general  theory  of  value 
is  developed. 


6  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

express  not  attributes  of  objects  apart  from  the  subject  (even 
when  the  value  is  described  as  actual  and  objective)  but  rather 
functions  of  the  relation  of  subject  to  object.  When  we  speak 
of  an  object  as  having  absolute  or  objective  value  it  is  only  by 
a  process  of  temporary  abstraction  from  the  subject  in  some 
specific  attitude,  not  from  the  subject  itself.  The  other  differ- 
ences of  meaning  in  the  worth  predicates  reflect  the  same  fact. 
Thus  when  I  attribute  value  to  an  object,  meaning  that  it  is 
actually  valued,  my  attitude  is  determined  by  certain  presupposi- 
tions of  judgments,  which  are  the  product  of  participation  in  the 
worth  judgments  of  others.  When,  however,  my  judgment 
means  that  the  object  is  ideally  of  worth,  deserves  to  be  valued, 
that  judgment  expresses  a  modification  of  attitude  brought  about 
either  by  the  exclusion  of  certain  partial  determinants  of  my 
attitude,  as  when  I  pass  my  judgment  in  opposition  to  actual 
worth  judgments  about  me,  or  by  inclusion  of  other  presupposi- 
tions, as  when,  for  instance,  I  appeal  from  a  narrower  actual 
worth  judgment  to  a  possible  more  universal  judgment.  The 
situation  is  the  same  in  the  case  of  the  distinction  between  actual 
and  imputed  values.  The  actual  value  is  always  the  meaning 
of  the  object  for  a  subject  in  some  attitude — never  an  attribute  of 
the  object  itself.  The  imputed  value  added  to  the  actual  value 
arises  from  attitudes  of  the  subject,  negligible  or  irrelevant  from 
the  standpoint  from  which  the  actual  value  is  determined. 

Two  important  consequences  follow  from  this  conception  that 
worth  or  value  is  the  meaning  of  the  object  for  the  subject  in  dif- 
ferent attitudes,  or  as  predetermined  by  different  dispositions  and 
interests.  In  the  first  place,  while  the  distinctions  we  have  been 
discussing  are  developed  from  the  axiological  standpoint  of  the 
determination  of  the  relative  validity  of  worth  judgments,  we 
have  in  the  analysis  underlying  these  distinctions  at  the  same 
time  a  clue  to  the  psychological  analysis  and  classification  of 
the  different  attitudes.  In  all  these  differences  of  meaning  the 
sources  of  the  difference  were  found  in  the  nature  of  the  cogni- 
tive presuppositions.  All  valuation,  as  attitude  of  the  subject,  is 
primarily  an  act  of  immediate  appreciation ;  but  this  primitive 
attitude  may  be  modified  to  give  various  meanings  by  the  inclu- 
sion of  various  types  of  judgments,  existential,  instrumental, 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   VALUE.  7 

judgments  referring  the  object  of  the  self  or  to  others,  judgments 
of  possibility  or  probability  of  acquisition  and  possession,  etc. 
While  for  the  axiological  point  of  view  the  truth  of  these  pre- 
suppositions is  significant,  for  psychological  analysis  their  sig- 
nificance lies  in  the  changes  in  worth  experience,  which  follow 
upon  changes  in  these  presuppositions. 

In  the  second  place,  as  a  result  of  this  conception  of  worth 
as  the  affective  volitional  meaning  of  the  object  for  the  subject 
in  different  attitudes,  the  way  is  now  open  for  an  analysis  of  the 
worth  subject  and  for  a  classification  of  the  fundamental  worth 
attitudes.  The  equivocations  in  the  meaning  of  the  worth  predi- 
cates already  considered,  indicate  certain  fundamental  differ- 
ences in  the  subject  of  the  experience.  The  distinctions  between 
subjective  and  objective  worth,  between  actual  and  ideal,  are 
reducible  to  differences  in  the  judging  subject.  These  differ- 
ences have  led  to  the  conception  of  different  subjects  for  differ- 
ent types  of  worth  judgments.  Thus  Kreibig1  distinguishes 
between  a  primary  and  secondary  worth  subject,  the  primary 
being  the  individual  as  such,  the  secondary  being  the  group  or 
race  consciousness.  So  also  Meinong,2  in  treating  of  the  dif- 
ference between  ethical  and  moral  judgments  distinguishes 
the  more  personal  ethical  from  the  impersonal,  moral  sub- 
ject. The  former  is  the  concrete  ego  in  his  relation  to  the 
alter ;  the  latter  is  neither  the  ego  nor  the  alter  but  an  abstrac- 
tion, a  third  person,  the  impartial  spectator  which  sits  in  judg- 
ment upon  both.  These  distinctions,  appearing  as  they  have 
in  the  effort  to  do  justice  to  fundamental  differences  in  worth 
predication,  point  in  the  right  direction.  But  they  are  never- 
theless open  to  the  criticism  which  attaches  to  all  conceptual 
constructions  employed  as  instruments  of  analysis,  that  they  are 
in  danger  of  being  hypostatized  into  separate  realities  and  con- 
ceived as  real  even  when  abstracted  from  the  individual  subject. 
For  certain  purposes  of  social  and  ethical  philosophy,  we  may, 
perhaps,  speak  of  a  group  consciousness,  of  an  over-individual 

1  Kreibig,  Psychologische  Grundlegung  eines  Systems  der  Wert-theot  iet  Wien, 
1902,  p.  5. 

1  Meinong,  Psycholo%ische-Ethische  Untersuchungen  zur  Wert-theorie ,  pp. 
72,  163,  216. 


8  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

will,  without  a  serious  distortion  of  the  facts,  but  for  the  empirical 
analysis  of  worth  judgments  it  is  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  the 
subject  in  the  role  of  the  individual,  of  the  group  or  race,  or  of 
the  impartial  spectator,  is  the  individual  in  different  attitudes. 
The  problem  is  then  to  account  for  the  origin,  differentiation,  and 
fixation  of  these  relatively  permanent  attitudes,  and,  in  the  light 
of  the  preceding  discussion,  such  attitudes  of  the  subject  repre- 
sent changes  in  affective-volitional  meaning,  as  determined  by 
changes  in  cognitive  presuppositions  (the  subject-matter). 

The  worth  judgment  of  an  individual  may  then  express  the 
affective-volitional  meaning  of  an  object  for  the  subject,  as 
qualified  by  the  subjects  (a)  participation  in,  and  (b)  explicit 
cognition  of,  the  worth  attitudes  of  others,  of  single  persons,  of 
social  groups,  or  perhaps  of  an  over-individual  worth  conscious- 
ness which  transcends  even  group  distinctions,  giving  the  im- 
personal attitude  of  the  *  impartial  spectator.'  The  difference 
in  attitude  is  determined  by  the  inclusion  or  exclusion  of  judg- 
ments as  part  presuppositions  of  the  meaning.  The  psycho- 
logical problem  is  the  tracing  of  the  processes  by  which  this 
participation  in,  and  cognition  of,  the  attitudes  of  others  is  real- 
ized, the  more  specific  problem  of  worth  analysis  itself  being  to 
determine  how  this  modification  of  the  attitude  of  the  subject 
modifies  the  worth  predicated  of  the  object. 

In  a  preliminary  way  we  may  distinguish  three  fundamental 
attitudes  of  the  self  or  subject  of  worth  judgment  :  (i)  Simple 
appreciation  of  the  affective-  volitional  meaning  of  an  object  for 
the  self  ;  (2)  the  personal  attitude  in  which  the  worth  of  the 
object  is  determined  by  explicit  reference  of  the  object,  whether 
a  physical  possession  or  a  psychical  disposition,  to  the  self  or 
the  alter,  and  in  which  characterization  of  the  self  or  the  alter 
is  presupposed,  and  (3)  the  impersonal  attitude,  in  which  the 
subject  of  the  judgment  is  identified  with  an  impersonal  over- 
individual  subject  and  the  value  of  the  object  is  determined  by 
explicit  reference  to  the  over-individual  demand.1 


classification  corresponds  in  principle  with  Baldwin's  classification 
of  cognitive  meanings  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Genetic  Logic,  Chap.  VII.,  p. 
148,  where  he  distinguishes:  (i)  Simple  and  private  ;  (2)  aggregate  and  con- 
aggregate  ;  (3)  social  and  public,  meanings. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  9 

As  the  subject  of  value  experience,  one  of  the  moments  in 
the  value  function,  is  constantly  changing,  expanding  and  con- 
tracting through  inclusion  and  exclusion  of  presuppositions  of 
judgment,  so  also  the  object  of  valuation  undergoes  modifica- 
tion. Broadly  speaking,  the  object  of  worth  belongs  to  the  pres- 
entational side  of  consciousness,  is  the  object  of  immediate  ap- 
prehension with  its  implicit  presupposition  or  explicit  judgment 
of  existence.  It  is,  therefore,  in  the  first  place,  the  not-self  the 
external  object  of  feeling  and  will,  those  aspects  of  experience 
which  are  from  the  beginning  presentational.  But  there  is 
scarcely  any  aspect  of  consciousness  which  cannot  become  pres- 
entational, cannot  be  presented  to  consciousness  as  object,  and 
become  the  object  of  judgment.  Even  the  attitude  of  valuation 
itself  which  we  may  describe  as  the  *  psychical '  preeminently, 
is  susceptible  of  representation,  translation  into  ideal  terms  and 
of  thus  taking  its  place  on  the  objective  side  of  the  value 
function.1  The  psychology  of  this  representation  of  the  psy- 
chical will  engage  our  attention  at  those  points  where  we  shall 
make  use  of  the  principle.  Here  it  is  merely  important  to  in- 
sist that  the  general  class,  worth  objects,  includes  physical  and 
psychical  and,  among  the  latter,  the  attitude  of  valuation  itself. 

A  more  significant  distinction  among  objects  of  valuation  is 
that  between  primary  and  secondary  or  between  simple  and 
founded  objects  already  considered.  These  founded  objects 
may  be  of  two  kinds,  according  as  they  are  founded  in  proc- 
esses of  perceptual  or  ideational  activity.  Illustrations  of  the 
former  are  :  (a)  Beauty  or  grace  of  form  in  objects  of  percep- 
tion ;  (b)  founded  qualities  acquired  in  the  sensational  and  per- 
ceptual activities  of  consumption  of  food  (or  more  broadly  of 
various  instinctive  activities),  such  as  cleanliness,  manners.  Any 
harmonious  grouping  or  arrangement  of  the  activities  of  living 
creates  secondary  objects  of  worth,  founded  upon  the  primary. 
As  illustrations  of  the  secondary  worth  objects  founded  in  proc- 
esses of  ideation  and  judgment,  we  may  take  the  person  and 

1  As  was  pointed  out  in  another  article,  Appreciation  and  Description  and 
the  Psychology  of  Values,  Philosophical  Review,  November,  1905,  the  capacity 
of  feeling  attitude  of  becoming  the  object  of  presentation  and  judgment  is  the 
condition  of  there  being  appreciative  description  and  communication  of  attitudes. 


10  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

his  affective  or  conalive  dispositions  built  up  conceptually  on  the 
basis  of  immediate  appreciations,  as  in  sympathetic  Einfuhlung^ 
or  by  a  process  of  inference,  which,  then  in  turn,  become  the 
objects  of  secondary  judgments  of  merit  and  demerit,  etc.  To 
these  may  be  added  a  third  group  of  founded  worth  objects 
which  may  be  described  as  over-individual.  These  are  the 
products  of  the  ideal  reconstruction  of  objects  of  primary  worth 
as  determined  by  participation  in  the  worth  processes  of  larger 
social  groups  or  of  society  at  large.  To  this  class  belong  the 
ideal  moral  and  culture  goods  of  society,  economic  goods  as 
objects  of  exchange,  including  the  medium  of  exchange  which 
has  over-individual  worth  exclusively.  In  distinguishing  thus 
between  founded  objects  as  products  of  perceptual  and  ideational 
activities,  we  cannot  of  course  make  the  distinction  absolute,  for 
in  the  case  of  many  such  objects  both  activities  have  been  at 
work  in  their  construction. 

A  preliminary  classification  of  worth  objects  would  then 
include  the  following  groups :  (i)  Objects  of  simple  apprecia- 
tion or  of  condition  worth.  These  objects  may  be  either  phys- 
ical or  psychical  and  include  the  founded  psychical  objects  built 
up  in  perceptual  activity.  (2)  Objects  of  personal  worth  such 
as  qualities  and  dispositions  of  the  person  (the  self  or  the  alter) 
objects  founded  in  the  processes  of  characterization  of  the  person. 
(3)  Objects  of  over-individual  or  common  worth  founded  in 
processes  of  social  participation,  ideal  constructions  developed 
in  the  interest  of  social  participation,  utilization  and  exchange 
of  objects.  In  general  these  objects  of  worth  correspond  to  the 
fundamental  attitudes  of  the  subject  of  the  value  experience. 

III. 

The  analysis  of  the  meanings  of  worth  predicates,  and  the 
consequent  differentiation  and  classification  of  the  fundamental 
types  of  the  subject  and  object  of  the  judgment  of  value,  bring 
us  to  a  third  problem  of  analysis,  namely  a  more  definite  char- 
acterization of  the  term  affective-volitional  meaning  and  an 
analysis  and  classification  of  the  modes  of  consciousness  corre- 
sponding to  these  meanings.  As  long  as  we  were  concerned 
merely  with  a  preliminary  differentiation  of  cognitive  meaning 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  II 

from  that  aspect  of  meaning  described  as  worth  or  value,  it  was 
sufficient  to  describe  the  latter  as  a  meaning  predetermined  by 
processes  of  feeling  and  conation  and  the  judgment  of  value  as 
an  appreciation  or  acknowledgment  of  that  funded  meaning. 
But  when  this  criterion  is  examined  more  closely  and  the  attempt 
is  made  to  determine  more  precisely  just  what  aspect  of  meaning 
is  represented  by  the  different  types  of  worth  judgment  (appre- 
ciation, characterization,  participation  and  utilization)  just  what 
the  determining  processes  of  feeling  and  conation  are  in  each 
case,  more  detailed  psychological  analysis  becomes  necessary. 

When  we  seek  to  make  more  specific  this  very  general 
description  of  the  worth  relation  we  are  confronted  with  two 
possible  views  of  the  worth  moment  which  may  be  described 
as  a  broader  and  a  narrower  view.  The  narrower  view  recog- 
nizes only  two  types  of  value  judgment,  the  ethical  and  economic, 
thereby  limiting  the  term  value  to  such  feeling  attitudes  as 
follow  upon  t\\e  judgmental  affirmation  of  the  existence  or  non- 
existence  as  an  object  for  the  self  or  its  purposes.  This  limitation 
denies,  therefore,  the  character  of  worth  attitude  to  all  immediate 
feeling  of  the  meaning  of  the  object  for  the  subject  prior  to  the 
distinctions  which  we  describe  as  economic  and  ethical,  and 
likewise  to  all  forms  of  higher  immediacy  of  feeling  attitude  as 
we  have  them  primarily  in  the  aesthetic  consciousness.  This 
view,  which  has  been  presented  most  definitely  by  Witasek1  and 
Stuart,2  logically  excludes  the  aesthetic  from  the  sphere  of  values, 
in  the  view  of  the  former  because  the  aesthetic  is  pre-judgmental, 
/.  £.,  is  feeling  which  has  merely  presentations  as  its  content, 
for  the  latter  because  he  conceives  it  to  be  post-judgmental,  an 
appreciative  state  where  all  judgment  subject-matter  has  lapsed. 
Either  mode  of  cutting  the  aesthetic  attitude  off  from  its  closely 
related  ethical  and  economic  attitudes  is,  we  shall  find,  open  to 
serious  criticism  and  must  necessarily  discredit  this  limitation  of 
the  term  value. 

The  reasoning  which  underlies  this  the  formulation  of  this 
criterion  is  well  expressed  by  Stuart  in  the  following  paragraph  : 

1  Witasek,  Allgemeine  ^sthetik,  Leipzig,  1904. 

2  Stuart,    Valuation  as  a  Logical  Process,  in  Dewey's  Studies  in  Logical 
Theory,  Chicago,  1903. 


12  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

"  Our  general  criterion  for  the  propriety  of  terming  any  mode 
of  consciousness  the  value  of  an  object  must  be  that  it  shall  per- 
form a  logical  function  and  not  simply  be  referred  to  in  its 
aspect  of  psychical  fact.  The  feeling  or  emotion,  or  whatever 
the  mode  of  consciousness  in  question  may  be,  must  play  the 
recognized  part,  in  the  agent's  survey  of  the  situation,  of 
prompting  and  supporting  a  definite  practical  attitude  with  ref- 
erence to  the  object.  If,  in  short,  the  experience  enters  in  any 
way  into  a  conscious  purpose  of  the  agent,  it  may  properly  be 
termed  a  value."  Now,  in  examining  this  criterion  one  recog- 
nizes immediately  that  it  provides  a  good  definition  of  a  certain 
type  of  reflective  value  judgments  which  we  may  call  sec- 
ondary. A  very  large  group  of  our  worth  judgments  are  de- 
termined by  the  conscious  (recognized)  inclusion  of  the  worth 
feeling  or  emotion  as  presented  content,  as  partial  determinant 
of  the  judgment.  The  typical  economic  judgment  takes  place 
only  upon  the  occasion  of  adding  to  or  taking  from  our  store  of 
objects  and  is  motived  by  a  reflective  inclusion  of  the  worth 
feeling  in  our  total  practical  attitude.  The  ethical  judgment,  in 
its  typical  reflective  form,  maybe  shown  to  be  of  the  same  char- 
acter in  that  the  subject's  own  mode  of  experience,  way  of 
feeling,  presented  in  terms  of  disposition  or  quality  of  the  self, 
enters  as  a  determinant  in  the  total  situation.  But  the  sec- 
ondary and  derived  character  of  these  reflective  judgments 
soon  becomes  evident.  How  can  the  feeling  or  emotion  as 
presented  content,  *  play  a  recognized  part '  as  a  value  '  in  the 
agent's  survey  of  the  situation '  unless,  as  a  motive  to  previous 
unreflective  judgments,  before  it  was  presented  as  a  conscious 
determinant,  it  was  also  a  value  or  at  least  value-suggestive. 
We  may  say,  then,  that,  while  much  of  valuation  is  a  logical 
process  in  this  sense,  nevertheless  valuation  has  its  roots  in 
experiences  of  simple  appreciation  where  the  emotion,  while 
determinative,  is  not  so  consciously,  as  object  of  presentation  or 
judgment  and  must,  therefore,  be  referred  to  simply  in  its  aspect 
of  psychical  fact. 

We  must,  accordingly,  interpret  our  definition  of  value  as 
affective-volitional  meaning  in  the  broader  way  already  sug- 
gested, so  as  to  include  modes  of  consciousness,  of  feeling  (or 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  13 

desire)  which  are  merely  appreciative  of  the  object,  which 
merely  apprehend  the  object  with  its  funded  meaning.  We 
cannot  confine  it  to  attitudes  in  which  this  meaning,  abstracted 
from  the  object,  becomes  a  motive  in  the  subject's  survey  of  the 
situation.  We  shall  then  be  enabled  to  include  both  the  attitudes 
of  lower  immediacy,  which  are  pre-judgmental,  and  those  of 
higher  immediacy,  which  are  post-judgmental,  recognizing  the 
intermediate  role  of  the  reflective  judgments  (existential,  instru- 
mental, possessive,  etc.),  and  recognizing  also  that  the  reflective 
and  the  unreflective,  the  intrinsic  and  the  instrumental,  are  con- 
stantly passing  over  into  each  other,  a  phenomenon  which  we 
shall  later  describe  as  value-movement. 

In  close  relation  to  this  first  problem  which  arises  in  the 
attempt  to  make  more  specific  the  general  definition  of  worth  as 
affective  volitional  meaning,  a  second  problem  arises,  namely, 
the  question  of  the  specific  manner  in  which  we  shall  set  the 
worth  moment  in  relation  to  its  psychological  equivalents,  feeling 
and  conation.  Already,  in  the  use  of  the  double  term  affective- 
volitional  in  our  preliminary  demarcation  of  worth  experience, 
a  certain  vagueness  inheres,  which,  while  excusable  when 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  purpose  of  the  term,  must  give  place 
to  explicit  psychological  analysis  if  we  are  to  find  equivalents 
for  the  worth  moment  which  shall  form  the  basis  for  a  scientific 
reconstruction  of  the  processes  of  valuation.  The  significance 
of  this  double  term  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  marked  off  a  species 
under  the  generic  term,  meaning.  Not  that  there  could  be  cog- 
nitive meaning  without  worth  references  or  affective- volitional 
meaning  without  cognitive  presuppositions.  Indeed,  we  shall 
see  that  these  terms  are  not  very  clear  at  the  limits.  Merely  to 
indicate  a  relative  distinction,  by  means  of  emphasis  of  different 
aspects  of  meaning,  was  the  purpose  of  this  differentiation. 

In  the  second  place,  the  double  term  was  necessary  for  the 
reason  that  only  in  such  a  definition  could  all  the  attitudes 
toward  objects,  recognized  as  worth  attitudes,  be  included. 
For  our  ordinary  usage,  at  least,  makes  a  clear  distinction  be- 
tween feeling  and  will  and  recognizes,  as  objects  of  worth,  objects 
upon  which  both  types  of  attitude  are  directed,  and,  prior  to  more 
scientific  analysis,  this  double  relation  must  be  taken  as  descrip- 


14  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

tive  of  the  worth  attitude.  But  here  again,  when  this  general 
definition  gives  place  to  psychological  analysis,  we  find  that  the 
distinction  between  feeling  and  conation  in  some  of  its  forms  is 
not  very  clear  at  the  limits,  and  it  is  consequently  difficult  to  say 
under  which  of  these  terms  the  immediate  experience  which  is 
the  bearer  of  these  meanings,  is  to  be  subsumed.  On  the  one 
hand,  we  find  experiences  of  preference  and  obligation  where 
feeling,  if  it  is  described  as  passive  pleasantness  and  unpleas- 
antness is  at  a  minimum,  is  scarcely  present,  or,  if  present  at 
all,  is  irrelevant,  so  irrelevant  in  fact  that  some  theories  of  worth 
experience  (the  voluntaristic  theories  of  Brentano  and  Schwartz) 
find  the  psychological  fundamental  in  what  they  describe  as 
*  intensitiless  acts  of  preference,'  denying  the  worth  moment  to 
feeling  and  its  intensities.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  worth 
experiences,  such  as  the  aesthetic,  apparently  purely  affective, 
where  desire,  conation  in  all  its  forms  is  at  a  minimum,  and  ap- 
pears to  be  significant,  if  significant  at  all,  merely  as  a  disposi- 
tion or  presupposition.  While,  then,  in  view  of  these  facts  the 
general  term  affective-volitional  meaning  was  necessary  to  define 
the  various  meanings  of  objects  included  under  the  term  values, 
it  is  nevertheless  evident  that  the  definition  can  become  service- 
able for  further  psychological  analysis  and  explanation  only 
when  it  is  determined  which  of  these  moments,  the  affective  or 
conative,  is  primary  and  which  secondary  —  that  is,  which  is 
always  present  actually  as  conscious  experience  and  which  as  a 
merely  dispositional  determinant.  But  if  our  general  definition 
is  to  hold,  in  every  attitude  which  we  describe  as  a  mode  of 
worth  experience  both  aspects  of  experience  must  be  present 
either  actually  or  germinally. 

In  the  light  then  of  these  considerations,  it  would  appear 
that  the  course  of  our  further  analysis  is  clearly  and  necessarily 
determined.  We  are  compelled,  on  the  one  hand,  to  include 
both  concepts,  of  feeling  and  conation,  in  our  psychological 
equivalents  for  the  worth  moment ;  otherwise  we  should  not  have 
a  true  equivalent  for  the  funded  meaning  of  the  object  described 
as  worth.  On  the  other  hand,  when  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
analysis  of  content  we  look  for  an  experience  which  shall  be  a 
common  equivalent  for  all  phases  of  worth  determination,  one 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   VALUE.  15 

of  these  moments  must  assume  the  role  of  actual  experience  and 
the  other  of  dispositional  presupposition.  One  must  constitute 
the  worth  fundamental.  Is  then  the  worth  fundamental  feeling 
or  desire? 

In  the  second  place  whichever  of  these  two  aspects  be  taken 
as  fundamental,  a  second  question  necessarily  arises  —  is  worth 
coextensive  with  feeling  or  desire,  or  is  there  a  further  demar- 
cation within  the  sphere  of  feeling  or  desire,  respectively?  In 
other  words,  have  all  feelings  or  desires,  whatever  their  condi- 
tions, however  fleeting  and  however  caused,  the  transgredient 
and  immanental  references  which  characterize  the  worth  attitude 
of  the  subject  toward  the  object? 

IV. 

Both  of  these  problems  have  been  in  the  forefront  of  recent 
psychological  analysis  of  worth  experience.  They  are  questions 
which  are  forced  upon  the  attention  as  soon  as  we  attempt  to 
coordinate  and  reduce  to  common  terms  the  varying  attitudes 
which  have  been  included  under  worth  experience,  within  the 
worth  definition.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  point  of  view  from 
which  these  finer  distinctions  are  irrelevant.  One  can  see  that 
for  the  limited  purposes  of  economic  analysis,  which  requires 
but  a  short  excursion  into  psychology,  we  might  speak  of  the 
worth  moment  now  as  feeling,  and  now  as  desire.  Ehrenfels 
is  also  probably  right  in  saying  that  the  general  laws  of  valua- 
tion and  the  forms  of  mutation  of  values,  value  movement,  hold 
true  whether  we  define  worth  experience  as  feeling  or  desire, 
and  changes  in  judgments  of  value  as  due  to  modifications  of 
feeling  or  desire.  It  remains  true,  nevertheless,  that  a  complete 
analysis  of  the  worth  consciousness,  in  all  its  phases,  requires  the 
solution  of  both  these  problems. 

It  is  in  connection  with  the  first  problem  that  the  first  diver- 
gence in  definition  appears,  as  typified  in  the  different  formula- 
tions of  Meinong  and  Ehrenfels.  Ehrenfels  defines  the  worth 
of  an  object  as  its  desirability  and  makes  actual  desire  the  worth 
fundamental,  assigning  to  feeling  the  conceptual,  dispositional 
role,  while  Meinong,  on  the  other  hand,  identifies  actual  worth 
experience  with  feeling,  desire  appearing  in  his  definition  only 


1 6  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

as  presupposed  disposition.  In  some  sense,  we  have  seen,  both 
terms,  feeling  and  conation,  must  enter  into  our  psychological 
definition ;  the  question  is  which  shall  be  given  the  role  of  fun- 
damental, actual  experience  and  which  the  dispositional  role. 

Ehrenfels 1  takes  desire  as  the  actual  psychological  worth 
fundamental.  Value,  we  are  told,  is  proportional  to  the  desira- 
bility of  the  object  —  and  he  continues,  as  though  it  were  self- 
evident,  —  '  i.  e.,  to  the  strength  of  the  actual  desire  which  cor- 
responds to  it.'  The  first  part  of  the  definition  is  certainly  true. 
The  funded  meaning  of  an  object  is  its  desirability,  its  capacity 
under  certain  circumstances  of  calling  out  desire.  The  second 
part  does  not,  however,  necessarily  follow.  It  does  not  follow 
either  that  judgments  of  worth  are  determined  by  actual  desire, 
or  that  the  worth  of  the  object  is  proportional  to  the  strength  of 
the  actual  desire.  As  to  the  identification  of  value  or  desira- 
bility with  actual  desire,  a  consideration  of  certain  simple  but 
typical  worth  experiences,  indicates  that  it  is  not  exclusively  an 
actual,  but,  ultimately,  merely  a  possible  desire  or  desire  disposi- 
tion with  which  worth  is  to  be  equated,  a  modification  of  his 
earlier  definition  which  Ehrenfels  himself  accepts.  When  I 
think  of  an  absent  friend  I  may  feel  his  worth  to  me  without  the 
slightest  trace  of  actual  desire  for  his  immediate  presence,  al- 
though the  presupposition  of  that  feeling  is  a  desire  disposition. 
Or  again  my  consciousness  of  the  objective  value  of  objects  of 
economic  use  may  be  independent  of  any  actual  desire,  although 
not  of  my  cognition  of  their  desirableness  under  certain  circum- 
stances. It  is  equally  true  that  the  degree  of  worth  or  desirability 
of  an  object  cannot  be  straightway  identified  with  the  degree  of 
actual  desire.  It  is  undoubtedly  proportional  to  the  strength  of 
desire  disposition  presupposed,  but  the  strength  of  a  conative  ten- 
dency or  disposition  is  not  measured  by  the  intensity  of  actual 
desire  but  is  inferred  indirectly  from  its  effects  in  volition,  or 
through  the  intensity  of  the  emotional  disturbance  following  upon 
arrest.  The  assumption  that  the  strength  of  a  desire  disposition  is 
given  directly  in  immediate  modifications  of  consciousness  is  one 
which  introspection  makes  highly  improbable  and  Ehrenfels, 

'Khrenfels,  System  der  Wert-theorie,  Leipzig,  1897,  Vol.  I.,  Chap.  I., 
especially  p.  35. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF    VALUE.  17 

with  whose  definition  we  are  here  concerned,  at  least  does  not 
admit  it. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  while  desire,  and  conative  tendency  in 
general,  must  find  a  place  in  our  worth  definition,  it  cannot  be 
taken  as  the  psychological  fundamental  in  the  sense  that  it  is 
the  conscious  correlate  of  the  funded  meaning  of  the  object. 
This  conscious  correlate  is  feeling.  Ehrenfels  thus  brings  feel- 
into  his  definition  Desire  is  not  determined  by  mystical  quali- 
ties of  objects  but  by  aspects  of  our  consciousness  which  can  be 
reduced  to  psychological  terms.  "All  acts  of  desire  are  deter- 
mined, in  regard  to  their  direction  as  well  as  their  strength,  by 
the  relative  increase  of  pleasure  which  they,  according  to  the 
affective  dispositions  of  the  individual  in  question,  bring  with 
them  upon  their  entrance  into,  or  continuance  in,  consciousness. " 
Feeling  is,  therefore,  after  all,  primary.  The  worth  of  an  ob- 
ject is  directly  proportional  to  the  strength  of  desire,  but  this 
strength  of  desire  is  determined  by  the  difference  between  the 
places  of  the  object  in  the  hedonic  scale. 

In  this  conception  of  Ehrenfels  the  whole  psychological 
problem  of  the  nature  of  feeling  and  desire  and  of  their  rela- 
tions, is  involved.  Into  that  larger  question  we  cannot  here 
enter.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  notice  certain  fundamental  diffi- 
culties which  have  been  generally  recognized  by  the  critics  of 
the  position.  The  criticism  turns  upon  the  concept  of  the  deter- 
mination of  desire  by  feeling,  upon  the  idea  of  the  causal  rela- 
tion involved.  It  is  maintained  with  justification  that  for  a  feel- 
ing to  be  a  cause  of  desire  it  must  be  actual,  that  is  a  present 
state  of  consciousness.  But  according  to  Ehrenfels'  conception 
it  is  not  merely  a  present  state,  but  a  state  which  does  not  yet 
exist,  which  is  the  cause.  It  is  the  existence  of  an  object  not 
yet  realized  or  the  non-existence  of  a  present  object,  which  is 
desired.  The  hedonic  accompaniment  of  a  not-yet  existent 
object,  itself  therefore  not  existent,  cannot  in  any  causal  sense 
be  the  determinant  of  desire.  But  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  the 
difference  of  these  two  states  that  is  the  cause.  In  that  case  it 
must  be  either  the  unfelt,  uncognized  difference,  an  abstraction, 
which  is  the  cause,  or  else  a  new  feeling  following  upon  the 
judgment  of  the  difference  between  the  actual  present  feeling 


1 8  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

and  an  imagined  feeling  arising  from  the  assumption  of  the 
existence  or  non-existence  of  the  object.  In  the  first  case  we 
have  a  conceptual  abstraction  made  the  cause  —  which  is  impos- 
sible. In  the  second  case  a  feeling  difference  has  become  the 
object  of  judgment  and  a  value  moment  is  already  present  prior 
to  desire.  It  is  clear  that  in  some  sense  feeling  or  feeling  dis- 
position is  always  presupposed  by  desire  but  the  relation  cannot 
be  described  as  causal. 

Ehrenfels  recognizes  that  upon  this  causal  view  of  the  rela- 
tion of  feeling  to  desire,  the  proposition  must  be  modified  to  read  : 
desire  is  determined  by  feeling  or  feeling  dispositions.  But  we 
have  already  seen  that  worth  cannot,  in  every  case  be  identified 
with  actual  desire,  but  only  with  the  capacity  of  being  desired, 
desirability.  Thus  Ehrenfels  is  finally  left  without  any  conscious 
correlate  for  the  worth  moment.  Both  the  feeling  and  conative 
aspects  tend  to  become  dispositional. 

For  reasons  of  the  nature  of  those  developed  in  our  criticism 
of  Ehrenfels' worth  definition,  Meinong1  makes  feeling  the  worth 
fundamental.  The  sense  of  worth  is  given  in  feeling  signs, 
Werth-gefuhle,  which  are  determined  in  character  and  degree  by 
the  nature  of  their  -presuppositions  (Voraussetzungen).2  These 
presuppositions  he  further  conceives,  in  the  case  of  worth  feel- 
ings, to  be  always  judgments  (or  according  to  his  later  formula- 
tion, judgments  and  assumptions  —  Annahmen)  and  are  there- 
fore distinguishable  from  feelings  which  have  merely  sensations 
or  presentations  as  their  presuppositions.  With  this  limitation 
of  worth  feelings  we  are  not  now  concerned ;  for  the  present 
our  problem  is  the  more  general  one  of  the  suitability  of  feeling 
as  the  worth  fundamental  —  as  the  psychological  equivalent  for 
the  worth  moment.  The  pref erability  of  feeling  as  our  descrip- 
tion of  the  worth  fundamental  seems  to  me  to  be  beyond  doubt 
and  for  the  following  reasons.  In  general  our  argument  would 

1  Meinong,  Psychologische-Ethische  Untersuchungen,  Part  I.,  Chap.  I. 

2  In  presenting  Meinong's  position  I  have  translated  Voraussetzung  '  pre- 
supposition' rather  than  precondition,  as  better  adapted  to  convey  his  meaning, 
and  have  retained  this  broader  usage  of  presupposition  throughout,  although  in 
the  usage  of  Baldwin  it  is  confined  to  the  higher  reflective  level,  if  I  understand 
his  position  correctly,  that  is,  his  presupposition  is  always  a  '  presupposition  of 
belief.' 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  19 

be :  There  can  be  no  sense  of  worth  without  a  meaning  which 
may  properly  be  described  as  felt  meaning,  while  there  can 
very  well  be  a  sense  of  worth  without  that  qualification  which 
we  describe  as  desire  and  volition. 

More  specifically,  even  in  those  experiences  which  we 
describe  as  explicit  desire  or  volition,  the  essence  of  the  desire 
can  be  equally  well  described  in  terms  of  feeling  without  doing 
violence  to  our  speech.  The  essence  of  desire  is  the  feeling  of 
lack  or  want.  We  'feel  the  need  '  of  something.  What  further 
qualifies  desire  is  the  kinaesthetic  sensations  which  are  irrelevant 
accompaniments  from  the  standpoint  of  the  essential  worth 
moment.  But  it  is  by  no  means  in  the  same  sense  true  that 
every  worth  experience  involves  explicit  desire.  We  may 
actually  feel  the  worth  of  an  absent  friend  without  the  slightest 
trace  of  that  qualification  of  our  feeling  which  we  describe  as 
actual  desire,  although  of  course  a  conative  disposition  is  pre- 
supposed and  may  become  explicit  under  suitable  conditions. 
The  same  is  true  of  aesthetic  and  mystical  states  of  repose  where 
actual  desire  is  in  abeyance. 

What  this  means  for  our  worth  definition  is  clear.  In  actual 
worth  experience  actual  desire  is  not  necessarily  present  although 
feeling  is.  The  desire  is  present  often  merely  as  a  dispositional 
moment  which,  however,  may  become  actual  under  certain 
definite  circumstances.  In  so  far,  therefore,  as  our  definition  is 
concerned  with  the  desire  moment,  we  must  enlarge  it  to  read  — 
an  object  has  worth  in  so  far  as  it  is  either  desired  or  has  the 
capacity  of  calling  out  desire,  has,  in  other  words  desirability. 
This  definition  includes  the  mystical  and  aesthetic  states  of 
repose  already  referred  to,  for  no  object  can  become  the  object 
of  such  feelings  which  has  not  been  desired  and  may  not  under 
some  circumstances  be  again  desired.  Conation  is  present  dis- 
positionally  (how  we  shall  see  later)  even  in  these  states  of 
repose.  But  the  case  is  different  with  feeling.  In  defining 
worth  as  feeling  with  certain  characteristic  presuppositions  we 
mean  that  every  actual  worth  judgment  implies  actual  feeling 
—  even  in  those  cases  where  the  worth  attitude  is  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  cognitive. 

Feeling  having  been  taken  as  the  actual  conscious  corre- 


20  WILBUR   M.    URBAN. 

late  of  worth  predicates,  the  second  problem  arises  —  whether 
worth  feelings  are  coextensive  with  feelings  in  general  or 
whether  some  further  differentiation  appears  within  the  general 
class  feeling.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  definition  of  Meinong, 
the  view  that  feelings  of  worth  are  exclusively  *  judgment-feel- 
ings,' becomes  important.  This  view,  which  may  be  described 
as  the  intellectualistic  theory  of  worth  experience,  has  given  rise 
to  so  many  important  developments  in  ethics  and  aesthetics  that 
it  demands  the  most  careful  consideration.  Negatively  viewed, 
it  denies  the  character  of  worth  experience  to  all  feelings  which 
have  as  their  presuppositions  mere  presentations,  to  all  feelings 
which  may  be  adequately  described  as  the  mere  feeling  tone  of 
the  presentation  or  as  the  effect  of  the  entrance  of  the  presenta- 
tion into  conscioususness.  It  differentiates  '  worth  feeling  '  from 
mere  *  pleasure-causation,*  e.  g.,  pleasure  viewed  as  mere  reac- 
tion to  stimulus. 

Before  considering  in  detail  the  psychological  grounds  for 
this  view,  it  will  be  well  to  observe  the  more  general  fact  that 
whether  worth  experience  be  defined  in  terms  of  desire  or  feel- 
ing, it  cannot  be  made  coextensive  with  either.  Desire,  in  itself, 
does  not  constitute  the  experience  of  valuation  :  there  are  fleet- 
ing desires  which  do  not  attain  to  the  level  of  valuation,  a  fact 
which  leads  Kruger  in  his  definition,  which  is  in  terms  of  desire, 
to  make  the  differentia  of  worth  a  certain  constancy  of  desire. 
Again,  as  Meinong  points  out,  illustrations  are  plentiful  of  valu- 
ation without  actual  consciousness  of  pleasure,  while  a  fleeting 
pleasure  does  not  necessarily  involve  valuation.  Reflection 
upon  these  facts  of  experience  leads  to  more  strictly  logical 
considerations  such  as  those  which  appeared  in  our  criticism  of 
Ehrenfels'  definition.  The  sense  of  value  cannot  be  identified 
the  mere  feeling  of  pleasure  (although  of  course  a  feeling  of 
with  pleasure  when  it  is  made  the  object  of  judgment  may  become 
a  value)  for  the  feeling  of  value  is  conditioned  not  only  by  the 
presence  of  objects  but  also  by  their  absence.  The  mere  absence 
of  the  object  is  not  the  condition  of  the  feeling,  but  the  cogni- 
zance (in  Meinong's  terms  the  judgment)  of  non-existence. 
The  hedonic  state  which  would  be  the  effect  of  the  presence  of 
the  absent  object  is  not  actual,  and  can  therefore  not  be,  in  any 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  21 

causal  sense,  the  condition  of  the  desire  and  of  valuation. 
Moreover,  the  cause  of  the  pleasure  is  often  quite  distinct  from 
the  object  of  the  feeling  of  value,  often  physiological  and  uncon- 
scious. The  feeling  of  value  can  therefore  not  be  viewed  as 
the  effect  or  accompaniment  of  sensation  or  presentation  of  an 
object  but  is  conditioned  by  the  presupposition  of  the  existence  of 
the  object.  For  the  feeling  to  have  that  meaning  called  worth 
it  must  have  an  existence  meaning. 

The  negative  aspect  of  Meinong's  position,  the  denial  of  the 
character  of  worth  experience  to  mere  presentation  feelings, 
appears  justified  from  this  analysis  of  the  facts.  A  funda- 
mental distinction  seems  to  exist  between  feeling  which  is  a 
mere  feeling  tone,  accompaniment  or  effect,  of  a  sensation  or 
revived  image,  and  feeling  attitude  which  is  characterized  by 
the  direction  of  the  feeling  toward  the  object.  Feeling  attitudes 
alone  seem  to  contain  the  worth  moment.  It  is  undoubtedly  true 
that  feeling  tpne  of  presentation,  when  it  reaches  a  certain  degree 
of  intensity,  gives  rise  to  a  feeling  attitude,  to  the  presentation 
of  the  cause  as  object  and  the  direction  of  judgment  upon  it, 
and  thus  to  feeling  of  worth.  But  this  feeling  (or  desire,  as  the 
case  may  be)  is  distinguished  from  the  feeling  tone  by  the  pres- 
ence of  additional  presuppositions,  whether  exclusively  judg- 
mental or  not,  is  a  question  to  be  determined. 

A  critical  consideration  of  this  positive  aspect  of  Meinong's 
definition  requires  a  closer  examination  of  his  use  of  the  term 
presupposition  (Voraussetzung).  Under  this  concept  he  includes 
all  those  conditions  of  feeling  which  are  psychical  in  character, 
as  distinguished  from  other  causes  of  feeling  which  may  be  dis- 
positional  and  physiological.  In  this  sense  a  presupposition 
may  be  any  psychical  process,  presentation,  judgment  (of  the 
various  types,  categorical,  hypothetical,  etc.)  and  other  types  of 
function,  perhaps,  such  as  assumption.  In  every  case  where 
the  presupposition  of  a  feeling  is  spoken  of,  the  feeling  is  di- 
rected upon  an  object  and  is  conditioned  by  some  psychical  act, 
of  presentation,  of  imagination,  with  its  assumption  of  reality, 
or  of  judgment,  judgment  being  for  Meinong  a  fundamental 
form  of  psychical  process.  The  significance  of  this  distinction 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  characteristic  meanings  of 


22  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

feelings  which  distinguish  them  as  feelings  of  value,  are  not  to 
be  differentiated  in  terms  merely  of  the  objects  toward  which 
the  feeling  is  directed,  nor  yet  in  terms  of  the  causes  of  the 
feeling,  but  in  terms  of  the  cognitive  acts  or  attitudes  which 
relate  the  object  to  the  subject. 

V. 

Is  then  the  presupposition  of  worth  feeling  exclusively  judg- 
mental, as  Meinong  maintains?  To  this  question  our  answer 
must  be  negative.  But  we  may  admit,  to  begin  with,  that 
nearly  all  types  of  worth  attitude  do  have  existential  judgments 
as  presuppositions,  and  all  secondary  modifications  of  worth 
attitude  are  determined  by  the  inclusion  or  exclusion  of  judg- 
ments, existential  and  relational,  as  part  presuppositions  of 
the  feeling.  But  that  there  is  no  primary  immediate  con- 
sciousness of  value  without  explicit  judgment  of  existence  or 
non-existence  of  the  object,  cannot  be  maintained.  As  was 
pointed  out  in  our  discussion  of  the  equivocations  in  the  worth 
predicates,  ideal  and  imputed  values  may  be  attributed  to  ob- 
jects when  the  question  whether  they  exist  or  may  be  acquired 
is  not  raised,  and  where,  accordingly,  the  attitude  can  never 
reach  the  point  of  explicit  judgment.  The  activities  of  imag- 
ination and  idealization  abundantly  prove  that  the  feelings  di- 
rected upon  their  objects  are  really  feelings  of  worth  and  are 
determinative  of  worth  judgments,  although  they  presuppose 
mere  passing  assumptions  of  the  reality  of  the  objects. 

Meinong  has  indeed  found  himself  compelled  upon  further 
reflection  to  modify  his  definition  of  worth  feelings  as  judgment 
feelings  to  the  extent  that  he  includes  with  the  judgment  feelings 
assumption  feelings  (Annahme-gefuhle).  He  recognizes  that 
'  often  one  values  an  object  at  a  time  when  there  is  entirely 
wanting  all  chance  for  judgments  of  existence  and  non-exist- 
ence, because  it  is  not  determined  yet  whether  the  object 
thought  of  as  in  the  future  will  exist  or  not.'  Moreover,  *  it  is 
possible,  and  it  frequently  happens  that  we  value  an  abstractly 
presented  object  without  inquiring  after  its  existence.1  And  in 

1  Meinong,  "  Uber  Werthalten  und  Wert,"  Archiv  fur Systematische  Philos- 
ophic, 1895,  pp.  327-346.  Also  his  later  work,  Uber  Annahmen. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  23 

a  later  paper1  he  further  qualifies  his  position  by  recognizing 
that  it  is  only  some  universe  of  reality  which  is  necessarily  pre- 
supposed, in  that  the  presuppositions  are  not  necessarily  cate- 
gorical existential  judgments,  but  may  be  hypothetical  or  dis- 
junctive. Now  in  all  these  cases  where  the  object  is  '  abstractly 
presented,'  assumed  to  exist,  or  asserted  to  exist  conditionally, 
reality  is  presupposed  in  some  sense,  there  is  some  reference  to 
reality.  It  is  also  clear  that  in  all  these  cases  the  feeling,  char- 
acterized as  feeling  of  value,  is  in  some  way  differently  qual- 
ified from  the  feeling  of  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness  —  by 
this  very  reference  to  reality  presupposed.  The  question  at 
issue  is  really  merely  as  to  the  proper  characterization  of  the 
reality  meaning,  whether  it  rests  exclusively  upon  existential 
judgment  or  not. 

And  this  question  is  still  more  ultimately  conditioned  by  a 
theory  of  the  existential  judgment.  To  this  theoretical  problem 
we  shall  presently  turn,  but  it  will  be  in  the  interests  of  clear- 
ness to  seek  a  preliminary  characterization  of  this  presupposi- 
tion of  reality.  There  can  be  no  question,  in  the  first  place, 
that  wherever  there  is  the  feeling  of  value,  there  is  reality  feel- 
ing. Feeling  is  qualified  by  a  reality  meaning  of  some  type. 
Thus,  when  once  an  object  (the  existence  of  which  was  what  I 
desired  or  was  what  conditioned  my  feeling  of  value)  is  explic- 
itly judged  non-existent,  the  object  undoubtedly  loses  its  value 
for  me.  The  essential  condition  of  its  being  valued  is  elimi- 
nated. But  my  appreciation  of  the  worth  of  an  object  does  not 
necessarily,  and  in  every  case,  rest  upon  such  explicit  judgment 
of  existence,  but  at  most  upon  a  primary  undisturbed  f  resump- 
tion of  reality.  By  this  primary  presumption  of  reality  (of  a 
reality,  moreover,  in  which  the  more  specific  existence  mean- 
ing has  not  yet  been  differentiated)  is  to  be  understood  the 
mere  act  of  acceptance,  taking  for  granted?  prior  to  the  ex- 

1  "  Urtheilsgefuhle,  was  Sie  sind  und  was  Sie  nicht  sind,"  Archiv  fur  die 
gesammte  Psychologic.    Vol.  VI.,  1905. 

2  The  use  of  the  term  presumption  to  characterize  this  relation  to  reality  is, 
I  think,  fully  justified  both  linguistically  and  psychologically.     Our  ordinary 
speech,  it  is  true,  frequently  fails  to  distinguish  between  presumption  and  as- 
sumption and  has,  moreover,  read  into  the  word  presumption  a  certain  ethical 
connotation  which  partially  unfits  it  for  the  present  use.     On  the  other  hand, 


24  WILBUR  M.  URBAN. 

plicit  taking  up  of  the  object  into  a  pre-determined  sphere  of 
reality  through  the  existence  predicate,  and  prior  to  the  assump- 
tion of  existence  of  an  object  in  the  interest  of  continuity  of  any 
trend  of  activity,  whether  of  the  type  of  cognition  or  valuation. 

As  illustrative  of  this  attitude  of  primitive  presumption  we 
may  consider  first  the  reality  feeling  which  attaches  to  percep- 
tion and  presentation  simply  because  of  the  *  recognitive  mean- 
ing ' l  which  they  have,  among  which  later,  however,  distinc- 
tions between  existent  and  non-existent  arise — more  especially 
the  presentations  in  the  fancy  or  imagination  mode  where  they 
are  presumed  to  be  real  until  the  entrance  of  illusion-disturbing 
moments  which  require  the  presumption  to  pass  over  into  ex- 
plicit judgment  and  conviction  either  of  existence  or  non-exist- 
ence. The  fairy  world  of  the  child  is  a  world  neither  of  pure 
presentation  nor  of  existential  judgment  but  of  presumption. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  many  ideals  of  the  more  developed 
mind,  as  for  instance,  religious,  about  which  questions  of  ex- 
istence and  non-existence  are  not  seriously  asked.  In  all  these 
cases  some  psychically  pre-determined  demand,  whether  arising 
from  a  more  objective  cognitive  factor  of  recognition  or  a  more 
subjective  factor  of  conative  disposition  or  interest,  creates  a 
presumption  of  reality. 

Such  presumption  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  both 
judgment  and  assumption.  The  existential  judgment  arises, 
we  shall  see,  only  after  disturbance  in  a  sphere  of  reality 
already  presupposed,  it  is  an  act  which  takes  place  only  after 
some  disposition,  some  tendency  to  recognition,  or  to  renewal 
of  attitude  of  feeling  or  will  meets  with  opposition  or  arrest.  It 

the  original  meaning  of  the  latin  praesumptio  is  much  nearer  to  the  use  that  we 
have  in  mind  —  it  had  more  the  meaning  of  taking  for  granted  prior  to  ex- 
plicit judgment  and  was  quite  different  from  the  conscious  assumption  of  re- 
ality as  we  have  it  in  hypothesis.  The  modern  English  dictionaries  give  as  one 
of  the  renderings,  taking  for  granted,  the  meaning  here  emphasized.  The  use 
of  the  term  in  formal  logic  (as  in  fallacies  of  presumption),  while  at  first  appa- 
rently against  our  usage,  on  closer  inspection  seems  to  favor  it.  A  presumption 
is  a  material  fallacy,  an  unconsciously  pre-logical  taking  for  granted.  Finally, 
the  great  value  of  the  introduction  of  this  term  for  our  immediate  purpose  is 
the  possibility  of  using  the  prefixes  pra,  sub  and  ab,  with  the  same  root,  to 
designate  modifications  of  cognitive  attitude. 
1  Baldwin's  distinction  referred  to  above. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF    VALUE.  25 

must  be  equally  clearly  distinguished  from  the  later,  more  de- 
rived, attitude  of  assumption  of  existence  which  presupposes  dis- 
positions already  created  by  actual  judgment.  The  assumption, 
except  when  it  is  what  we  describe  as  an  unconscious  assump- 
tion, (and  then  it  is  really  an  approximation  to  presumption) 
recognizes  the  possibility  of  the  non-existence  of  the  object,  and 
in  some  modes  of  playful  assumption  (the  '  semblant  modes ' 
of  Professor  Baldwin)  is  so  to  speak  on  the  verge  of  explicit 
judgment  of  non-existence  ;  but  in  the  making  of  the  assumption 
the  act  is  determined  by  a  subjective  factor,  a  demand  arising 
from  already  existing  dispositions  and  interests.  The  assump- 
tion is  an  acknowledgment  of  this  demand. 

It  is  obvious,  after  this  analysis,  that  the  definition  of  feel- 
ing of  value  under  consideration,  that  it  is  feeling  with  existen- 
tial judgment  as  its  presupposition,  is  possible  only  on  the 
theory  that  the  primitive  form  of  judgment  is  the  mere  act  of 
acceptance  (acknowledgment)  or  rejection l  and  involves  no 
relational  aspect,  no  separation  of  two  elements  subject  and 
predicate.  The  existential  judgment  is  identical  with  accept- 
ance and  the  non-existential  with  rejection.  If  this  view  of 
judgment  (Brentano's)2  can  be  maintained  it  follows  necessarily 
that  there  can  be  no  feeling  of  value  without  judgment  presup- 
position for  all  attitude  is  primarily  acceptance  or  rejection  and 
the  feeling  of  value  is  an  attitude,  not  mere  presentation  plus 
feeling.  But  can  mere  acceptance  or  rejection  be  identified 
with  judgment  of  existence  and  non-existence  and  at  the  same 
time  any  useful  conception  of  judgment  be  retained?  I  think 
not,  and  for  the  following  reasons. 

The  essentials  of  the  view  here  under  consideration  are  :  (a) 

1  The  use  of  the  terms  acknowledgment  and  rejection  as  correlative  is  most 
unfortunate,  for  it  prejudices  the  whole  question.     Rejection,  as  any  one  who 
will  consult  the  dictionaries  will  discover,  is  not  the  opposite  of  acknowledg- 
ment.    Acknowledgment  has  as  its  opposite  disavowal,  while  the  opposite 
of  rejection  is  acceptance.     This  linguistic  relation  corresponds  precisely  o  the 
psychological.     Acknowledgment  and  disavowal  both  represent  the  explicit 
judgmental  acts  by  which  a  reality  already  presupposed  is  affirmed  or  denied. 
Mere  acceptance  or  rejection  of  an  object  presupposes  nothing  more  than  a 
presumption  of  reality  or  disturbance  of  that  presumption. 

2  For  a  presentation  and  discussion  of  Brentano's  theory  of  judgment  see 
Stout,  Analytical  Psychology,  Vol.  I.,  Chap.  5. 


26  WILBUR   M.   URBAN. 

That  presentation  and  judgment  (acceptance  or  rejection  of 
the  existence  of  the  presentation)  are  two  different  and  irre- 
ducible elementary  aspects  of  consciousness ;  (ft)  that  while  the 
affirmation  or  negation  of  A  (as  function)  adds  something  to  its 
mere  presentation  (as  function),  the  affirmation  or  negation  of 
As  existence  (as  content)  adds  nothing  to  the  affirmation  or 
negation  of  A  (as  content).  The  first  thesis  is  the  key  to  the 
position.  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  simple  apprehension,  pre- 
sentation without  acceptance,  or  does  apprehension  involve 
apprehension  of  existence?  At  first  sight  the  former  of  the 
two  possible  alternatives  seems  to  be  true.  From  the  stand- 
point of  analysis  alone,  we  seem  to  find  cases  where  the  element 
of  affirmation  is  at  a  minimum,  or  even  seems  to  be  entirely 
lacking,  and  a  merely  presentational  consciousness  remains. 
Leaving  out  of  account  the  case  of  doubt  or  suspended  judg- 
ment where,  although  at  a  minimum,  tendencies  to  judgment 
still  remain,  we  may  turn  immediately  to  the  typical  case  of 
aesthetic  contemplation.  Here  it  is  said,  we  have,  when  the 
contemplation  is  pure,  when  the  aesthetic  is  unmixed  with  other 
factors,  a  strictly  presentational  consciousness.  This  view  we 
shall  find  it  necessary  to  reject  and  for  the  following  reasons : 
In  the  first  place,  aesthetic  contemplation  is  an  attitude — not 
mere  presentation  ;  in  it  there  is  at  least  a  resting  in,  *  ein  Haften 
an  der  Wirklichkeit,'  either  outer  or  inner  reality.  As  such  it 
is  more  than  mere  presentation.  No  total  concrete  state  of 
consciousness  is  mere  presentation  for,  while  for  the  purposes 
of  the  psychologist  the  idea  of  a  purely  presentational  con- 
sciousness is  sometimes  a  useful  abstraction,  every  actual  ex- 
perience presupposes  a  minimum  of  acceptance  or  rejection. 
The  procedure  therefore  which  takes  this  abstraction,  made  for 
purposes  of  analysis,  as  a  picture  of  reality  and  from  it  infers, 
for  instance,  the  unreality  of  the  aesthetic  object  and  experience 
and  its  exclusion  from  the  sphere  of  worth  experience,  is 
vitiated  by  serious  fallacy. 

But  if  the  merely  presentational  consciousness  be  but  an  ab- 
straction, there  still  remains  the  question  —  to  what  extent,  in 
actual  concrete  cases  of  aesthetic  attitude,  all  acceptance  and  re- 
jection may  be  seen  to  be  excluded  and  the  purely  presentational 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  27 

approached.  Perhaps  the  difference  is  negligible.  Most  aesthetic 
attitudes,  it  is  recognized  by  all,  do  not  give  us  this  contempla- 
tion pure.  In  the  sublime  and  tragic,  for  instance,  pseudo-aesthetic 
factors,  so  called,  enter  in,  in  the  form  of  acknowledgments  and 
rejections,  judgments  of  various  kinds,  —  and  even  beauty,  in  its 
narrower  sense,  contains,  as  partial  moments,  normative  judg- 
ments. If  we  are  to  find  any  concrete  aesthetic  experience 
of  *  pure  contemplation,'  presentation,  it  must  be  in  the  simplest 
perceptual  forms  and  form  qualities.  These  are  indeed  usually 
taken  as  the  typical  aesthetic  objects  when  the  aesthetic  is  thus 
defined,  but  even  here  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  element  of 
acceptance  and  rejection,  of  conation,  can  be  excluded.  It  is 
true  that  these  forms  and  form  qualities,  when  abstracted  from 
the  elements  in  which  they  inhere,  may  be  viewed  as  the  objects 
of  purely  presentational  activity  ;  nevertheless  their  construction 
was  the  product  of  conative  activity  which  involved  spontaneous 
acceptance  and  rejection,  presumption  of  reality.  Viewed  genet- 
ically, every  aesthetic  feeling  of  form  presupposes  a  disposition 
created  by  preceding  conative  activity. 

The  distinction  between  simple  apprehension  and  accep- 
tance is  then,  even  in  aesthetic  contemplation,  a  relative  one. 
What  shall  be  said  of  the  second  part  of  the  thesis  that  accep- 
tance or  rejection  of  an  object,  A,  is  identical  with  the  affirma- 
tion or  negation  of  the  existence  of  A,  or,  in  other  words,  with 
judgment?  Acknowledgment  or  rejection  does  undoubtedly 
presuppose  the  reality,  in  some  sense  of  the  presentational  con- 
tent. This  is  the  same  as  saying  that  all  conation  is  directed 
upon  objects  presumed  to  be  real.  It  does  not  follow  however, 
that  explicit  existential  judgment  is  involved.  We  must,  I 
think,  look  upon  the  existential  judgment  as  derived  from  a 
simpler  and  more  ultimate  attitude  toward  a  coefficient  of  reality 
presupposed  in  all  conation,  even  on  the  perceptual  level. 
Acknowledgment  and  rejection  involves  presumption  of  exist- 
ence but  not  necessarily  judgment. 

Such  a  distinction  between  presumption  and  judgment  in- 
volves of  course  a  theory  of  the  nature  of  judgment.  Into  the 
logical  questions  here  raised  we  cannot  go  in  detail,  but  this 
much  at  least  may  be  said.  The  position  maintained  by  Sig- 


28  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

wart1  (among  other  logicians)  that  judgment,  if  our  conception 
of  it  is  to  retain  any  useful  significance,  *  must  be  regarded  as 
establishing  a  relation,  even  in  its  existential  form,'  seems  unas- 
sailable. When  the  relational  aspect  is  allowed  to  lapse  judg- 
ment becomes  practically  indistinguishable  from  conation.  It 
is  true  that  the  existential  judgment  occupies  a  unique  position. 
It  does  not  establish  a  relation  between  its  subject  and  the 
predicate  being  *  but  between  an  object  as  idea  and  an  object  as 
intuited.'  Affirmation  of  existence  or  non-existence  presupposes, 
as  mere  acceptance  or  rejection  does  not,  the  beginning  at  least 
of  the  differentiation  of  subject  and  predicate.2 

On  the  theory  of  judgment  here  developed,  the  existential 
judgment  and  the  pure  presentation  (in  so  far  as  "  contempla- 
tion "  is  pure  presentation)  are  secondary,  derived  attitudes, 
derived  from  the  primitive  -presumption  of  reality  presupposed 
in  all  acceptance  or  rejection  of  an  object.  The  difference 
between  the  presumption  and  judgment  is  that  while  in  the 
former  we  have  merely  acceptance  and  rejection  in  the  latter  we 
have  acknowledgment  and  disavowal,  acceptance  and  rejection 
plus  conviction  and  belief.  Returning  then  to  the  question  of  the 
necessary  presuppositions  of  the  feeling  of  value,  it  is  clear  that 
there  must  be  the  presumption  of  reality  for  without  it  there  can 
be  no  attitude  toward  the  object,  attitude  involving  either  accep- 
tance or  rejection  or  disposition  to  accept  or  reject.  But  it  is 
equally  clear  that  the  existential  judgment  cannot  be  the  sole  and 
necessary  presupposition  of  the  feeling,  for  there  can  be  no  such  ex- 
plicit judgment  (acknowledgment  and  disavowal)  except  as  there 
is  already  some  reality  meaning,  some  presupposition  of  reality. 
Again  the  hypothetical  pure  presentation,  in  so  far  as  there  is  any 
such  mode  of  consciousness,  is  equally  secondary  and  derived. 

^igwart,  Logic  (translation),  Vol.  I.,  p.  72. 

2 The  following  quotation  taken,  by  permission,  from  the  proofs  of  the  sec- 
ond volume  of  Professor  Baldwin's  Genetic  Logic  (chapter  on  "Acknowledg- 
ment and  Belief ' ) ,  puts  the  situation  admirably  :  "  The  existence  meaning  which 
the  judgment  always  presupposes  in  the  sense  given,  may,  when  explicity  as- 
serted, be  called  a  predicate  but  not  ana  ttributive  predicate,  not  a  separate  ele- 
ment of  presented  context  or  of  recognitive  meaning,  attributed  to  the  subject 
matter.  It  is  only  the  explicit  assertion  of  the  presupposition  of  belief  in  the 
sphere  in  which  the  subject  matter  is  constituted  an  object  of  thought." 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  29 

It  is  the  result  of  abstraction  from  the  primitive  presumption  of 
reality,  the  result  of  arrest  of  this  presumption  implicit  in  all 
conation.  Meinong's  use  of  the  expression  (abstractly  presented) 
is  significant  in  this  connection ;  to  abstractly  present  means  to 
strip  off  the  reality  feeling  involved  in  the  first  experience. 
This  relation  to  reality  feeling  may  however  be  partially  restored 
by  a  further  movement  of  conation  in  which  the  presented  object 
is  assumed  to  exist,  an  attitude  we  find  characteristic  of  certain 
secondary  contemplative  aesthetic  experiences. 

This  leads  us  finally  to  a  consideration  of  the  relation  of  the 
attitude  of  assumption  to  the  primitive  presumption  of  reality 
and  the  existential  judgment.  This  is  important  for  the 
reason  that  the  special  modification  of  the  feeling  which  has 
assumption  as  its  '  presupposition,'  the  feelings  of  the  imagina- 
tion (Phantasie-geflihle)  of  Meinong's  school  have  been  made 
much  of  in  recent  discussion.  For  one  thing  it  has  been  asserted 
that  these  feelings  are  not  real  and  therefore  not  feelings  of  value, 
although  under  certain  circumstances  they  may  stand  for,  or 
represent,  real  feelings.  Our  own  view,  which  will  be  developed 
more  fully  later,  is  that  they  are  real  feelings  in  any  sense  which 
has  significance  for  psychology  that  they  have  a  presupposition 
of  reality,  although  from  the  point  of  view  of  reflective  evalua- 
tion of  the  objects  of  such  feelings  (the  axiological  point  of  view) 
the  judgments  which  spring  from  these  feelings  may  be  invalid. 
But  a  more  adequate  characterization  of  this  attitude  is  our  first 
problem. 

Assumption,  as  a  cognitive  attitude,  has  two  meanings. 
According  to  its  first  meaning  it  is  an  acceptance,  a  taking  as 
existent,  of  an  object  when  there  is  an  underlying  sense  of  the 
possibility  of  its  being  non-existent.  In  this  sense  also  it  is  a 
half  way  stage  between  the  primitive  presumption  of  reality  and 
the  existential  judgment  with  its  conviction.  In  this  sense  it  is  a 
secondary  movement  or  act  of  cognition  within  a  developing 
sphere  of  reality,  bounded  by  the  primitive  presumption  of  reality 
and  the  existential  judgment,  affirmative  or  negative.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  conation,  it  is  an  act  determined  by  the  momen- 
tum of  a  subjective  disposition  or  interest.  In  its  second  mean- 
ing it  is  not  pre- judgmental  but  post-judgmental,  that  is  a 


30  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

permanent  assumption  is  created  by  habitual  judgment;  it  pre- 
supposes dispositions  created  by  acts  of  judgment  and  is  derived 
from  the  judgment  attitude.  In  this  case  the  assumption 
approaches  closely  to  the  presumption  and  for  this  attitude  the 
two  terms  are  often  used  interchangeably.  It  is  important 
to  emphasize  these  two  meanings 1  for  the  feeling  attitudes 
involved  are  in  many  respects  quite  different,  and  the  confusion 
of  the  two  has  led  to  misinterpretation  of  worth  experience. 
Thus  the  feelings  which  attach  to  assumptions  of  the  first  type 
may  be  described  as  feelings  of  the  imagination ;  they  belong 
to  the  mode  of  semblance  or  «  make-believe.'  But  those  which 
attach  to  assumptions  of  the  second  type  are  more  accurately 
described  as  feeling  abstracts  or  feeling  signs  and  represent  the 
acquired  funded  meaning  of  past  judgment  feelings.  To  this 
class,  we  shall  see  later,  belong  all  those  feelings,  funded  mean- 
ings which  inhere  intrinsically  in  general  concepts.  Such  terms 
as  truth,  virtue,  duty,  etc.,  have  functioned  in  particular  existen- 
tial judgments  and  it  was  upon  the  basis  of  these  judgments  that 
the  feelings  of  value  for  which  these  terms  stand  arose,  but  when 
they  are  thus  formed  they  are  abstractly  valued  without  explicit 
judgments  of  existence  or  non-existence.  They  represent  an 
assumption  which  has  arisen  through  formation  of  habit. 
Explicit  judgment  is  always  the  terminal  of  a  process  of  adapta- 
tion. From  the  primitive  presumption  arises,  through  arrest, 
assumption,  which  in  turn,  passes  into  judgment  and  the  later 
assumption. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  summarize  our  position  as  to 
the  nature  of  simple  appreciation,  primary  feelings  of  value,  in 
so  far  as  it  is  related  to  Meinong's  criterion.  We  agree  to  the 
extent  that  we  include  among  the  feelings  of  value  only  such 
feelings  as  have  reality  meanings,  that  is,  have  some  pre- 
supposition of  reality.  As  to  the  nature  of  that  presupposition 
of  reality,  we  deny  its  limitation  to  existential  judgment  and 
include  the  two  attitudes  of  presumption  and  assumption.  This 
may  be  said  to  be  the  result  of  our  critical  analysis  of  the 

1  Baldwin's  recently  published  theory  of  'schematic,'  function  recognizes 
both  these  modes  of  <  assumption,'  the  existential  judgment  lying,  genetically, 
between  them.  Genetic  Logic,  Vol.  I. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE.  31 

meanings  of  experiences  of  worth.  There  remains  still  the 
question  of  the  functional  and  genetic  account  of  these  different 
presuppositions.  Before  undertaking  this  we  must  glance  briefly 
at  another  criterion  of  feelings  of  value  recently  developed,  more 
especially  by  Lipps. 

VI. 

It  is  maintained  that  all  feelings  of  value  are  feelings  of 
personality  —  that  the  analysis  which  finds  the  criterion  of 
feeling  of  value  in  the  nature  of  the  attitude  toward  the  trans- 
cendent object,  really  overlooks  the  significant  moment,  which 
is  the  reference  of  the  feeling  to  the  subject,  the  personality. 
Feelings  of  value  are  feelings  of  activity  of  the  subject,  the  acts 
of  judgment,  etc.,  being  of  only  secondary  importance.  Such 
a  criterion  is  presented  in  the  formula  of  Lipps  i1  "  Der  Wert 
jeder  Lust  ist  bedingt  durch  einen  Personlichkeits  wert."  Now, 
while  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  there  are  types  of  feelings  of 
value  which  have  as  their  presupposition  explicit  reference  to 
the  personality,  —  those  feelings  which  we  have  described  as 
values  of  characterization,  including  feelings  of  obligation,  desert, 
etc., — it  must  nevertheless  be  recognized  that  these  values 
are  secondary  and  acquired,  that  they  presuppose  judgments 
referring  the  attitude  to  the  presented  self,  the  self  being  a 
founded  object,  the  product  of  an  ideal  construction  based  upon 
preceding  experiences  of  value.  The  only  sense  in  which  this 
statement  may  be  said  to  be  true  is  that  in  primary  feelings  of 
value  (as  distinguished  from  simple  pleasure),  there  are  certain 
modifications,  certain  implicit  meanings  which,  when  reflected 
upon,  lead  to  their  reference  to  the  self.  Such  a  modification 
of  Lipps'  view  we  may  accept. 

These  meanings  which  appear  on  the  level  of  simple  appre- 
ciation prior  to  reference  to  the  self,  Kruger 2  has  described  as 
depth  and  breadth  of  the  feeling  in  the  personality  and  he  con- 
ceives them  to  constitute  a  third  dimension  of  feeling,  beside  its 
intensity  and  duration,  a  dimension  which  is  determined  by  a 
relative  constancy  of  desire  disposition.  His  development  of 

1  Lipps,  Die  ethischen  Grundfragen,  Chapter  I. 

2  Kruger,  Der  Begriff  des  absolut  Wertvollen  als  Grundbegriff  der  Moral- 
philosophic,  Leipzig,  1898,  Chapter  3  (  'Zur  Psychologic  des  Wertes  '). 


32  WILBUR  M.  URBAN. 

the  criterion  is  both  analytical  and  genetic.  Valuation  is  dis- 
tinguished from  mere  desire  and  simple-pleasure  *  causation  '  by 
a  moment  of  relative  constancy  of  desire.  Desire  of  itself  does 
not  constitute  valuation  and  valuation  is  never  mere  desire  or  a 
series  of  desires.  He  further  conceives  the  relation  of  this 
'  desire-constant '  to  the  individual  desire  on  the  analogy  of  the 
relation  of  concepts  to  individual  sensations  and  percepts.  A 
valuation  always  presupposes  a  relatively  constant  disposition. 
As  a  totality  this  disposition  appears  as  an  actual  moment  in 
consciousness  only  in  a  corresponding  judgment.  Yet  the  judg- 
ment of  value  is  not  the  valuation  itself.  This  is  given  rather 
in  the  characteristic  modification  of  the  experienced  desire  and 
feeling  which  he  conceives  to  grow  in  depth  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  *  desire-constant.' l  He  suggests  that  it  is  probable 
that  in  the  first  stages  of  conscious  life  only  that  was  consciously 
striven  after  which  brought  with  it  relative  increase  of  pleasure 
and  value  formation  has  probably  taken  its  rise  in  such  strivings 
but  every  desire  has  a  tendency  to  develop  a  relative  constancy 
and  thus  to  pass  into  a  valuation.  It  leaves  behind  in  the  per- 
sonality constant  dispositions,  and  with  them  traces  of  value. 
The  mechanism  of  pleasure-causation  is  thus  broken  through 
by  the  formation  of  values ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  function  of 
valuation  is  formed  at  a  single  point,  the  will  is  no  longer  exclu- 
sively determined  by  the  intensity  and  durati6n  of  expected 
pleasure.  Through  the  fact  of  valuation  the  affective-volitional 
life  gets,  so  to  speak,  a  third  dimension,  the  value  of  a  constant 
desire  is  determined  by  its  breadth  and  depth  in  the  personality. 
The  interest  of  this  definition  of  Kruger's  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  it  is  an  attempt  to  connect  the  appreciative  distinc- 

1  One  point,  however,  he  has  left  undetermined.  Is  the  worth  experience 
given  in  feeling  or  desire  ?  In  some  passages  he  speaks  as  though  the  sense  of 
worth  were  given  in  feeling  as  determined  by  or  as  determining  desire,  in  others 
as  though  it  were  given  in  the  experiences  of  desire  themselves.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  he  does  not  seem  to  have  faced  this  question  of  psychological  analysis, 
as  the  following  passage  indicates  ;  "  Where  the  capacity  or  function  of  valua- 
tion is  to  some  degree  realized,  there  the  individual  experiences  of  feeling  and 
desire  are  in  a  peculiar  manner  heightened  and  deepened,  they  have  a  personal 
character.  They  find,  so  to  speak,  in  the  personality  a  fuller  and  more  individ- 
ual resonance.  We  can  in  such  a  case  speak  of  a  more  highly  developed 
'Gemiitsleben '  "  (p.  50) 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    VALUE.  33 

tions  which  differentiate  feelings  of  value  from  other  feelings 
(and  which  lead  ultimately  to  the  characterization  of  the  self 
and  to  the  explicit  reference  of  the  object  to  the  self)  with  the 
functional,  dispositional  conditions  of  the  feeling,  and  it  has 
been  presented  here  at  some  length  because  this  concept  of  con- 
ative  constants  or  dispositions  as  the  necessary  conditions  of 
feelings  of  value,  feelings  with  depth  and  breadth,  is  precisely 
the  concept  which  we  need  to  connect  these  appreciative  mean- 
ings with  the  reality  meanings  which  the  preceding  analyses 
have  distinguished.  At  an  earlier  stage  in  the  development  of 
this  paper  it  was  seen  that  both  the  concepts  of  feeling  and 
conation  must  find  a  place  in  the  definition  of  worth  experi- 
ence. It  is  now  seen  that  feelings  of  value  are  not  completely 
characterized  by  reference  to  their  presuppositions  of  reality 
(presumption,  judgment  and  assumption)  but  that  we  must  go 
more  deeply  into  the  conative  dispositions  which  determined 
these  acts  of  presumption,  judgment  and  assumption. 

How  then  shall  we  corjceive  this  relation  of  the  two  determi- 
nants of  feelings  of  value?  If  we  describe  the  acts  of  cogni- 
tion as  the  actual  psychical  -presuppositions  and  the  conative 
tendencies  as  the  dispositional  conditions,  our  problem  would 
read :  What  is  the  relation  of  the  actual  presuppositions  to  the 
dispositional  conditions  as  determinants  of  feelings  of  value? 
The  answer  to  this  question  must  be  in  genetic  terms.  We  have 
already  seen  that  there  is  a  certain  genetic  relation  between  the 
attitudes  of  presumption,  assumption  and  judgment.  Each,  in 
its  way,  represents  a  functional  attitude  toward  a  psychically 
predetermined  object,  the  acceptance  of  a  demand,  acquiescence 
in  a  control  factor,  and  therefore  each  is  a  type  of  reality 
meaning.  But  the  demands,  the  controls,  vary  at  different 
stages  of  the  genetic  series.  An  analysis  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  dispositional  factor  functions  at  the  different  stages 
of  development  should  give  us  a  point  of  view  from  which  to 
unify  the  results  of  our  study. 

The  condition,  determinant,  of  the  primitive  presumption  of 
reality  seems  to  be  that  the  object  shall  have  recognitive  mean- 
ing for  a  conative  tendency.  At  this  point  the  cognitive  and 
conative  moments  can  be  scarcely  distinguished.  As  far  back 


34  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

as  we  may  go  in  our  analysis,  interest,  conation,  seems  to  deter- 
mine recognition,  and  recognition  is  the  condition  of  the  first 
reality  meaning  which  characterizes  feelings  of  value.  In  the 
primitive  presumption  of  reality  the  dualism  between  subjective 
and  objective  control  factors  has  not  yet  emerged.  It  is  with 
the  first  arrest  of  a  conative  tendency,  through  the  development 
of  an  independent  cognitive  interest,  and  differentiation  of  the 
recognitive  factor  from  the  conative,  that  the  innocency  of 
primitive  presumption  is  disturbed  and  a  differentiation  of  sub- 
jective and  objective  demands  or  controls  appears.  Here  the 
attitude  of  assumption  emerges,  determined  largely  by  the  sub- 
jective control  factor  of  the  conative  disposition,  often  in  oppo- 
sition to  objective  controls  already  established  —  but  not  neces- 
sarily so.  Assumption  of  the  existence  of  an  object  is  the 
acceptance  of  a  subjective  demand,  after  arrest  of  primitive 
presumption,  and  constitutes  a  transition  stage  between  pre- 
sumption and  explicit  acknowledgment  of  a  control  as  objec- 
tive. I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  Professor  Baldwin  that  a 
pure  fancy  mode,  play  of  fancy,  described  by  him  as  the  first 
semblant  mode,  constitutes  a  genetic  transition  between  pre- 
sumption and  assumption,  but  for  our  purposes  it  is  negligible. 
From  the  assumption  attitude  emerges  the  existential  judgment, 
either  positive  or  negative.  It  represents  not  merely  the  accep- 
tance or  rejection  of  an  object  but  the  explicit  acknowledgment 
or  disavowal  of  a  certain  control  factor.  It  is  important  to  ob- 
serve that  the  control  factor  may  be  either  the  original  objective 
moment  or  the  subjective  moment  determinant  in  assumption, 
that  the  existential  judgment  may  be  acknowledgment  of 
either  factor,  but  in  that  case  the  subjective  has,  by  that  very 
process,  been  transferred  to  the  objective  side  of  the  equation. 

VII. 

The  material  is  now  before  us  for  a  summary  restatemen 
of  our  original  definition  of  value,  as  funded  affective-volitional 
meaning,  in  terms  of  psychological  equivalents.  The  psycho- 
logical equivalent  of  the  worth  predicate  is  always  a  feeling, 
with  certain  meanings  determined  by  actual  cognitive  presuppo- 
sitions, types  of  cognitive  reaction  which  actualize  pre-existent 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   VALUE.  35 

conative  dispositions.  The  value  or  funded  meaning  of  the 
object  is  its  capacity  of  becoming  the  object  of  feeling  and 
desire  through  actualization  of  dispositional  tendencies  by  acts 
of  judgment,  assumption,  etc. 

The  conative  disposition  is  the  fundamental  determinant  of 
the  feeling  of  value  or  appreciative  meaning  of  the  object  but 
the  disposition  may  be  actualized,  represented  in  function  by 
different  cognitive  attitudes,  or  acts,  of  the  types  described,  and 
according  as  it  is  one  or  the  other  of  these  types  are  the  feel- 
ings qualified  in  the  manner  described.1  Underlying  the  feeling 
of  value  attached  to  the  idea  of  my  friend  is  the  conative  dispo- 
sition, the  interest  created  by  former  desires  for  his  presence 
and  satisfaction  of  those  desires,  but  that  feeling  may  now  arise 
upon  mere  momentary  assumptions  of  his  existence  without  a 
trace  of  desire  for  has  immediate  presence.  All  *  disposition- 
feelings  '  however  actualized,  are  feelings  of  value  because 
they  represent  the  funded  meaning  of  affective-volitional  proc- 
ess, although  they  have  different  reality  meanings.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  extension  of  the  term,  the  class,  feelings  of 
value,  includes  aesthetic  feelings,  feelings  of  the  imagination, 
so  called,  as  well  as  practical  and  ethical  attitudes. 

In  general,  then,  we  may  conclude  that  feeling  of  value  is 
the  feeling  aspect  of  conative  process,  as  distinguished  from 
the  feeling  tone  of  simple  presentations.  And  by  conative 
process  we  understand  the  total  process  of  development  by 

1  In  the  consideration  of  the  relation  of  the  actual  presuppositions  to  the  dis- 
positional conditions  there  are  still  certain  questions  which  have  considerable 
bearing  upon  later  discussions.  Thus  Witasek  maintains  that  while  it  is  probably 
true  that  feelings  of  worth  arise  upon  the  mere  presentation  of  an  object  related 
to  desire  dispositions,  nevertheless,  since  desire  presupposes  judgment,  and  these 
dispositions  have  been  formed  by  preceding  judgments,  the  worth  feeling  is 
ultimately  still  a  'judgment-feeling.'  Now  it  may  be  admitted  that  judgments 
enter  into  the  formation  of  these  desire  dispositions  but  as  dispositional  they 
are  merely  conative  tendency,  for  it  is  the  essence  of  judgment  to  be  explicit 
and  actual.  Again  it  is  argued  (by  Saxinger)  that  the  dispositions  correspond- 
ing to  judgment  feelings  are  different  from  the  dispositions  correlated  with 
assumption  feelings  and  he  bases  his  argument  upon  differences  in  the  laws 
governing  the  two  kinds  of  feeling.  Into  the  consideration  of  this  question  we 
cannot  enter  here  —  that  will  be  reserved  fora  later  study.  We  may  simply 
emphasize  our  own  position  that  worth  feeling  is  a  function  of  conative  dispo- 
sition, whether  conation  expresses  itself  explicitly  in  judgment  or  assumption. 


36  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

which  affective- volitional  meaning  is  acquired,  the  total  process 
including  actual  and  dispositional  moments.  How  these  dispo- 
sitions, and  with  them  the  feelings  which  they  condition,  are 
modified,  both  qualitatively  and  quantitatively,  at  different 
stages  of  this  development,  by  changes  in  presuppositions,  and 
more  especially  by  the  inclusion  of  secondary  judgments  of 
relation,  etc.,  is  the  problem  of  the  second  part  of  this  study. 


SOME   IMPORTANT   SITUATIONS   AND   THEIR 
ATTITUDES. 

BY  PROFESSOR  ALFRED  H.   LLOYD, 
University  of  Michigan. 

The  '  situation,'  already  described  by  some  as  the  absolute 
of  a  certain  conspicuous  group  of  thinkers,  is  in  general  taking 
such  an  important  part  in  current  philosophical  discussion  that  to 
an  outsider  philosophy  must  seem  very  like  to  an  employment 
bureau,  if  it  does  not  appear  at  last  to  have  become  an  intelli^ 
gence  office.  Undoubtedly,  too,  the  very  commonplaceness  or 
the  plebeian  character  of  the  term  is  one  of  the  most  serviceable 
and  hopeful  tendencies  of  current  thinking.  In  the  present 
paper,  then,  only  falling  into  line  with  so  many  others  who 
have  written  and  spoken,  I  would  discuss,  let  me  not  be  so  bold 
,or  broad  as  to  say  advertise,  four  peculiarly  interesting  situa- 
tions and  their  induced  attitudes ;  namely,  the  moral  situation, 
the  artistic,  the  practical  and  the  natural,  and  their  four  atti- 
tudes, respectively  the  ethical,  the  esthetic,  the  intellectual  or 
cognitional,  and  the  spiritual. 

The  situation,  to  begin  with,  whatever  specific  variations  it 
may  have,  in  general  has  its  rise,  which  is  to  say  also  gets  its 
widest  meaning,  in  the  fact  that  structure  necessarily  implies 
function.  Back  of  this  fact,  then,  I  do  not  propose  to  go  at  the 
present  writing.  But,  this  admitted,  another  is  immediately 
manifest,  function  necessarily  implies  conflict.  The  conflict, 
moreover,  which  is  the  general  situation,  is  between  (i)  an  exist- 
ing structure,  describable  either  as  the  body  of  the  individual 
agent's  habits  or  as  the  established  social  environment,  the  body 
of  the  social  institutions,  to  which  just  through  his  habits  the 
individual  is,  as  if  conventionally  or  traditionally  or  unreflec- 
tively,  always  a  part,  and  (2)  the  natural  environment  as  dis- 
tinct from  the  social  or  definitely  and  humanly  organized 
environment.  In  other  words  the  conflict  is  between  man  with 

37 


38  ALFRED   H.   LLOYD. 

his  life  set  to  certain  norms  and  nature ;  between  <  second 
nature '  and  first  nature ;  between  the  formal  reason  and  sensa- 
tion, or  the  legislative  will  and  impulse.  Also  it  is  between 
one  organization  and  another  organization,  the  latter  usually  if 
not  invariably  being  more  inclusive  than  the  former  and  neces- 
sarily rising  into  conflict  with  the  former  whenever,  to  use  an 
annoying  but  concise  and  pertinent  term,  it  *  functions '  in  any 
way.  And,  just  once  more,  in  order  to  avoid  the  serious  mis- 
take of  even  a  suspicion  that  the  *  natural  environment,'  here 
mentioned,  is  external  to  what  is  human,  let  me  say  of  the 
conflict  that  it  is  describable  also  as  being  between  the  formal 
or  structural  in  personal  experience  and  the  vital,  even  the  most 
distinctively  personal,  in  personal  experience.  Thus,  there  is 
a  sense,  important  to  a  true  understanding  of  what  is  here 
meant,  in  which  the  characteristically  personal  and  the  natural 
are  identical  or  synonymous.  Both  the  personal  and  the  natural 
are  always  coming  into  conflict  with  the  definite  and  formal, 
that  is,  the  structural,  in  life  or  experience.  The  structural  is  not 
distinctively  personal  or  natural ;  on  the  contrary  it  is  *  factional ' 
or  socially  corporate.1  Accordingly,  on  the  assumption  of  this 
identity  of  the  personal  and  the  natural,  the  situation,  or  its 
conflict,  must  be  due  not  less  to  personal  initiative  than  to  any 
of  the  processes  of  mere  *  natural  selection'  and  of  course  too  the 
conflict  can  never  be  with  an  external  nature.  Indeed,  if  the 
conflict  could  be  with  an  external  nature,  then  structure  simply 
could  not  imply  function. 

So  we  see  that  the  characteristic  condition  of  the  situation  in 
general  is  conflict  and  we  see  too,  although  the  foregoing  state- 
ment has  been  very  brief,  the  origin  and  the  nature  of  this  con- 
flict. With  this  preliminary  view,  therefore,  I  turn  now  to  my 
special  task.  I  would  show  how,  to  the  end  of  solving  its 
conflict,  which  always  is  as  specific  and  concrete  in  its  terms 
and  issue  as  the  inducing  structure  is  itself  definite  in  char- 
acter, the  situation  develops  through  the  following  principal 
moments. 

1  See  an  article  :  '  The  Personal  and  the  Factional  (or  formal  or  structural) 
in  the  Life  of  Society,'  in  The  Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology  and  Scientific 
Methods,  June  22,  1905. 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.     39 

I.    THE  MORAL  SITUATION. 

The  first  moment  is  naturally  that  of  a  presumed  sufficiency 
of  the  subject's  or  agent's  existing  structure  or,  as  the  terms  are 
here  used,  of  the  formally  human.  The  definite  habits  or  the 
social  institutions  are  taken  and  are  asserted,  not  only  as  quite 
equal  to  the  presented  and  confronted  emergency,  but  also  as 
possessing  intrinsic  worth  and  normative  or  structural  finality, 
and  the  natural,  in  the  sense  of  that  which  is  formally  external 
to  these  habits  or  institutions,  is  an  object  only  of  an  unreason- 
ing fear.  The  natural  is  feared,  blindly  feared,  just  because  it 
is  at  once  quite  real  and  yet  external  at  least  to  the  formal 
reason,  to  the  reason  of  the  structure-bound  human. 

So  I  view  the  first  moment  in  the  development  of  the  situ- 
ation and  it  seems  to  me  to  present  specifically  the  moral  situ- 
ation. Not,  of  course,  that  morality  is  confined  to  conditions 
such  as  these,  but  these  are  the  characteristic  conditions  of  the 
situation  as  moral.  These  distinguish  the  moral  situation  from 
other  defined  situations.  In  a  sense,  certainly  important,  all 
situations  are  moral,  as  also  they  are  all  artistic  or  practical, 
or  natural,  but  this  is  only  to  say,  in  so  many  words,  that  the 
specific  conditions  which  make  distinct  situations  are  themselves 
in  their  way  functional  as  well  as  structural,  and  so  are  general 
to  development  while  being  at  the  same  time  particular  and 
definable.  Functionally  any  moment  or  situation,  any  struc- 
ture must  comprise  all  others. 

Possibly  the  peculiarly  moral  character  of  this  first  distinct 
moment  is  best  seen  in  what  my  account  has  certainly,  although 
not  openly  stated,  namely,  in  the  conceit  of  the  freedom  of  the 
will.  The  '  free  will '  is  simply  a  name  for  the  power  of  the 
agent  to  fulfil  and  exemplify  the  structural  adequacy.  Accord- 
ingly, to  use  now  this  name,  the  conceit  and  practice  of  a  '  free 
will '  and  the  accompanying  unreasoning  fear  of  what  is  external 
to  this  freedom,  a  fear  which  may  often  take  the  form  of  bravado, 
of  what  can  be  only  an  asserted  indifference  to  danger,  are  the 
determining  factors  of  the  moral  situation. 

But  this,  somebody  will  at  once  object,  makes  the  moral  and 
the  legal  identical,  and  such  an  identity  every  reflective  man 
must  promptly  and  emphatically  resent.  At  once  I  grant  that 


40  ALFRED   H.    LLOYD. 

the  moral  and  the  legal  are  here  made  identical.  I  grant  also 
that  reflection  must  separate  them.  But  it  is  to  be  said,  also 
promptly  and  emphatically,  that  no  situation  as  such  is  itself 
reflective.  Situations  are  not  attitudes,  although  they  are 
always  springing  from  attitudes  and  are  also  constantly  in- 
duced by  them.  Situations,  as  said  before,  are  structural  in  so 
far  as  definable  at  all,  and  the  moral  situation  is  in  consequence 
determined  by  the  formal  law.  But  situations,  being  also  func- 
tional, induce  attitudes,  and  in  the  particular  case  at  hand  the 
moral  situation  induces  the  ethical  attitude.  The  very  differ- 
ence between  these  -terms,  even  as  they  are  widely  used,  tells 
the  story.  The  ethical  is  the  moral,  just  by  dint  of  the  given 
legal  structure  becoming  active  or  functioning,  made  reflective 
in  an  attitude.  Again,  any  induced  attitude  involves  a  gener- 
alization and  idealization  of  those  formal  conditions  which  make 
the  inducing  situation,  and,  although,  as  we  shall  see,  the  attitude 
itself  must  make  a  situation,  it  should  never  be  confused  with 
the  particular  situation  whose  functioning  has  given  it  rise. 
Thus  -the  functional  nature  of  a  structure,  which  here  and  now 
means  specifically  those  positive  conditions  that  formally  deter- 
mine the  moral  situation,  makes  certain  a  movement  out  of 
formal  bondage  to  those  conditions  into  a  state  of  only  mediate 
dependence  on  them.  They  become  only  means  to  some  rela- 
tively undetermined  end.  They  are  made  mediately  rather 
than  immediately,  ideally  rather  than  materially,  spiritually 
rather  than  literally  significant.  And  thereupon  the  moral  sit- 
uation gives  way  to  the  ethical  attitude,  and  by  the  same  token 
morality  is  saved  at  least  from  a  positive,  uncompromising 
legalism. 

But  not  from  legalism  altogether.  The  ethical  attitude  is 
still  characteristically  legalistic ;  in  terms,  however,  not  of  the 
positive  law,  but  of  '  duty,'  *  conscience,'  or  the  «  moral  ideal,' 
which  is  only  an  abstraction  of  its  spirit  or  general  functional 
value,  from  the  positive,  formal  law.  The  ethical  attitude,  in- 
duced, as  was  said,  by  the  functional  character  of  the  moral  sit- 
uation, asserts  the  existing  structural  formalism,  the  manifest 
legalism,  to  be  worth  cultivating,  and  a  cultivated  legalism  must 
always  value  law  as  a  general  principle  above  law  as  a  visible 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.     41 

program,  the  program  becoming  henceforth  only  instrumental 
to  the  unseen  principle.  Lawfulness,  in  short,  rather  than  the 
specific  law  or  structure,  is  the  concern  of  the  ethical  attitude. 
How  often  ethics  is  called  normative,  and  surely  its  normative 
character  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  its  abstract  legalism. 

Further,  the  ethical  attitude,  just  because,  at  least  in  spirit, 
still  legalistic,  is  also  in  another  respect  like  its  inducing  situa- 
tion. Although  not  dogmatically  indifferent  to  nature  nor  quite 
blindly  fearful  of  her,  it  is  nevertheless  humanly  conceited  or 
anthropocentric.  The  principle  of  law  is  always  more  hospitable 
than  a  legal  program ;  a  structure  in  use  is  more  widely  sym- 
pathetic than  a  structure  just  in  statu  quo ;  but  the  ethical  atti- 
tude still  sees  no  positive  worth  in  nature  except  as  she  is 
humanly,  or  humanely,  disposed.  So  to  speak  the  spirit  of  the 
fear  of  her  still  remains,  as  if  to  keep  its  congenial  company 
with  the  surviving,  albeit  only  spiritual  or  functional  legalism. 

Fear  become  a  spirit  loses  much  of  its  dread.  Law  become  a 
principle  loses  much  of  its  vigor.  In  a  word,  the  normative, 
ethical  attitude  must  mean  an  important  modification  in  the 
actual  situation.  Ethical,  as  distinct  from  social  or  political 
legalism,  by  its  very  idealism,  which  is  to  say  by  its  devotion  to 
the  spirit  of  law  and  its  feeling  only  of  the  spirit  of  fear,  makes 
man  actively  hospitable  towards  the  organization  of  nature,  with 
which  morally  he  was  in  such  dire  conflict,  and  in  doing  this  it 
induces,  or  initiates,  the  artistic  situation.  The  ethical  attitude 
-put  in  practice  is  the  peculiar  life  of  art. 

II.    THE  ARTISTIC  SITUATION. 

So  I  pass  to  the  second  moment  in  the  development  of  the 
general  situation,  and  this  I  would  call,  not  the  moment  of  as- 
sumed and  asserted  human  sufficiency,  in  which  nature  is  an 
object  of  blind  fear,  but  the  moment  of  human  condescension, 
assumed  and  asserted,  towards  the  natural,  towards  nature's 
law,  structure  or  organization.  This,  too,  as  already  said,  is 
the  artistic  situation.  Art,  let  it  be  kept  in  mind,  is  character- 
istically a  situation,  not  an  attitude.  It  is  just  a  living  up  to  a 
humanly  sympathetic  nature  and  in  just  so  far  it  actually  is  the 
practice  of  what  the  ethical  attitude  may  be  said  to  preach. 


42  ALFRED   H.    LLOYD. 

Once  more,  though  I  may  repeat  myself  too  much,  it  is,  not  the 
moral,  which  is  politically  legalistic,  but  the  ethical,  which  is 
functionally,  spiritually  or  personally  legalistic,  rendered  incar- 
nate, and  as  having  such  character  it  shows  man  actually  in  a 
truce  with  nature.  In  art  the  human  is  seen  actively  to  have 
assumed  a  relation  of  equilibrium,  necessarily  more  or  less  un- 
stable, or  of  something  very  like  an  armed  neutrality,  between 
itself,  its  structure,  the  norms  of  its  life,  and  nature's  structure. 
Actively  man  moulds  nature  to  his  conceits.  He  makes  her 
glorify  his  image.  In  her  life,  in  her  powers  and  processes,  he 
realizes,  or  presumes  to  realize,  only  a  deeper  and  fuller  expres- 
sion of  himself.  Art  is  thus,  like  morality,  anthropocentric, 
but  it  is  man  big  with  nature.  It  is  the  little  human  swelling 
with  the  big  natural,  and  as  so  conditioned  it  is  what  we  call 
poetic  or  creative,  all  its  activities  being  informed  with  analogies 
of  the  natural  to  the  human  and  embodying,  although  never 
without  a  violence  that  only  the  poetic  imagination  can  have 
made  possible,  nature's  metaphors  of  the  human.  The  neces- 
sary violence,  too,  imparts  to  art  as  strong  a  sense  of  comedy  as 
of  tragedy,  as  is  shown  in  the  readiness  with  which  we  laugh  or 
weep  whenever  we  see  the  little  human  swollen  with  the  big 
natural.  Simply  in  art,  always  as  comic  as  tragic,  man  ap- 
pears, not  as  teaching  or  seeking  ideally,  but  as  actually  prac- 
ticing a  legalism  that  has  lost  the  rigor  of  the  formal  law  and  a 
fear  of  nature  that  is  tempered  by  a  very  real  sense  of  humor. 

But  here  comes  an  objector.  I  am  accused  of  narrowing 
beauty,  which  is  the  recognized  goal  of  art,  to  conditions  that 
require  accord,  if  not  literal  and  prosaic,  at  least  metaphorical, 
with  the  positive  structure  of  the  human  agent,  just  as  before  I 
seemed  to  identify  morality  with  legality.  In  a  word,  I  seem  to 
have  left  no  room  for  objective  or  natural  beauty.  To  the 
present  objector,  however,  I  have  to  make  just  the  answer 
made  before.  A  situation  is  not  an  attitude,  although  it  always 
induces  one.  The  artistic  situation,  as  its  structure  becomes 
function,  induces  the  esthetic  attitude,  by  which  the  very  con- 
ditions making  the  life  of  art  are  idealized.  Thus,  for  the 
esthetic  attitude,  man  is  not,  as  in  art,  the  determining  center. 
He  is  the  observer  indeed,  but  only  the  passive  observer.  His 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES-      43 

structure,  losing  its  character  of  a  sole  measure  for  all  other 
structures  or  for  the  structure  of  nature  as  a  whole,  becomes  but 
one  among  the  others,  any  one  of  which  may  be  the  center  from 
which  a  judgment  is  passed.  True,  for  the  esthetic  attitude,  all 
structures,  or  all  measures,  by  which  nature,  so  to  speak,  is  thus 
made  to  measure  or  judge  herself,  are  as  z/~  sensitively  human, 
but  this  only  shows  how  humanly  passive  the  esthetic  attitude 
is,  how  for  it  nature,  not  man,  is  the  artist.  The  characteristic 
object,  therefore,  of  the  esthetic  attitude  truly  is  beauty,  sen- 
sibly manifested  and  sensitively  measured,  but,  instead  of  the 
beauty  of  man  to  himself,  as  this  is  reflected  in  nature's  meta- 
phors just  of  his  life,  it  is  objectively  natural  beauty.  The 
metaphors  are  no  longer  exclusively  human,  but  nature  objec- 
tively is  just  a  sphere  of  metaphors,  metaphor  poised  sensitively 
against  metaphor  and  calling  deeply  and  passionately  each  to 
each  and  through  their  poise  and  their  passionate  call  she  is 
beautiful.  She  is  beautiful  to  man  ;  not,  as  in  art,y#r  him  and 
his  structural  conceits.  For  the  esthetic  attitude  even  the  works 
of  human  art  must  meet  the  demands  of  natural  beauty  in  that 
they  must  accord,  or  sensitively  sympathize,  with  what  sur- 
rounds them.  The  setting,  or  frame,  of  a  work  of  art  is  thus 
an  important  factor  in  its  beauty. 

But  where  now  are  the  law  and  the  fear?  The  law,  and 
with  it,  man's  so-called  freedom  have  been  lost  or  merged,  nay, 
they  have  been  fulfilled  in  the  law  and  the  freedom  of  nature 
which  an  objective  beauty  reveals  ;  and  the  fear  is  become  awe. 
Nature  is  no  longer  fearful,  but  awful  or  sublime.  Awe  is  not 
man  fearing  for  his  own  safety ;  it  is  man  sensitive  to  the  fears 
of  the  whole  world  and  in  that  sensitiveness  feeling  the  lawless 
law  of  nature.  Yet  such  terms  as  these  and  the  seeming  gran- 
diloquence to  which  they  lead  may  very  easily  obscure  the 
meaning  here  in  my  mind.  The  meaning  would  take  a  view 
of  life  in  its  lowest  as  well  as  in  its  highest  terms,  in  its  simplest 
as  well  as  in  its  grandest  expressions.  A  psychologist  could 
not  be  more  minute  or  prosaic  in  his  viewpoint  than  my  mean- 
ing is  intended  to  be.  Simply  any  structure,  whatever  its  size 
or  its  complexity,  its  significance  or  its  dignity,  being  always 
functional,  must  come  to  this  sensitiveness,  which  we  know, 


44  ALFRED  H.   LLOYD. 

however  grandiloquently,  as  awe  towards  the  lawless  law  of 
nature.  What  is  sensation  but  structure  meeting  the  violence 
of  nature.  What  is  structure  that  nature  is  mindful  of  it. 

But  the  esthetic  attitude,  induced,  as  has  been  shown  by  the 
artistic  situation  and  ideally  sensitive,  not  merely  to  the  unity  of 
man  but  also,  as  if  actually  feeling  for  them,  to  the  unity  of  all 
things  with  nature,  leads  man  out  of  the  artistic  into  the  prac- 
tical situation. 

III.    THE  PRACTICAL  SITUATION. 

The  practical  situation,  as  the  third  moment  to  be  consid- 
ered, is  the  moment  of  the  human  structure,  the  whole  body  of 
habits  and  institutions  become  —  but  the  right  phrase  is  hard  to 
find —  merely  a  natural  utility.  Only,  I  would  call  it  also,  bor- 
rowing a  word  from  the  political  vocabulary  of  the  day,  a  *  float- 
ing' utility.  So  does  man  again  put  into  practice  the  preaching 
of  one  of  his  attitudes.  He  comes  actively  to  treat  his  formal 
life  just  as  his  esthetic  consciousness  has  already  revealed  it  to 
him,  namely,  as  only  mediate  to  an  indeterminate  nature,  and, 
as  he  does  this,  the  last  traces  of  his  esthetic  sensitiveness  dis- 
appear and  the  metaphors,  human  or  objective,  in  which  this 
had  found  expression,  become  only  dead  metaphors.  Man  no 
longer  is  even  an  interested  observer  of  nature ;  he  is  just  a 
mechanical  incident  within  her  unpurposed  movement. 

In  social  evolution,  where  the  practical  situation  in  all  its 
phases  is  written  large,  the  time  is  one  of  traditions  and  human 
conceits  and  devotions  of  all  sorts  become  purely  conventional, 
which  is  to  say  useful  but  not  yet  put  in  use,  or  treasured,  as 
money  is  treasured,  but  not  yet  actually  invested,  and  accom- 
panying these  conditions  there  is  also,  as  if  the  last  defense  of 
the  passing  regime,  a  blind  fatalism.  So  long  as  this  fatalism 
remains  blind  the  old  structure  of  life  can  at  least  seem  to  sur- 
vive, although  the  immediate  vitality  once  belonging  to  it  has 
already  gone. 

Of  course,  further,  when  habits  and  institutions  come,  as 
said  above,  to  be  a  mere  formal  utility,  a  floating  utility,  the 
personal  in  human  life  has  virtually  already  separated  itself 
from  the  structural  and  this  separation  as  a  positive  condition  or 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.     45 

status  belongs  to  the  situation  now  under  review.  But,  although 
virtually  separate,  the  personal  has  not  yet  so  found  itself. 
Thus,  in  social  evolution,  this  condition  shows  itself  in  a  blind 
individualism,  always  so  assertive  of  independence  of  the  exist- 
ing structure,  yet  also  so  helpless  without  it :  but,  psycholog- 
ically or  biologically,  how  best  to  describe  this  virtual  yet  undis- 
covered or  unappreciated  separation  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know. 
Certainly  it  shows  the  functional  self,  the  vital  nature  in  an 
agent,  become  at  least  blindly  superior  to  the  structural  or 
morphological  self,  and  it  shows,  too,  whether  psychologically 
or  sociologically,  that  although  nature  seems  to  be  on  the  point 
of  taking  to  herself  the  formal  life  of  man,  allowing  it  to 
crumble  or  rather  to  assimilate  to  herself,  man  nevertheless 
really  survives,  rising  in  his  vitality  only  to  cooperate  with  her 
in  the  use  of  his  establishments.  Technically  how  the  psy- 
chologist would  wish  this  moment  or  situation  in  development, 
perhaps  in  the  development  of  volition,  described,  I  am  quite 
unable  to  guess,  and  possibly  he  has  no  suitable  term  or  phrase 
for  it,  but  the  situation,  I  am  sure,  is  a  real  one.  Here,  how- 
ever, a  possible  misunderstanding  must  be  avoided.  Thus,  in 
the  first  place,  as  indeed  already  indicated,  I  am  now  describ- 
ing only  a  situation  and  the  situation  comprises  rather  a  division 
of  the  self  in  fact  or  condition,  the  structural  self  having  become 
insensitive  or  mechanical,  than  a  division  of  the  self  in  conscious- 
ness. To  just  such  a  purely  factual  division  the  blind  fatalism, 
or  the  blind  individualism,  mentioned  before,  was  clearly  an 
index.  Moreover,  in  the  second  place,  a  division  of  the  self, 
whether  in  bare  fact  or  in  consciousness,  is  rather  logical  than 
psychological  or  rather  social  than  personal,  and  this  one  needs 
constantly  to  remember.  Logically  there  may  be  two  selves, 
the  vital  and  the  structural,  and  sociologically  also,  in  so  far  as 
society  is  viewed  abstractly  in  terms  only  of  so  much  formal 
organization,  there  may  be  two  selves,  the  individual  and  the 
citizen,  but  mere  counting  is  never  real  seeing.  Function  and 
structure  are  truly  two,  but  they  are  not  truly  two  selves.1 

1  A  question  certainly  worth  asking,  at  least  in  a  note,  is  here  unavoidable 
to  him  that  reads  between  the  lines.  Is  logic,  at  least  formal  logic,  even  such  a 
logic  as  Kant's  '  transcendental'  logic,  true  rather  to  experience  as  expressed. 


46  ALFRED   H.    LLOYD. 

So,  to  gather  together  what  has  been  said  so  far,  this  third 
moment,  the  moment  of  the  practical  situation,  is  the  moment  of 
the  human  in  a  sense  profaned  and  turned  merely  useful ;  it  is 
the  moment  of  life  wholly  without  poetry,  the  once  stirring 
metaphors  being  all  dead,  and  subject  to  the  qualification  just 
made  —  it  is  the  moment  of  a  factual  division  of  the  self,  the 
structural  self  still  keeping  up  appearances  through  a  blind 
fatalism  or  a  blind  individualism  and  the  vital,  functional  self 
being  as  real  and  also  as  unseen  or  unseeing  as  the  blindness. 

And  now,  for  the  third  time,  an  objector  confronts  me  with 
a  question.  In  reducing  the  formal  structure  of  human  life  to 
a  mere  natural  floating  utility  am  I  not  confusing  the  practical 
with  the  economic?  Well,  let  me  concede  that  so  far  I  have 
defined  the  practical  situation  in  terms  which  directly  suggest 
the  sort  of  mechanicalism  or  hollow  conservatism  and  naturalism 
in  life  that  economics  demands.  Economics  characteristically 
demands  no  interference  with  the  *  credit  of  the  country,'  which 
is  to  say  the  status  in  quo,  the  existing  structure  or  organization, 
but  its  loyalty  to  the  organization  is  formal,  not  substantial.  It 
requires  mankind  to  be  both  morally  and  esthetically  without 
emotion.  Its  typical  man  must  be  just  a  money  making 
machine,  and  what  is  money  but  the  incarnation  of  a  floating 
natural  utility.  Thus,  with  its  peculiar  abstraction,  economics 
knows  only  utility,  and  in  the  practical  situation  utility  certainly 
seems  supreme.  It  is  so  supreme  that  any  purpose  for  it  is  quite 
forgotten  !  Accordingly,  as  already  conceded,  the  objector  is 
right;  he  is  right,  so  far  as  he  goes;  and  he  has,  in  fact,  as 
before,  only  assisted  my  exposition.  But,  to  repeat  the  refrain, 
a  situation  is  never  an  attitude,  although  it  always  induces  one. 
For  the  case  in  hand,  the  practical  situation  induces  the  reflective 
attitude  and  this  saves  the  situation  from  its  bondage  to  a  mere 
formal  utility. 

socially,  which  is  to  say,  of  course,  structurally  or  formally,  than  to  experience 
as  personal,  vital  or  functional  ?  This  question,  as  put,  almost  begs  its  own 
answer,  an  affirmative  one.  Only  real  logic,  in  the  sense  of  a  logic  that, 
although  recognizing  form  in  experience,  treats  experience  as  also  imbued  with 
a  vital  superiority  to  its  form  or  structure,  as  if  with  a  '  legal  supremacy,'  can 
possibly  satisfy  the  demands  of  what  is  characteristically  personal.  Moreover, 
in  this  fact  it  would  seem  as  if  the  pragmatist  must  find  the  method  in  the  re- 
puted madness  of  his  philosophy. 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.     47 

The  reflective,  which,  as  here  understood,  is  also  the  cogni- 
tional  attitude,  only  appreciates  or  idealizes  the  actual  conditions 
of  the  practical  situation.  Thus,  it  takes  as  something  real  the 
end  which  the  formal  utilitarianism,  the  idle  conventionalism  of 
the  practical  situation  has  certainly  implied  but  as  certainly 
concealed  in  its  blind  individual  or  in  its  blind  fate  and  just  in 
recognizing  or  facing  this  end  it  shows  the  vital,  functional  self, 
on  the  one  hand,  become  conscious  —  or  seeing  —  and  assertive 
independently  of  mere  structure  and  the  structural  self,  on  the 
other  hand,  made  positively  mediative,  that  is,  mediative  of 
something  quite  real  although  formally  external  to  it  or  '  objec- 
tive/ The  conscious  reality  of  the  vital  self  and  the  objective 
character  of  the  mediation  of  the  structural  self  are  thus  here 
considered  to  be  just  that  which  makes  the  attitude  now  in  ques- 
tion reflective  or  cognitional.  For  so-called  reflection  structure 
is  become  only  means,  instrument  or  method  and  it  is  method  to 
what  is  regarded  distinctly  real  but  is,  in  the  words  used  before, 
*  formally  external.'  This  phrase,  let  me  say  further,  signifies 
(i)  formally  or  structurally  indeterminate,1  a  character  clearly 
belonging  to  whatever  is  said  to  be  objective,  and  yet  also  (2) 
real.  The  reality  is  not  necessarily  apart  from  the  structure  ;  it 
is  so  only  in  form,  that  is,  only  relatively  ;  it  may  be,  nay,  I 
think  it  must  be  actually  in  the  structure,  in  its  very  character 
as  only  means  or  method,  just  as  any  true  end  must  be  immanent 
in,  or  vital  to,  the  means  to  it.  But  as  an  attitude^  reflection 
naturally  holds  the  conscious,  vital  self  and  the  real  end  to  their 
formal  unlikeness  or  aloofness  and  so  treats  the  now  insensitive 
structure  as  the  medium  of  what  very  commonly  is  known  as  an 
abstract  idea,  a  universal,  a  principle,  or  —  not  to  prolong  the 
list  further — a  conception,  that  belongs,  not  to  the  world  of 
sensation  or  body,  but  to  the  world  of  thought  or  mind. 

So,  to  recall  a  mode  of  statement  already  employed,  a  con- 
ception, which  is  the  typical  '  object '  of  reflection,  while  in  just 
the  sense  indicated  negative  only  relatively  to  form  or  subjective 
structure,  nevertheless,  in  so  far  as  negative  or  outside,  can  be 
merely  a  logical  rather  than  a  psychological  datum ;  although, 

JThat  is,  of  course,  so  indeterminate  relatively  to  the  positive  structure  of 
the  subject  or  agent. 


48  ALFRED   H.   LLOTD. 

as  a  matter  of  course,  a  psychologist  may  still  be  directly  inter- 
ested in  the  peculiar  conditions  that  determine  the  data  of  the  re- 
flective attitude  as  thus  amenable  to  logical  treatment.  In  other 
words,  psychologically,  there  can  be  no  independent  conception, 
and  the  supposed  independence  of  the  conception  can  spring 
only  from  the  standpoint,  essentially  logical,  that  would  view 
the  reflective  attitude  wholly  in  terms  of  the  dichotomy  of  what 
is  formally  structural  and  what  is  not.1  Moreover,  the  reflec- 
tive attitude  itself  is  the  psychological  moment  for  logic,  al- 
though the  very  dichotomy,  on  which  it  rests,  makes  the 
moment  only  a  passing  one,  as  we  shall  see. 

But,  the  issues  between  logic  and  psychology  aside,  it  is 
now  apparent,  I  think,  in  what  important  way  the  dying  of  the 
metaphors  in  human  art  or  in  nature,  or  the  accompanying  birth 
of  an  insensitive  human  structure,  or  —  once  more  —  the  devel- 
opment of  that  purely  formal  or  floating  natural  utility  was  des- 
tined to  serve  the  progress  of  the  general  situation  and  the 
solution  of  the  conflict  which  we  found  characteristic  of  it. 
The  insensitive  structure,  as  if  a  medium,  or  more  narrowly  a 
language,  without  emotion  or  metaphor,  made  possible  what 
somewhat  technically  is  known  as  strictly  scientific  research. 
It  made  possible  a  free,  thoroughly  candid  or  open-minded,  struc- 
turally or  humanly  unprejudiced  study  of  nature  instead  of  the 
more  passive  and  more  restrained  observation  that  belonged  to 
the  esthetic  attitude.  Thus  the  esthetic  attitude  showed  man 
not  yet  free  from  himself,  although  his  fear  had  changed  to 
awe ;  it  showed  him  perhaps  free  in  spirit,  but  not  yet  free  in 
letter,  not  yet  really  free ;  whereas  the  reflective  or  cognitional 
attitude  shows  him  at  least  very  much  nearer  to  a  complete 
freedom.  Has  not  his  structure  become  a  real  instrument? 
Has  he  not  distinctly  found  his  vital  self?  Has  he  not  ac- 
knowledged an  *  objective'  nature?  The  reflective  attitude, 
then,  shows  him  free,  free  from  —  or  in?  —  himself,  in  just  so 
far  as  his  no  longer  sensitive  structure  has  become  a  mere  tool 
or  method  in  real  use ;  that  is,  in  the  use  of  his  new-found  self 
as  this  confronts  nature. 

1  Witness  the  principles  of  identity  and  contradiction.     Witness,  also,  the 
character  of  the  independent  concept  as  an  abstract  universal. 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.     49 

And  yet,  although  there  is  this  advance,  it  is  necessary  now 
to  issue  a  caution.  The  reflective  attitude  must  not  be  under- 
stood to  involve  any  mere  betrayal  of  the  quondam  metaphors ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  only  a  fulfilment  of  them.  It  cannot 
properly  or  honestly  thank  the  absolute,  I  mean  the  general 
situation,  that  it  is  not  as  the  esthetic  attitude  was ;  but,  instead, 
it  must  realize  that  as  the  tool  or  structure  is  put  to  real  use,  as 
the  utility  is  really  invested,  the  experience  which  has  gone 
before,  sensitiveness,  metaphors  and  all,  is  exactly  what  deter- 
mines the  momentum  and  efficiency  of  the  activity.  True,  the 
6  objective'  nature  in  the  case  is  deepened  beyond  any  mere 
conformity  with  man,  beyond  even  the  licentious  conformity  of 
the  esthetic  consciousness,  but  it  is  still  nature,  and  the  same 
nature  too,  and  the  metaphors,  although  all  dead,  are  dead  only 
as  sensitive  metaphors,  and  so  to  speak  as  insensitive  meta- 
phors are  still  active  in  the  tool  or  structure.  Indeed,  however 
grandiloquently,  I  wonder  if  the  method  or  the  medium  or  the 
structurally  mediated  conception  of  the  reflective  attitude  may 
not  be  said  to  be  the  very  metaphors  that  died  with  the  rise  of 
the  practical  situation  spiritually  resurrected.  Conception 
would  then  be  definable  as  a  sort  of  greatly  deepened  and 
spiritualized  esthetic  experience ;  an  esthetic  experience  still 
dependent  on  metaphor,  but  so  deepened  or  possibly  so  purely 
objective  as  to  be,  not  human,  but  just  natural.  Is  not  the  nat- 
ural truth,  which  reflection  seeks,  I  cannot  say,  which  reflection 
observes,  and  which  is  always  the  peculiar  content  of  the  con- 
ception, even  more  awful  or  more  deeply  sublime  than  natural 
beauty?  Indeed  man,  structural  man,  almost  must  be  declared 
to  be,  not  mimb,  but  dead,  in  the  presence  of  its  sublimity. 

I  have  just  said  *  almost,'  and  before,  in  speaking  of  the  free- 
dom that  comes  with  reflection  I  used  and  emphasized  the  phrase 
*  in  so  far  as,'  declaring  in  so  many  words  that  the  freedom  was 
not  necessarily  complete  but  was  proportional  to  the  measure  in 
which  the  structure  of  human  life  had  come  into  real  use.  Now 
complete  use,  with  that  necessary  death  of  the  human  before 
the  sublimity  of  nature,  is  not  possible  in  reflection.  It  is  true 
that  reflection  is  active  and  that  reflection  uses  the  medium  or 
structure  supplied  to  it,  but  its  use  is  related  to  the  ideal  very 


50  ALFRED  H.   LLOYD. 

much  as  the  psychologist  tells  us  attention  is  related  to  volition. 
It  is  true,  too,  that  reflection  in  its  own  nature  somehow  demands 
the  complete  use  referred  to,  but  reflection,  characteristically, 
must  keep  means  and  end,  language  and  idea,  structure  and 
meaning,  at  least  somewhat  apart.  Accordingly  the  reflective 
attitude  can  fulfil  itself,  can  realize  its  own  demands,  only  by 
yielding  to  a  new  situation,  namely,  to  the  wholly  natural 
situation,  and  to  this  I  now  turn. 

IV.    THE  NATURAL  SITUATION. 

Of  this  fourth  and  at  least  for  the  present  study  last  special 
situation  I  shall  write  somewhat  more  briefly,  concluding  my 
paper  rather  abruptly,  as  many  stories  are  brought  to  an  end, 
and,  also  as  with  the  stories,  at  a  point  where  possibly  the  situa- 
tion is  getting  most  deeply  interesting  and  might  seem  to  demand 
the  longest  chapter. 

As  the  foregoing  has  already  indicated,  the  physical  situa- 
tion belongs  to  the  moment,  not  of  any  surviving  conceit  of 
human  sufficiency,  not  of  any  slightest  remnant  of  human  con- 
descension towards  nature,  and  not  of  any  merely  formal 
naturalism  or  blind  fatalism,  but  distinctly  of  the  death  or  loss 
of  the  human  structure  in  the  natural.  The  structural  man  dies 
just  in  order  that  the  vital  and  natural  man  may  live  or  rather 
the  death  of  the  one  is  in  and  with  the  rising  life  of  the  other. 
Again,  the  natural  situation  is  the  moment,  not  of  any  merely 
miserly  utilitarianism,  but  of  the  human  structure  become,  instead 
of  an  aimless,  formal,  floating,  hoarded  utility,  a  real,  positively 
natural  utility.  So,  through  reflection,  has  the  practical  been 
changed  to  the  natural  situation. 

Manifestly  the  reflective  attitude  calls  for  this  change.  By 
its  very  '  self-consciousness,'  that  makes  the  human  structure 
only  mediative,  by  its  conviction  of  the  inner  or  vital  self  as 
well  as  of  the  outer  nature  being  at  once  real  and  formally  ex- 
ternal to  the  structure,  and  by  its  own  active  use  of  the  struc- 
tural medium,  it  calls  for  just  that  fatal  invasion  or  overwhelm- 
ing assertion  of  nature  which  makes  the  natural  situation.  In 
history  as  in  psychology  the  reflective  attitude  is  always  an  in- 
vitation to  nature  to  realize  herself.  It  summons,  or  already  it 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.      51 

has  admitted  and  recognized,  what  seems  barbarian  into  what 
has  stood  for  civilization  or  what  seems  impulsive,  sensuous  and 
irrational  into  the  well-controlled  and  rational,  and  being  such 
an  invitation  or  such  a  cordial  recognition  it  is  mainly  occupied 
with  a  constant  —  what  shall  I  say?  —  a  constant  offering  of  its 
humanly  insensitive,  now  only  mediative  structure  which  pos- 
sibly a  Teufelsdrockh  would  call  man's  cast  off  clothing,  to 
nature,  the  world  of  its  '  objective '  curiosity.  So  Alexander, 
pupil  of  Aristotle,  sought  to  clothe  the  peoples  of  the  eastern 
Mediterranean,  and  so  the  reflective  life  psychologically,  as 
well  as  historically,  would  clothe  the  not  less  invaded  than  in- 
vading world  of  sense.  The  general  process  is  often  known  as 
assimilation,  more  or  less  benevolent,  often  as  experimentation, 
but  under  either  name  it  shows  nature  trying  on  the  human  and 
it  is  conducted  under  the  guidance  of  the  dead,  in  the  sense  of 
the  dehumanized  metaphors  of  the  esthetic  consciousness.  Per- 
haps these  metaphors  become  wholly  insensitive,  should  rather 
be  called  analogies,  even  objective  analogies,  as  is  suggested 
by  the  fact  that  the  experimentation,  or  the  assimilation,  strives 
to  use  them  the  nature-end  forward,  not  as  with  the  esthetic 
attitude,  the  man-end  forward.  But  certainly  they  guide  the 
process  and  testify  accordingly  to  the  honesty  of  the  invitation 
to  nature  or  to  the  cordiality  of  the  recognition  of  her,  and  in 
the  natural  situation  one  sees,  again,  that  nature  has  only  taken 
reflection  at  its  word. 

Nature  takes  reflection  at  its  word  with  a  new  structure,  a 
new  organization.  The  content  of  this  new  organization  and 
its  form  are  determined,  moreover,  by  the  bounds  of  the  inducing 
activity,  or  of  what  might  also  be  called  the  functional  capacity 
or  versatility  of  the  passing  structure,  and  by  the  analogies  that 
have  constantly  guided  it.  Simply,  if  there  be  definite  structure 
at  the  start,  and  just  this,  as  will  be  remembered,  was  the  start- 
ing point  for  the  present  study,  then  also  that  stucture  is,  -propor- 
tionally to  its  structural  definiteness,  limited  to  a  certain  sphere 
of  activity,  or  functional  character,  and  the  bounds  of  this  sphere 
measure  the  extent  of  the  new  organization,  while  the  inevitable 
analogies  developed  with  its  exploitation  determine  the  new 
form.  Structure,  the  definite,  can  of  course  be  only  *  relative,' 


52  ALFRED  H.    LLOYD. 

but  being  relative  it  must  be  complex  and  being  complex  it  must 
be  functional  as  well  as  structural,  and  being  functional  it  must 
induce,  through  such  moments  as  have  been  recounted  here,  new 
structure ;  new,  because  the  original  structure  was  relative  and 
functional,  and  structure,  because  the  definite  can  induce  only 
the  definite.  Must  not  what  is  new  be  always  true  to  its  origin? 

But,  without  further  description  or  explanation  of  the  natural 
situation,  an  objector  must  now  be  met;  perhaps  the  same,  who 
appeared  before,  although  he  gave  no  name.  Thus,  this  time  I 
am  charged  with  having  confused  the  natural  with  the  physical. 
The  spiritual  attitude,  however,  for  so  I  have  to  call  it,  although 
also  it  may  be  called  volitional  or  even  religious,  is  what  I  would 
now  depend  on  to  save  the  natural  from  being  just  physical. 
This  fourth  attitude  arises  in  the  following  way.  It  is  but  an 
appreciation  of  the  fact,  suggested  early  in  my  narrative,  that 
the  natural  must  be  also  the  characteristically  personal.  Natural 
and  personal  were  said  to  be  both  external  to,  or  in  conflict  with, 
the  formal  or  structural.  Moreover  in  the  reflective  process  of 
experimentation  must  not  that  trying-on  be  as  truly  on  the  part 
of  the  inner  vital  self,  as  if  the  waiting  will,  as  on  the  part  of 
the  outer  and  *  objective  '  —  or  physical  ?  —  nature  ?  How  often 
it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  natural  was  objective  and  could 
be  objective  only  in  the  way  of  being,  not  essentially,  but 
merely  formally  or  structurally  external  to  the  human.  Nature, 
then,  truly  is  physical  only  in  so  far  as  she  is  *  objective.'  Ex- 
ternal to  the  functional  or  vital  in  what  is  human  she  cannot 
be,  and  this  being  true,  in  just  so  far,  she  is  spiritual ;  in  just 
so  far  her  reconstruction  is  man's  volition ;  in  just  so  far  man 
says,  religiously,  of  her  activity  :  *  What  she  does,  I  will.'  She 
may  never  appear  literally  in  man's  image,  but  her  life  is  one 
with  his  life  and  the  spiritual  or  volitional  or  characteristically 
religious  attitude  puts  just  this  valuation  upon  her. 

So  this  paper  having  accomplished  its  specific  task  must 
come  to  an  end.  Of  course,  as  from  any  narrative,  a  score  or 
more  of  <  morals '  might  be  drawn.  The  distinction,  moral  or 
ethical,  between  good  and  evil,  for  example,  evidently  should 
be  judged  relatively  to  the  specific  situation  or  to  the  induced 
attitude,  within  which*it  manifestly  belongs,  and  the  distinction, 


IMPORTANT  SITUATIONS  AND    THEIR  ATTITUDES.      53 

practical  or  reflective,  between  truth  and  error,  relatively  to 
what  is  a  qualitatively  different  situation  or  attitude.  Again  the 
need,  whenever  discussion  or  explanation  would  become  at  all 
searching  or  vital,  of  always  carefully  distinguishing  between 
the  personal  and  the  social,  the  functional  and  the  structural, 
perhaps  too  the  pragmatic  and  the  dogmatic,  and  at  the  same 
time  also  of  always  making  these  distinct  things  work  together 
is  also  evident.  But  such  <  morals,'  however  urgent  or  numer- 
ous, may  be  left  safely  to  the  imagination.1 

1The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  December  16,  1906. — ED. 


DISCUSSION. 

GENETIC   MODES  AND   THE   MEANING   OF   THE 
PSYCHIC.1 

When  we  can  explain  chemical  affinity  we  may  attempt  to  explain 
instinct;  when  we  have  explained  instinct  we  may  attempt  intelli- 
gence. The  explanation  offered  by  dynamic  realism  2  of  the  '  mean- 
ing' of  the  simplest  of  natural  phenomena  will  presumptively  be  the 
explanation  of  the  principle  underlying  all  reactions. 

We  may  ask  why  a  comet  pursues  a  given  course  rather  than  an- 
other. The  answer  is  two-fold.  First,  because  of  the  nature  of  the 
forces  constituting  the  comet;  second,  by  reason  of  the  combinations 
of  energy  existing  in  the  universe  through  which  it  passes.  In  other 
words,  the  trajectory  of  the  comet  is  determined  by  correspondences 
existing  between  the  comet  and  its  environment.  We  might  say  that 
the  trajectory  of  the  comet  is  its  path  of  least  resistance,  but  this  is 
only  part  of  the  truth.  The  nature  of  the  energic  structure  of  the 
comet  is  also  a  factor — the  most  important  one.  It  has,  we  say,  a 
certain  mass  of  gravity.  It  has  that  which  makes  it  a  positive  energic 
element  in  a  universe  of  energy.  It  might  be  considered  fanciful  to 
suppose  that  as  the  extrinsic  pull  which  draws  the  mother  to  her  child 
has  also  its  intrinsic  side  called  affection,  so  there  is  an  intrinsic  affec- 
tion corresponding  to  the  extrinsic  pull  of  the  planet.  Nevertheless, 
all  analogy  would  indicate  that,  if  not  an  affection  or  instinct,  there  is 
nevertheless  an  intrinsic  element  in  all  these  cases. 

So  with  the  chemical  element,  all  that  we  know  about  it  consists 
in  reactions,  t.  e.,  interferences  of  some  type  of  energy  with  the 
energic  complex  of  the  environment.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
these  reactions  is  what  we  call  chemical  affinity.  If  we  indicate  the 
locus  formula  of  sodium  by  Na  and  that  of  chlorine  by  Cl,  then  the 
expression NaCl  (common  salt)  means  that  these  two  loci  have  certain 

1  A  fragment  found  among  the  author's  papers  and  submitted  by  C.  J. 
Herrick.  —  ED. 

2  Some  of  the  implications  of  this  term  as  used  by  the  author  will  be  found 
in  his  late    writings,  particularly.  «  Fundamental  Concepts  and  Methodology 
of  Dynamic  Realism, 'Jour.  Phil..  Psych.,  Sci.  Methods,  Vol.  i,  No.  n,  1904; 
and  *  The  Law  of  Congruousness  and  its  I/ogical  Application  to  Dynamic  Real- 
ism,' Ibid.,  Vol.  i,  No.  22.  1904.  —  C  J.  H. 

54 


DISCUSSION.  55 

compatibilities  or  correspondences  which  result,  the  energic  complex 
being  what  it  happens  now  to  be  in  this  particular  environment,  in  a 
closer  articulation  or  assimilation  in  these  particular  loci  than  between 
the  activities  expressed  by  Na  and  H,O,  for  example.  Under  other 
conditions  of  environment,  say  at  a  high  temperature  or  in  the  presence 
of  larger  amounts  of  water,  the  chemical  affinity,  as  this  harmony  is 
called,  would  not  be  apparent.  Now  the  cube  of  salt  deposited  from 
saturated  solution  is  an  expression  to  eye  and  touch  of  a  moie  or  less 
permanent  association  of  the  types  of  energy  labelled  Na  and  Cl 
respectively.  It  is  not  true  that  Na  and  Cl  are  present  in  salt ;  they 
are  potentially  present  in  the  sense  that  under  certain  conditions  these 
two  loci  emerge  from  the  complex  with  the  same  value  they  possessed 
when  they  entered  it.  NaCl  is  a  new  energy  complex  capable  of 
reacting  in  its  own  appropriate  way  (dependent  upon  its  own  genetic 
mode)  and  is  different  from  either  Na  or  Cl.  It  is  not  an  algebraic 
sum  of  the  energies  Na  and  Cl,  but  a  trajectory  resulting  from  their 
blending.  Salt  occupies  a  definite  position  in  nature  and  is  capable 
of  impressing  its  energy  upon  other  energic  units  in  a  way  peculiarly 
its  own.  Thus,  no  other  substance  tastes  as  salt  does.  Now  if  there 
be  an  intrinsic  side  of  the  activity,  NaCl,  that  too  may  be  totally  un- 
like that  of  any  other  chemical  substance.  We  say  salt  has  an  affinity 
for  water.  Does  it  thirst?  When  the  human  organism  is  dehydrated 
by  evaporation  due  to  exercise  or  the  injestion  of  water  imbibing  sub- 
stances, the  state  of  receptivity  to  water  or  disturbed  equilibrium 
existing  in  the  tissues  of  the  body  is  converted  into  a  special  nervous 
affection  which  may  even  become  an  element  in  consciousness  and 
build  up  the  most  elaborate  system  of  associations.  But  at  some 
early  point  in  this  process  we  may  discover  simply  living  tissue  need- 
ing water  and  back  of  this  certain  chemical  substances  with  an  affinity 
for  water —  in  other  words,  exactly  the  same  thing  that  NaCl  has. 

This  disposition  to  change  its  form  by  uniting  with  another  ele- 
ment is  illustrated  by  the  formation  of  all  solutions  and  it  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  a  substance  in  solution  is  the  same  as  a  substance  in 
solid  form.  It  has  claims  to  be  called  the  same  substance  only  because 
it  can  be  evaporated  out.  But  in  the  course  of  this  process  there  is 
always  a  complete  change  of  properties.  Solid  salt  is  not  salty  to  the 
taste,  salt  in  solution  is  not  cubical.  In  short,  we  must  school  our- 
selves to  see  in  the  so-called  elements  or  substances  energic  complexes 
whose  form  (nature)  is  at  once  determined  by  their  primary  locus 
formula  and  the  impact  or  effect  of  the  environment.  So  true  is  this 
that  any  substance  can  be  fully  understood  only  by  knowing  its  pri- 


56  GENETIC  MODES  AND   THE  PSYCHIC. 

mary  form  and  also  the  totality  of  its  reaction  with  the  environment. 
This  is  perhaps  quite  unlike  our  nai've  apprehension  of  objects  which 
seem  to  have  complete  objective  independence.  The  simplest  experi- 
ment illustrates  the  error,  however.  We  suddenly  remove  the  support 
beneath  the  vase  and  instead  of  a  thing-of -beauty  in  repose,  we  have  a 
thing-in-motion  and  then  a  thing-in-a-hundred-pieces.  The  vase  is 
just  as  really  dependent,  so  far  as  being  what  it  seems  is  concerned, 
on  connections  with  the  environment  as  the  flower  is  which  withers 
when  removed  from  the  parent  stem. 

Now  the  existence  of  any  typical  form  of  energy,  say  a  crystal,  in 
any  energic  complex  is  a  fact  of  interaction.  If  a  broken  crystal  is 
plunged  into  a  suitable  medium,  it  will  be  restored  (this  process  goes 
on  in  rocks  in  case  of  metamorphism) .  The  presence  of  the  crystal 
acts  as  a  determinant  for  the  aggregation  of  other  masses.  The 
extraneous  energy  associates  itself  with  the  preexisting  types  in  accord- 
ance with  the  types  of  energy  already  called  into  being.  The  most 
noted  instance  of  this  power  is  in  the  case  of  animate  matter.  The 
most  astounding  fact  in  nature  is  perhaps  the  power  of  a  worm  or  a 
man  to  ingest  the  same  materials  and  create  in  one  case  worm  sub- 
stance and  in  the  other  human  tissue.  In  the  case  of  the  crystal  there 
may  be  millions  of  microliths  contained  in  one  crystal  and  all  are  alike 
or  similar.  In  the  case  of  the  man  there  are  millions  of  cells  and  we 
are  able  to  distinguish  groups  of  coordinated  types. 

The  harmony  between  a  particular  energic  type  and  its  environ- 
ment may  be  relatively  stable  or  it  may  be  dependent  upon  a  high 
degree  of  constancy  or  invariability  in  that  environment.  Again,  the 
energic  unit  may  be  progressively  alternating  or  cyclical.  Such  a 
condition  is  found  in  the  individual  life  which,  like  the  trajectory  of  a 
planet,  passes  through  a  variety  of  progressively  adjusted  relations  to 
the  environment  or  comes  into  relation  progressively  to  different 
environments.  That  type  of  energic  unit  which  passes  consecutively 
into  relations  with  different  energic  complexes  will  alter  its  locus 
formula.  When  water  passes  into  a  gaseous  state  it  is  no  longer 
water. 

Here  is  a  moving  point.  I,  as  a  geometer,  make  *  cross -sections ' 
of  that  point  in  relation  to  its  environment  and  construct  a  locus  (say 
y  —  2px).  But  in  doing  all  this  I  have  not  produced  the  concept  of 
a  parabola  such  as  I  get  when  I  see  one.  I  go  on  varying  the  locus 
formula  and  produce  successively  a  circle,  an  ellipse,  etc.  You  may 
say  that  these  things  can  be  predicted  in  advance.  The  series  of  locus 
formula?  might  be,  but  no  power  would  enable  us  to  experience  a 


DISCUSSION.  57 

circle  till  I  saw  it.  Each  new  form  has  a  meaning  (differentia)  in 
experience  peculiar  to  it. 

Now,  as  a  biologist,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  various  sense  organs 
arose  by  successive  variations  from  some  primitive  type.  As  dynamic 
monist  (or  functional  psychologist,  if  you  prefer),  I  consider  the 
psychical  and  physical  to  be  two  ways  of  expressing  a  real  activity. 
But,  as  '  psychic'  (Baldwin's  limitation1),  my  subjective  experience  is 
very  different  when  visual  and  tactual  sensations  respectively  are 
evoked.  As  has  so  often  been  said,  there  is  no  reason  why  certain 
vibrations  awaken  sensations  of  green  and  others  of  sweet. 

When  eyes  came  in  vogue,  a  new  thing,  a  new  '  genetic  mode ' 
arose.  You  could  never  have  predicted  it.  You  might  have  pre- 
dicted the  size  and  form  of  the  rods  and  cones  and  the  index  of  re- 
fraction of  the  lens  but  the  subjective  interpretation  in  intimate  ex- 
perience is  not  a  priori  predictable.  It  is  conceivable  that  a  child 
might,  by  unconscious  movements,  happen  upon  a  sensation  entirely 
new  to  it.  The  series  of  «  psychic '  events  is  not  subject  to  scientific 
analysis.  The  subsequent  psychological  construction  is  wholly  syn- 
thetic and  consists  in  relational  redistribution  and  combination.  These 
may  be  construed  among  themselves  and  with  other  facts  which  we  do 
not  call  psychological. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  modes  of  immediate  consciousness  are  the 
only  ones  that  could  be  genetic  in  this  sense,  that  all  others  could  be 
predicted  from  the  earlier.  These  are  doubtless  the  only  ones  we  can 
know  anything  about.  The  power  of  prediction  rests  upon  the  pre- 
sumption of  the  cyclical  nature  of  action — 'uniformities'  we  call 
these  cycles,  whether  heart-beats  or  eclipses.  If  we  project  these 
cycles  on  a  '  cross-section '  of  experience,  our  predictions  are  valid  in 
that  plane.  We  may  have  as  complete  a  system  as  possible  plotted  by 
our  science,  like  a  plot  of  hundreds  of  observations  upon  some  mov- 
able star  and  may,  on  this  basis,  lay  out  the  orbit  fully  upon  the  plane 
of  experience,  but  this  is  not  the  same  thing  as  the  star  moving  in 
space.  The  4  meaning '  of  this  we  could  perhaps  only  discover  by 
being  the  star.  All  this  may  be  another  name  for  the  limitation  of 
knowledge,  but  it  is  a  necessary  limitation  of  knowledge  and  has  to  be 
reckoned  with.  But  if  a  thing  be  truly  genetic,  every  new  stage  is 
really  new  and  not  a  repetition,  nor  can  we  know  from  the  past  what 
new  value  may  attach  to  the  progressive  modifications.  We  must  let 
go  of  the  cause-and-effect  traditions  —  never  backward  turn  the  wheels 
of  time. 

1  Baldwin's  Did.  of  Philos.,  art.  '  Psychic  or  Mental.' 


5 8  GENETIC  MODES  AND    THE  PSYCHIC. 

A  corollary  is  that  another  stage  of  being  is  l  genetically '  possible 
in  which  the  energy  of  the  present  shall  be  elaborated  in  such  forms 
as  may  present  to  experience  something  totally  inconceivable  to  c  the 
heart  of  man.' 

The  further  question  arises,  however,  (and  this  is  not  so  easy  to 
answer)  if  genetic  (psychic)1  modes  arise  that  have  no  predicaments 
in  the  past  and  no  necessary  determinants  in  the  present,  how  do  they 
cohere  in  a  universe  —  how  belong  in  an  organic  whole  ?  The  answer 
is,  "They  do  not." 

The  l  psychic,'  as  psychic,  is  neither  parallel  to  anything  nor  set 
in  any  kind  of  serial,  or  other,  nexus  with  anything  else.  Anything 
possessing  such  relations  would  necessarily  be  predictable,  /.  e.,  to  a 
being  having  complete  knowledge.  But  no  being  can  know  what  I 
feel.  All  fat  generalizations  I  make  regarding  the  data  furnished  in 
immediate  consciousness  (everything  psychological,  in  other  words)  I 
may  relate  or  communicate,  the  peculiar  tone  or  flavor  of  conscious- 
ness (its  meaning)  can  neither  be  imparted  nor  anticipated.  When  we 
develop  an  organ  for  the  ultra-violet  rays  we  shall  experience  a  new 
1  genetic  mode,'  but  if  the  anticipations  of  science  go  far  enough,  we 
may  not  thereby  get  a  single  new  psychological  element;  we  shall 
simply  find  a  value  for  this  particular  x  and  all  is  in. 

This  sphere  of  epiphenomena  can  only  be  interpreted  by  reference 
to  the  metaphysical  predicate  of  individuality.  The  three  necessary 
forms  or  categories  of  our  thinking,  time,  space  and  mode,  each  con- 
tributes to  the  definiteness  of  experience  by  conditioning  it.  Mode  is 
that  condition  which  is  indispensable  to  individuality.  Time  is  the 
necessary  form  of  inner  experience,  space  of  outer  experience,  mode 
is  prerequisite  to  all  experience  —  it  is  the  form  of  all  experience. 

We  do  not  expect  to  encounter  space  or  time  '  spatzierend '  by 
themselves.  We  do  not  try  to  line  them  up  with  the  contents  of  special 
experiences  and  to  make  them  cohere  in  a  system  with  these.  No 
more  can  we  take  the  predicament  of  individuality  in  experience  and 
set  it  in  relations.  I  can  say  a  great  deal  about  green  things.  I  can 
predict  that  they  will  arrive  in  April  in  special  forms,  but  that  which 
makes  greenness  different  from  sweetness  or  b  flat  belongs  to  the 
formal  category  of  mode.  We  have  a  sense  of  spatial  extension,  of 
temporal  limitation,  and,  in  like  manner  of  special  peculiarity.  This 
is  the  tag  which  gives  rise  to  the  sense  of  other-ness  or  difference. 

1  It  does  not  appear  that  Professor  Baldwin  limits  genetic  modes  to  the 
psychic,  but  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  safe  to  use  that  term  only  within  these 
limits,  if  non-predicableness  is  insisted  on  in  their  definition. 


DISCUSSION.  59 

So  far  as  we  are  concerned,  then,  the  genetic  modes  find  their 
illustrations  in  the  psychic  —  in  our  own  peculiar  content  of  experience, 
but  it  may  be  that  every  form  of  self-centered  experience  —  all  forms 
of  vector  activity,  at  least  —  have  their  inner  meaning  and  that  this, 
again,  is  reflected  upon  the  great  centre  of  reference  of  the  whole  sys- 
tem as  a  total  meaning.  This  form  of  self-interpretation  of  energy 
that  we  call  consciousness  may  be  one  of  an  innumerable  multitude  of 
similar  incommunicable  experiences  which  taken  together  form  the 

real  '  meaning'  of  the  world. 

C.  L.  HERR1CK.1 
FORMERLY  OF  DENISON  UNIVERSITY. 

1  Deceased. 


CORRIGENDA. 

In  Dr.  Hughes'  article,  *  Categories  of  the  Self,'  THE 
REVIEW,  Vol.  VIII.,  6,  p.  405,  line  i,  read  'instinctive'  for 
1  instructive  ' ;  p.  41 1 ,  line  13,  read  « the  self  is  not  homogenous.' 

In  Miss  Vichelkowska's  article,  in  the  November  issue  also, 
p.  385,  line  7  from  the  bottom,  omit  words  'and  diagonal'; 
line  5  from  bottom,  add  words  '  See  key  to  Fig.  40.' 


60 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  2.  March,  1907. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


THE  PROVINCE  OF  FUNCTIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY.1 

BY  PROFESSOR  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL, 

University  of  Chicago. 

Functional  psychology  is  at  the  present  moment  little  more 
than  a  point  of  view,  a  program,  an  ambition.  It  gains  its  vi- 
tality primarily  perhaps  as  a  protest  against  the  exclusive  excel- 
lence of  another  starting  point  for  the  study  of  the  mind,  and  it 
enjoys  for  the  time  being  at  least  the  peculiar  vigor  which  com- 
monly attaches  to  Protestantism  of  any  sort  in  its  early  stages 
before  it  has  become  respectable  and  orthodox.  The  time 
seems  ripe  to  attempt  a  somewhat  more  precise  characterization 
of  the  field  of  functional  psychology  than  has  as  yet  been  of- 
fered. What  we  seek  is  not  the  arid  and  merely  verbal  defini- 
tion which  to  many  of  us  is  so  justly  anathema,  but  rather  an 
informing  appreciation  of  the  motives  and  ideals  which  animate 
the  psychologist  who  pursues  this  path.  His  status  in  the  eye 
of  the  psychological  public  is  unnecessarily  precarious.  The 
conceptions  of  his  purposes  prevalent  in  non-functionalist  circles 
range  from  positive  and  dogmatic  misapprehension,  through 
frank  mystification  and  suspicion  up  to  moderate  compre- 
hension. Nor  is  this  fact  an  expression  of  anything  peculiarly 
abstruse  and  recondite  in  his  intentions.  It  is  due  in  part  to  his 
own  ill-defined  plans,  in  part  to  his  failure  to  explain  lucidly 
exactly  what  he  is  about.  Moreover,  he  is  fairly  numerous  and 
it  is  not  certain  that  in  all  important  particulars  he  and  his  con- 
freres are  at  one  in  their  beliefs.  The  considerations  which  are 

1  Delivered  in  substantially  the  present  form  as  the  President's  Annual  Ad- 
dress before  the  American  Psychological  Association  at  its  fifteenth  annual 
meeting  held  at  Columbia  University,  New  York  City,  December  27,  28  and 

29,  1906. 

61 


62  JAMES  ROWLAND  AN  CELL 

herewith  offered  suffer  inevitably  from  this  personal  limitation. 
No  psychological  council  of  Trent  has  as  yet  pronounced  upon 
the  true  faith.     But  in  spite  of  probable  failure  it  seems  worth 
while  to  hazard  an  attempt  at  delineating  the  scope  of  function- 
alist principles.     I  formally  renounce  any  intention  to  strike  out  f 
new  plans ;  I  am  engaged  in  what  is  meant  as  a  dispassionate  i 
summary  of  actual  conditions. 

Whatever  else  it  may  be,  functional  psychology  is  nothing 
wholly  new.  In  certain  of  its  phases  it  is  plainly  discernible  in 
the  psychology  of  Aristotle  and  in  its  more  modern  garb  it  has 
been  increasingly  in  evidence  since  Spencer  wrote  his  Psy- 
chology and  Darwin  his  Origin  of  Species.  Indeed,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  its  crucial  problems  are  inevitably  incidental  to 
any  serious  attempt  at  understanding  mental  life.  All  that  is 
peculiar  to  its  present  circumstances  is  a  higher  degree  of  self- 
consciousness  than  it  possessed  before,  a  more  articulate  and 
persistent  purpose  to  organize  its  vague  intentions"  into  tangible 
methods  and  principles. 

A  survey  of  contemporary  psychological  writing  indicates, 
as  was  intimated  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  that  the  task  of 
functional  psychology  is  interpreted  in  several  different  ways. 
Moreover,  it  seems  to  be  possible  to  advocate  one  or  more  of 
these  conceptions  while  cherishing  abhorrence  for  the  others.  I 
distinguish  three  principal  forms  of  the  functional  problem  with 
sundry  subordinate  variants.  It  will  contribute  to  the  clarifica- 
tion of  the  general  situation  to  dwell  upon  these  for  a  moment, 
after  which  I  propose  to  maintain  that  they  are  substantially  but 
modifications  of  a  single  problem. 

I. 

There  is  to  be  mentioned  first  the  notion  which  derives  most 
immediately  from  contrast  with  the  ideals  and  purposes  of  struc- 
tural psychology  so-called.1  This  involves  the  identification  of 
functional  psychology  with  the  effort  to  discern  and  portray  the 

^he  most  lucid  exposition  of  the  structuralist  position  still  remains,  so  far 
as  I  know,  Titchener's  paper,  'The  Postulates  of  a  Structural  Psychology,' 
Philosophical  Review,  1898  [VII.],  p.  499.  Cf.  also  the  critical-controversial 
papers  of  Caldwell,  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1899,  p.  187,  and  Titchener, 
Philosophical  Review,  1899  [VIII.],  p.  290. 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  63 

typical  operations  of  consciousness  under  actual  life  conditions, 
as  over  against  the  attempt  to  analyze  and  describe  its  elemen- 
tary and  complex  contents.  The  structural  psychology  of  sen- 
sation, e.  g.,  undertakes  to  determine  the  number  and  character 
of  the  various  unanalyzable  sensory  materials,  such  as  the  vari- 
eties of  color,  tone,  taste,  etc.  The  functional  psychology  of 
sensation  would  on  the  other  hand  find  its  appropriate  sphere 
of  interest  in  the  determination  of  the  character  of  the  various 
sense  activities  as  differing  in  their  modus  operandt  from  one 
another  and  from  other  mental  processes  such  as  judging,  con- 
ceiving, willing  and  the  like. 

In  this  its  older  and  more  pervasive  form  functional  psychol- 
ogy has  until  very  recent  times  had  no  independent  existence. 
No  more  has  structural  psychology  for  that  matter.  It  is  only 
lately  that  any  motive  for  the  differentiation  of  the  two  has  ex- 
isted and  structural  psychology  —  granting  its  claims  and  preten- 
sions of  which  more  anon  —  is  the  first,  be  it  said,  to  isolate 
itself.  But  in  so  far  as  functional  psychology  is  synonymous 
with  descriptions  and  theories  of  mental  action  as  distinct  from 
the  materials  of  mental  constitution,  so  far  it  is  everywhere 
conspicuous  in  psychological  literature  from  the  earliest  times 
down. 

Its  fundamental  intellectual  prepossessions  are  often  revealed 
by  the  classifications  of  mental  process  adopted  from  time  to 
time.  Witness  the  Aristotelian  bipartite  division  of  intellect  and 
will  and  the  modern  tripartite  division  of  mental  activities. 
What  are  cognition,  feeling  and  will  but  three  basally  distinct 
modes  of  mentaTaction  ?  To  be  sure  this  classification  has  often 
carried  with  it  the  assertion,  or  at  least  the  implication,  that 
these  fundamental  attributes  of  mental  life  were  based  upon  the 
presence  in  the  mind  of  corresponding  and  ultimately  distinct 
mental  elements.  But  so  far  as  concerns  our  momentary  inter- 
est this  fact  is  irrelevant.  The  impressive  consideration  is  that 
the  notion  of  definite  and  distinct  forms  of  mental  action  is 
clearly  in  evidence  and  even  the  much-abused  faculty  psychol- 
ogy is  on  this  point  perfectly  sane  and  perfectly  lucid.  The 
mention  of  this  classic  target  for  psychological  vituperation 
recalls  the  fact  that  when  the  critics  of  functionalism  wish  to  be 


, 


64  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

particularly  unpleasant,  they  refer  to  it  as  a  bastard  offspring 
of  the  faculty  psychology  masquerading  in  biological  plumage. 

It  must  be  obvious  to  any  one  familiar  with  psychological 
usage  in  the  present  year  of  grace  that  in  the  intent  of  the  dis- 
tinction herewith  described  certain  of  our  familiar  psychological 
categories  are  primarily  structural  —  such  for  instance  as  affec- 
tion and  image  —  whereas  others  immediately  suggest  more 
explicit  functional  relationships  —  for  example,  attention  and 
reasoning.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  seems  clear  that  so  long  as 
we  adhere  to  these  meanings  of  the  terms  structural  and  func- 
tional every  mental  event  can  be  treated  from  either  point  of 
view,  from  the  standpoint  of  describing  its  detectable  contents 
and  from  the  standpoint  of  characteristic  mental  activity  differ- 
entiable  from  other  forms  of  mental  process.  In  the  practice 
of  our  familiar  psychological  writers  both  undertakings  are 
somewhat  indiscriminately  combined. 

The  more  extreme  and  ingenuous  conceptions  of  structural 
psychology  seem  to  have  grown  out  of  an  unchastened  indul- 
gence in  what  we  may  call  the  *  states  of  consciousness '  doc- 
trine. I  take  it  that  this  is  in  reality  the  contemporary  version 
of  Locke's  *  idea.'  If  you  adopt  as  your  material  for  psycho- 
ogical  analysis  the  isolated  *  moment  of  consciousness,'  it  is  very 
easy  to  become  so  absorbed  in  determining  its  constitution  as  to 
be  rendered  somewhat  oblivious  to  its  artificial  character.  The 
most  essential  quarrel  which  the  functionalist  has  with  structur- 
alism in  its  thoroughgoing  and  consistent  form  arises  from  this 
fact  and  touches  the  feasibility  and  worth  of  the  effort  to  get  at 
mental  process  as  it  is  under  the  conditions  of  actual  experience 
rather* than  as  it  appears  to  a  merely  postmortem  analysis.  It 
is  of  course  true  that  for  introspective  purposes  we  must  in  a 
sense  always  work  with  vicarious  representatives  of  the  particu- 
lar mental  processes  which  we  set  out  to  observe.  But  it  makes 
a  great  difference  even  on  such  terms  whether  one  is  directing 
attention  primarily  to  the  discovery  of  the  way  in  which  such  a 
mental  process  operates,  and  what  the  conditions  are  under 
which  it  appears,  or  whether  one  is  engaged  simply  in  teasing 
apart  the  fibers  of  its  tissues.  The  latter  occupation  is  useful 
and  for  certain  purposes  essential,  but  it  often  stops  short  of 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL   PSYCHOLOGY  65 

that  which  is  as  a  life  phenomenon  the  most  essential,  t.  £.,  the 
modus  operandt  of  the  phenomenon. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  many  modern  investigations  of  an  ex- 
perimental kind  largely  dispense  with  the  usual  direct  form  of 
introspection  and  concern  themselves  in  a  distinctly  functionalist 
tic  spirit  with  a  determination  of  what  work  is  accomplished  and 
what  the  conditions  are  under  which  it  is  achieved.  Many  ex- 
periments in  memory  and  association,  for  instance,  are  avow- 
edly of  this  character. 

The  functionalist  is  committed  vom  Grunde  auf  to  the  avoid- 
ance of  that  special  form  of  the  psychologist's  fallacy  which 
consists  in  attributing  to  mental  states  without  due  warrant,  as 
part  of  their  overt  constitution  in  the  moment  of  experience, 
characteristics  which  subsequent  reflective  analysis  leads  us  to 
suppose  they  must  have  possessed.  When  this  precaution  is  no- 
scrupulously  observed  we  obtain  a  sort  of  -pate  defoie  gras  psy- 
chology in  which  the  mental  conditions  portrayed  contain  more 
than  they  ever  naturally  would  or  could  hold. 

It  should  be  added  that  when  the  distinction  is  made  be- 
tween psychic  structure  and  psychic  function,  the  anomalous 
position  of  structure  as  a  category  of  mind  is  often  quite  forgot- 
ten. In  mental  life  the  sole  appropriateness  of  the  term  struc- 
ture hinges  on  the  fact  that  any  moment  of  consciousness  can 
be  regarded  as  a  complex  capable  of  analysis,  and  the  terms 
into  which  our  analyses  resolve  such  complexes  are  the  ana- 
logues—  and  obviously  very  meager  and  defective  ones  at  that 
—  of  the  structures  of  anatomy  and  morphology. 

The  fact  that  mental  contents  are  evanescent  and  fleeting 
marks  them  off  in  an  important  way  from  the  relatively  per- 
manent elements  of  anatomy.  No  matter  how  much  we  may 
talk  of  the  preservation  of  psychical  dispositions,  nor  how  many 
metaphors  we  may  summon  to  characterize  the  storage  of  ideas' 
in  some  hypothetical  deposit  chamber  of  memory,  the  obstinate 
fact  remains  that  when  we  are  not  experiencing  a  sensation  or 
an  idea  it  is,  strictly  speaking,  non-existent.  Moreover,  when 
we  manage  by  one  or  another  device  to  secure  that  which  we 
designate  the  same  sensation  or  the  same  idea,  we  not  only 
have  no  guarantee  that  our  second  edition  is  really  a  replica  of 


66  JAMES  ROWLAND  AN G ELL 

the  first,  we  have  a  good  bit  of  presumptive  evidence  that  from 
the  content  point  of  view  the  original  never  is  and  never  can  be 
literally  duplicated. 

Functions,  on  the  other  hand,  persist  as  well  in  mental  as  in 
physical  life.  We  may  never  have  twice  exactly  the  same  idea 
viewed  from  the  side  of  sensuous  structure  and  composition. 
But  there  seems  nothing  whatever  to  prevent  our  having  as 
often  as  we  will  contents  of  consciousness  which  mean  the  same 
thing.  They  function  in  one  and  the  same  practical  way,  how- 
ever discrepant  their  momentary  texture.  The  situation  is  rudely 
analogous  to  the  biological  case  where  very  different  structures 
may  under  different  conditions  be  called  on  to  perform  identical 
functions ;  and  the  matter  naturally  harks  back  for  its  earliest 
analogy  to  the  instance  of  protoplasm  where  functions  seem 
very  tentatively  and  imperfectly  differentiated.  Not  only  then 
are  general  functions  like  memory  persistent,  but  special  func- 
tions such  as  the  memory  of  particular  events  are  persistent  and 
largely  independent  of  the  specific  conscious  contents  called 
upon  from  time  to  time  to  subserve  the  functions. 

When  the  structural  psychologists  define  their  field  as  that 
of  mental  process,  they  really  preempt  under  a  fictitious  name 
the  field  of  function,  so  that  I  should  be  disposed  to  allege  fear- 
lessly and  with  a  clear  conscience  that  a  large  part  of  the 
doctrine  of  psychologists  of  nominally  structural  proclivities  is 
in  point  of  fact  precisely  what  I  mean  by  one  essential  part  of 
functional  psychology,  /'.  £.,  an  account  of  psychical  operations. 
Certain  of  the  official  exponents  of  structuralism  explicitly  lay 
claim  to  this  as  their  field  and  do  so  with  a  flourish  of  scientific 
rectitude.  There  is  therefore  after  all  a  small  but  nutritious 
core  of  agreement  in  the  structure-function  apple  of  discord. 
For  this  reason,  as  well  as  because  I  consider  extremely  useful 
the  analysis  of  mental  life  into  its  elementary  forms,  I  regard 
much  of  the  actual  work  of  my  structuralist  friends  with  highest 
respect  and  confidence.  I  feel,  however,  that  when  they  use 
the  term  structural  as  opposed  to  the  term  functional  to  desig- 
nate their  scientific  creed  they  often  come  perilously  near  to 
using  the  enemy's  colors. 

Substantially  identical  with  this  first  conception  of  functional 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  67 

psychology,  but  phrasing  itself  somewhat  differently,  is  the  view 
which  regards  the  functional  problem  as  concerned  with  dis-  I 
covering  how  and  why  conscious  processes^ are  what  they  are,  J 
instead  of  dwelling  as  the  structuralist  is  supposed  to  do  upon 
the  problem   of  determining  the  irreducible  elements  of  con- 
sciousness and  their  characteristic  modes  of  combination.      I 
have  elsewhere  defended  the  view  that  however  it  may  be  in 
other  sciences  dealing  with  life  phenomena,  in  psychology  at 
least  the  answer  to  the  question  'what'  implicates  the  answer 
to  the  questions  *  how  '  and  '  why.'  1 

Stated  briefly  the  ground  on  which  this  position  rests  is  as 
follows  :  In  so  far  as  you  attempt  to  analyze  any  particular  state 
of  consciousness  you  find  that  the  mental  elements  presented  to 
your  notice  are  dependent  upon  the  particular  exigencies  and 
conditions  which  call  them  forth.  Not  only  does  the  affective 
coloring  of  such  a  psychical  moment  depend  upon  one's  tem- 
porary condition,  mood  and  aims,  but  the  very  sensations  them-  1 
selves  are  determined  in  their  qualitative  texture  by  the  totality  I 
of  circumstances  subjective  and  objective  within  which  they 
arise.  You  cannot  get  a  fixed  and  definite  color  sensation  for 
example,  without  keeping  perfectly  constant  the  external  and 
internal  conditions  in  which  it  appears.  The  particular  sense 
quality  is  in  short  functionally  determined  by  the  necessities  of 
the  existing  situation  which  it  emerges  to  meet.  If  you  inquire 
then  deeply  enough  what  particular  sensation  you  have  in  a 
given  case,  you  always  find  it  necessary  to  take  account  of  the 
manner  in  which,  and  the  reasons  why,  it  was  experienced  at 
all.  You  may  of  course,  if  you  will,  abstract  from  these  con- 
siderations, but  in  so  far  as  you  do  so,  your  analysis  and  descrip- 
tion is  manifestly  partial  and  incomplete.  Moreover,  even  when 
you  do  so  abstract  and  attempt  to  describe  certain  isolable  sense 
qualities,  your  descriptions  are  of  necessity  couched  in  terms 
not  of  the  experienced  quality  itself,  but  in  terms  of  the  condi- 
tions which  produced  it,  in  terms  of  some  other  quality  with 
which  it  is  compared,  or  in  terms  of  some  more  overt  act  to 
which  the  sense  stimulation  led.  That  is  to  say,  the  very 

1 '  The  Relations  of  Structural  and  Functional  Psychology  to  Philosophy,' 
Philosophical  Review,  1903  [XII.],  p.  203  ff. 


68  JAMES  ROWLAND  AN G ELL 

description  itself  is  functionalistic  and  must  be  so.  The  truth 
of  this  assertion  can  be  illustrated  and  tested  by  appeal  to  any 
situation  in  which  one  is  trying  to  reduce  sensory  complexes, 
e.  g.,  colors  or  sounds,  to  their  rudimentary  components. 

II. 

A  broader  outlook  and  one  more  frequently  characteristic  of 
contemporary  writers  meets  us  in  the  next  conception  of  the  task 
of  functional  psychology.  This  conception  is  in  part  a  reflex 
of  the  prevailing  interest  in  the  larger  formulae  of  biology  and 
particularly  the  evolutionary  hypotheses  within  whose  majestic 
sweep  is  nowadays  included  the  history  of  the  whole  stellar 
universe ;  in  part  it  echoes  the  same  philosophical  call  to  new 
life  which  has  been  heard  as  pragmatism,  as  humanism,  even 
as  functionalism  itself.  I  should  not  wish  to  commit  either 
party  by  asserting  that  functional  psychology  and  pragmatism 
are  ultimately  one.  Indeed,  as  a  psychologist  I  should  hesitate 
to  bring  down  on  myself  the  avalanche  of  metaphysical  invec- 
tive which  has  been  loosened  by  pragmatic  writers.  To  be 
sure  pragmatism  has  slain  its  thousands,  but  I  should  cherish 
scepticism  as  to  whether  functional  psychology  would  the  more 
speedily  slay  its  tens  of  thousands  by  announcing  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance  with  pragmatism.  In  any  case  I  only  hold 
that  the  two  movements  spring  from  similar  logical  motivation 
and  rely  for  their  vitality  and  propagation  upon  forces  closely 
germane  to  one  another. 

The  functional  psychologist  then  in  his  modern  attire  is  in- 
terested not  alone  in  the  operations  of  mental  process  considered 
merely  of  and  by  and  for  itself,  but  also  and  more  vigorously  in 
mental  activity  as  part  of  a  larger  stream  of  biological  forces 
which  are  daily  and  hourly  at  work  before  our  eyes  and  which 
are  constitutive  of  the  most  important  and  most  absorbing  part 
of  our  world.  The  psychologist  of  this  stripe  is  wont  to  take 
his  cue  from  the  basal  conception  of  the  evolutionary  movement, 
i.  e.,  that  for  the  most  part  organic  structures  and  functions 
possess  their  present  characteristics  by  virtue  of  the  efficiency 
with  which  they  fit  into  the  extant  conditions  of  life  broadly 
designated  the  environment.  With  this  conception  in  mind  he 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  69 

proceeds  to  attempt  some  understanding  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  psychical  contributes  to  the  furtherance  of  the  sum  total  of 
organic  activities,  not  alone  the  psychical  in  its  entirety,  but 
especially  the  psychical  in  its  particularities  —  mind  as  judging, 
mind  as  feeling,  etc. 

This  is  the  point  of  view  which  instantly  brings  the  psychol- 
ogist cheek  by  jowl  with  the  general  biologist.  It  is  the  pre- 
supposition of  every  philosophy  save  that  of  outright  ontological 
materialism  that  mind  plays  the  stellar  role  in  all  the  environ- 
mental adaptations  of  animals  which  possess  it.  But  this  per- 
suasion has  generally  occupied  the  position  of  an  innocuous 
truism  or  at  best  a  jejune  postulate,  rather  than  that  of  a 
problem  requiring,  or  permitting,  serious  scientific  treatment. 
At  all  events,  this  was  formerly  true. 

This  older  and  more  complacent  attitude  toward  the  matter 
is,  however,  being  rapidly  displaced  by  a  conviction  of  the  need 
for  light  on  the  exact  character  of  the  accommodatory  service 
represented  by  the  various  great  modes  of  conscious  expression. 
Such  an  effort  if  successful  would  not  only  broaden  the  founda- 
tions for  biological  appreciation  of  the  intimate  nature  of  accom- 
modatory process,  it  would  also  immensely  enhance  the  psychol- 
ogist's interest  in  the  exact  portrayal  of  conscious  life.  It  is  of 
course  the  latter  consideration  which  lends  importance  to  the 
matter  from  our  point  of  view.  Moreover,  not  a  few  practical 
consequences  of  value  may  be  expected  to  flow  from  this  at- 
tempt, if  it  achieves  even  a  measurable  degree  of  success. 
Pedagogy  and  mental  hygiene  both  await  the  quickening  and 
guiding  counsel  which  can  only  come  from  a  psychology  of  this 
stripe.  For  their  purposes  a  strictly  structural  psychology  is  as 
sterile  in  theory  as  teachers  and  psychiatrists  have  found  it  in 
practice. 

As  a  concrete  example  of  the  transfer  of  attention  from  the 
more  general  phases  of  consciousness  as  accommodatory  ac- 
tivity to  the  particularistic  features  of  the  case  may  be  men- 
tioned the  rejuvenation  of  interest  in  the  quasi-biological  field 
which  we  designate  animal  psychology.  This  movement  is 
surely  among  the  most  pregnant  with  which  we  meet  in  our 
own  generation.  Its  problems  are  in  no  sense  of  the  merely 


70  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

theoretical  and  speculative  kind,  although,  like  all  scientific 
endeavor,  it  possesses  an  intellectual  and  methodological  back- 
ground on  which  such  problems  loom  large.  But  the  frontier 
upon  which  it  is  pushing  forward  its  explorations  is  a  region  of 
definite,  concrete  fact,  tangled  and  confused  and  often  most  dif- 
ficult of  access,  but  nevertheless  a  region  of  fact,  accessible  like 
all  other  facts  to  persistent  and  intelligent  interrogation. 

That  many  of  the  most  fruitful  researches  in  this  field  have 
been  achievements  of  men  nominally  biologists  rather  than 
psychologists  in  no  wise  affects  the  merits  of  the  case.  A 
similar  situation  exists  in  the  experimental  psychology  of  sen- 
sation where  not  a  little  of  the  best  work  has  been  accomplished 
by  scientists  not  primarily  known  as  psychologists. 

It  seems  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  empirical  concep- 
tions of  the  consciousness  of  the  lower  animals  have  undergone 
a  radical  alteration  in  the  past  few  years  by  virtue  of  the  studies 
in  comparative  psychology.  The  splendid  investigations  of  the 
mechanism  of  instinct,  of  the  facts  and  methods  of  animal 
orientation,  of  the  scope  and  character  of  the  several  sense 
processes,  of  the  capabilities  of  education  and  the  range  of 
selective  accommodatory  capacities  in  the  animal  kingdom, 
these  and  dozens  of  other  similar  problems  have  received  for 
the  first  time  drastic  scientific  examination,  experimental  in 
character  wherever  possible,  observational  elsewhere,  but  ob- 
servational in  the  spirit  of  conservative  non-anthropomorphism 
as  earlier  observations  almost  never  were.  In  most  cases  they 
have  to  be  sure  but  shown  the  way  to  further  and  more  precise 
knowledge,  yet  there  can  be  but  little  question  that  the  trail 
which  they  have  blazed  has  success  at  its  farther  end. 

One  may  speak  almost  as  hopefully  of  human  genetic  psy- 
chology which  has  been  carried  on  so  profitably  in  our  own 
country.  As  so  often  in  psychology,  the  great  desideratum 
here,  is  the  completion  of  adequate  methods  which  will  insure 
really  stable  scientific  results.  But  already  our  general  psy- 
chological theory  has  been  vitalized  and  broadened  by  the 
results  of  the  genetic  methods  thus  far  elaborated.  These 
studies  constantly  emphasize  for  us  the  necessity  of  getting  the 
longitudinal  rather  than  the  transverse  view  of  life  phenomena 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  >Jl 

and  they  keep  immediately  in  our  field  of  vision  the  basic  sig- 
nificance of  growth  in  menta.1  process.  Nowhere  is  the  differ-^ 
ence  more  flagrant  between  a  functional  psychology  and  the 
more  literal  minded  type  of  structural  psychology.  One  has 
only  to  compare  with  the  better  contemporary  studies  some  of 
the  pioneer  work  in  this  field,  conceived  in  the  more  static  and 
structuralistic  manner,  as  Preyer's  for  example  was,  to  feel  at 
oncei;  the  difference  and  the  immensely  greater  significance 
both  for  theory  and  for  practice  which  issues  from  the  func- 
tional and  longitudinal  descriptions. 

The  assertions  which  we  have  permitted  ourselves  about 
genetic  psychology  are  equally  applicable  to  pathological  psy- 
chology. The  technique  of  scientific  investigation  is  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  often  different  in  this  field  of  work  from  that 
characteristic  of  the  other  ranges  of  psychological  research. 
But  the  attitude  of  the  investigator  is  distinctly  functionalistic. 
His  aim  is  one  of  a  thoroughly  vital  and  generally  practical 
kind  leading  him  to  emphasize  precisely  those  considerations 
which  our  analysis  of  the  main  aspects  of  functional  psychology 
disclose  as  the  goal  of  its  peculiar  ambitions. 

It  is  no  purpose  of  mine  to  submerge  by  sheer  tour  de  force 
the  individuality  of  these  various  scientific  interests  just  men- 
tioned in  the  regnant  personality  of  a  functional  psychology. 
But  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  the  spirit  which  gives  them 
birth  is  the  spirit  which  in  the  realms  of  general  psychological 
theory  bears  the  name  functionalism.  I  believe,  therefore, 
that  their  ultimate  fate  is  certain,  still  I  have  no  wish  to  accel- 
erate their  translation  against  their  will,  nor  to  inflict  upon  them 
a  label  which  they  may  find  odious. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  in  passing,  that  even  on  the  side 
of  general  theory  and  methodological  conceptions,  recent  de- 
velopments have  been  fruitful  and  significant.  One  at  least 
of  these  deserves  mention. 

We  find  nowadays  both  psychologists  and  biologists  who 
treat  consciousness  as  substantially  synonymous  with  adaptive 
reactions  to  novel  ^situations.  In  the  writings  of  earlier  authori- 
ties it  is  often  implied  that  accommodatory  activities  may  be 
purely  physiological  and  non-psychical  in  character.  From 


72  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

this  view-point  the  mental  type  of  accommodatory  act  super- 
venes on  certain  occasions  and  at  certain  stages  in  organic 
development,  but  it  is  no  indispensable  feature  of  the  accom- 
modatory process.1 

It  seems  a  trifle  strange  when  one  considers  how  long  the 
fundamental  conception  involved  in  this  theory  has  been  familiar 
and  accepted  psychological  doctrine  that  its  full  implication 
should  have  been  so  reluctantly  recognized.2  If  one  takes  the 
position  now  held  by  all  psychologists  of  repute,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  that  consciousness  is  constantly  at  work  building  up 
habits  out  of  coordinations  imperfectly  under  control ;  and  that 
as  speedily  as  control  is  gained  the  mental  direction  tends  to 
subside  and  give  way  to  a  condition  approximating  physiological 
automatism,  it  is  only  a  step  to  carry  the  inference  forward  that 
consciousness  immanently  considered  is  j>er  se  accommodation 
to  the  novel.  Whether  conscious  processes  have  been  the  pre- 
cursors of  our  present  instinctive  equipment  depends  on  facts  of 
heredity  upon  which  a  layman  may  hardly  speak.  But  many 
of  our  leaders  answer  strongly  in  the  affirmative,  and  such  an 
answer  evidently  harmonizes  with  the  general  view  now  under 
discussion. 

To  be  sure  the  further  assertion  that  no  real  organic  accom- 
modation to  the  novel  ever  occurs,  save  in  the  form  that  involves 
consciousness,  requires  for  its  foundation  a  wide  range  of  obser- 
vation and  a  penetrating  analysis  of  the  various  criteria  of  men- 
tality. But  this  is  certainly  a  common  belief  among  biologists 
to-day.  S*4pf;tiY«*  variation  of  response^)  stimulation  is  the 
ordinary  external  sign  j^ndicative_of^conscious_action7  Statei 
otherwise,  consciousness  discloses  the  form  taken  on  by  primary 
accommodatory  process. 

1  At  this  point  there  is  obviously  a  possible  ambiguity  in  the  use  of  the  term 
accommodatory.     Any  physiologically  adequate  process  may  be  described  as 
accommodatory.     Respiration,  for  example,  might  be  so  designated.     Clearly 
one  needs  a  special  term  to  designate  accommodation  to  the  novel,  for  this  is 
the  field  of  conscious  activity.     Of  course  if  the  contention  be  granted  for 
which  the  view  now  under  consideration  stands,  this  could  be  called  conscious 
accommodation  and  it  would  be  understood  forthwith  that  such  accommodation 
was  to  the  novel. 

2  Cf.  MacDougal's  striking  papers  in  Mind,  1898,  entitled  '  Contribution 
toward  an  Improvement  in  Psychological  Method.' 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  73 

It  is  not  unnatural  perhaps  that  the  frequent  disposition  of 
the  functional  psychologist  to  sigh  after  the  flesh-pots  of  biology 
should  kindle  the  fire  of  those  consecrated  to  the  cause  of  a 
pure  psychology  and  philosophy  freed  from  the  contaminating 
influence  of  natural  science.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  alarms  have 
been  repeatedly  sounded  and  the  faithful  called  to  subdue 
mutiny.  But  the  purpose  of  the  functional  psychologist  has 
never  been,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  to  scuttle  the  psychological 
craft  for  the  benefit  of  biology.  Quite  the  contrary.  Psychol- 
ogy is  still  for  a  time  at  least  to  steer  her  own  untroubled  course. 
She  is  at  most  borrowing  a  well-tested  compass  which  biology 
is  willing  to  lend  and  she  hopes  by  its  aid  to  make  her  ports 
more  speedily  and  more  surely.  If  in  use  it  prove  treacherous 
and  unreliable,  it  will  of  course  go  overboard. 

This  broad  biological  ideal  of  functional  psychology  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking  may  be  phrased  with  a  slight 
shift  of  emphasis  by  connecting  it  with  the  problem  of  discover- 
ing the  fundamental  utilities  of  consciousness.  If  mental  proc- 
ess is  of  real  value  to  its  possessor  in  the  life  and  world  which 
we  know,  it  must  perforce  be  by  virtue  of  something  which  it 
does  that  otherwise  is  not  accomplished.  Now  life  and  world 
are  complex  and  it  seems  altogether  improbable  that  conscious- 
ness should  express  its  utility  in  one  and  only  one  way.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  every  surface  indication  points  in  the  other  direc- 
tion. It  may  be  possible  merely  as  a  matter  of  expression  ton 
speak  of  mind  as  in  general  contributing  to  organic  adjustment'/ 
to  environment.  But  the  actual  contributions  will  take  place  in 
many  ways  and  by  multitudinous  varieties  of  conscious  process. 
The  functionalist's  problem  then  is  to  determine  if  possible  the 
great  types  of  these  processes  in  so  far  as  the  utilities  which  they 
present  lend  themselves  to  classification. 

The  search  after  the  various  utilitarian  aspects  of  mental 
process  is  at  once  suggestive  and  disappointing.  It  is  on  the 
one  hand  illuminating  by  virtue  of  the  strong  relief  into  which 
it  throws  the  fundamental  resemblances  of  processes  often  unduly 
severed  in  psychological  analysis.  Memory  and  imagination, 
for  example,  are  often  treated  in  a  way  designed  to  emphasize 
their  divergences  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  their  functional 


74  JAMES  ROWLAND   AN  CELL 

similarities.  They  are  of  course  functionally  but  variants  on  a 
single  and  basal  type  of  control.  An  austere  structuralism  in 
particular  is  inevitably  disposed  to  magnify  differences  and  in 
consequence  under  its  hands  mental  life  tends  to  fall  apart ;  and 
when  put  together  again  it  generally  seems  to  have  lost  some- 
thing of  its  verve  and  vivacity.  It  appears  stiff  and  rigid  and 
corpse-like.  It  lacks  the  vital  spark.  Functionalism  tends  just 
as  inevitably  to  bring  mental  phenomena  together,  to  show  them 
focalized  in  actual  vital  service.  The  professional  psychol- 
ogist, calloused  by  long  apprenticeship,  may  not  feel  this  dis- 
tinction to  be  scientifically  important.  But  to  the  young  student 
the  functionalistic  stress  upon  community  of  service  is  of  im- 
mense value  in  clarifying  the  intricacies  of  mental  organization. 
On  the  other  hand  the  search  of  which  we  were  speaking  is  dis- 
appointing perhaps  in  the  paucity  of  the  basic  modes  in  which 
these  conscious  utilities  are  realized. 

W  Ultimately  all  the  utilities  are  possibly  reducible  to  selective 
(/accommodation.  In  the  execution  of  the  accommodatory  activ- 
ity the  instincts  represent  the  racially  hereditary  utilities,  many 
of  which  are  under  the  extant  conditions  of  life  extremely  anom- 
alous in  their,  value.  The  sensory-algedonic-motor  phenomena 
represent  the  immediate  short  circuit  unreflective  forms  of  select- 
ive response.  Whereas  the  ideational-algedonic-motor  series  at 
its  several  levels  represents  the  long  circuit  response  under  the 
influence  of  the  mediating  effects  of  previous  experience.  This 
experience  serves  either  to  inhibit  the  propulsive  power  intrinsic 
to  the  stimulus,  or  to  reinforce  this  power  by  adding  to  it  its 
own  dynamic  tendencies.  This  last  variety  of  action  is  the 
peculiarly  human  form  of  mediated  control.  On  its  lowest 
stages,  genetically  speaking,  it  merges  with  the  purely  imme- 
diate algedonic  type  of  response.  All  the  other  familiar  psy- 
chological processes  are  subordinate  to  one  or  more  of  these 
groups.  Conception,  judgment,  reasoning,  emotion,  desire, 
aversion,  volition,  etc.,  simply  designate  special  varieties  in 
which  these  generic  forms  appear. 

In  facing  the  problem  of  classifying  functions  we  may  well 
turn  for  a  moment  to  the  experience  of  biologists  for  suggestions. 
It  is  to  be  remarked  at  once  that  the  significance  of  function  as 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  75 

a  basis  for  biological  classification  varies  greatly  in  different 
parts  of  the  biological  field.  Among  the  more  complex  animal 
organisms,  for  example,  function,  as  compared  with  structure, 
affords  a  relatively  precarious  basis  of  classification,  since  very 
divergent  structures  may  subserve  identical  functions.  More- 
over, the  functions  merely  as  such  often  fail  to  indicate  with  the 
definiteness  characteristic  of  the  anatomical  structure  the  genetic 
relations  involved  in  the  maturing  of  a  form.  But  in  the  study 
of  the  lower  orders  of  life  such  as  the  bacteria,  where  structural 
variations  are  so  largely  to  seek,  the  functional  chemico-physio- 
logical  reactions  are  of  the  utmost  significance  for  classificatory 
purposes.  In  the  botanical  field  generally  there  has  of  late 
been  an  increasing  disposition  to  employ  functional  similarity 
and  difference  for  the  illumination  of  plant  relationships. 
Indeed,  this  transition  from  a  purely  taxonomic  and  morpho- 
logical point  of  view  to  a  physiological  and  functional  point  of 
view  is  the  striking  feature  of  recent  progress  in  botanical  theory. 

The  ultimate  value  of  a  psychological  classification  based  on  ; 
functions,  if  interpreted  in  the  light  of  these  considerations, 
would  apparently  hinge  on  one's  conception  of  the  analogy 
between  consciousness  and  undifferentiated  protoplasm.  In  the 
measure  in  which  consciousness  is  immanently  unstable  and 
variable,  one  might  anticipate  that  a  functional  classification 
would  be  more  significant  and  penetrating  than  one  based  upon 
any  supposedly  structural  foundation.  But  the  analogy  on 
which  this  inference  rests  is  perhaps  too  insecure  to  permit  a 
serious  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it.  In  any  event  it  is  to 
be  said  that  functions  as  such  seem  to  be  the  most  stable  char- 
acters in  the  biological  field.  They  extend  in  a  practically 
unbroken  front  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  levels  of  life  — 
allowing  for  a  possible  protest  in  certain  quarters  against  includ- 
ing consciousness  in  this  list.  That  they  are  not  everywhere 
so  useful  as  structures  for  classificatory  purposes  reflects  on  the 
aims  of  classification,  not  on  the  fundamental  and  relatively  fixed 
character  of  functions. 

A  survey  of  current  usage  discloses  two  general  types  of 
functional  categories.  Of  these,  the  one  is  in  spirit  and  purpose 
dominantly  physiological.  It  groups  all  the  forms  of  life  func- 


76  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

tions,  whether  animal  or  vegetable  in  manifestation,  under  the 
four  headings  of  assimilation,  reproduction,  motion  and  sensi- 
bility. In  such  a  schema  assimilation  is  made  to  include  diges- 
tion, circulation,  respiration,  secretion,  and  excretion,  while 
motion  in  the  sense  here  intended  applies  primarily  to  those 
forms  of  movement  which  enable  the  organism  to  migrate  from 
place  to  place  and  thus  accommodate  itself  to  the  exigencies  of 
local  conditions. 

Another  group  of  categories  which  concerns  a  deeper  and 
more  general  level  of  biological  interpretations  is  given  by 
such  terms  as  selection,  adaptation,  variation,  accommodation, 
heredity,  etc.  These  are  categories  of  a  primarily  functional 
sort  for  they  apply  in  a  large  sense  to  modes  of  behavior. 
Indeed,  behavior  may  be  said  to  be  itself  the  most  inclusive  of 
these  categories.  But  as  compared  with  the  members  of  the 
first  group  they  have  to  do  with  the  general  trend  of  organic 
development  and  not  with  the  specific  physiological  processes 
which  may  be  concerned  in  any  special  case.  This  does  not 
mean  that  a  specific  physiological  setting  cannot  sometime  be 
given  these  problems  ;  but  it  does  mean  that  at  present  the  gaps 
in  our  knowledge  of  these  matters  are  generally  too  large  to  be 
spanned  with  certainty. 

Now  it  would  appear  that  such  general  categories  as  selec- 
tion and  accommodation  have  a  perfectly  appropriate  application 
to  mental  process.  Indeed,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  not 
a  few  of  our  modern  scientists  regard  the  psychical  as  precisely 
synonymous  with  the  selective  —  accommodatory  activity  as 
this  appears  in  the  life  history  of  the  individual ;  and  we  have, 
moreover,  already  pointed  out  certain  limitations  and  certain 
merits  of  these  categories  when  applied  to  the  classification  of 
mental  phenomena.  We  have  found  them  serving  to  magnify 
a  certain  community  of  organic  service  in  the  most  various  forms 
of  psychical  activity,  but  we  have  also  found  them  rather  too 
vague  and  general  to  afford  a  desirable  scientific  detail. 

If  on  the  other  hand,  we  examine  the  familiar  physiological 
functions  with  reference  to  their  possible  relations  to  mental 
functions,  we  are  at  once  struck  by  certain  similarities  'and 
certain  disparities  between  the  two.  There  are  some  mental 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  77 

operations  which  have  repeatedly  been  designated  as  assimi- 
lative. So  familiar  is  this  characterization  and  so  commonly 
accepted  that  we  may  without  undue  hesitation  assume  its  appro- 
priateness and  relevancy.  Under  the  physiological  aspects  of 
assimilation  are  commonly  ranged  such  processes  as  respiration, 
circulation,  secretion,  excretion  etc.  How  far  these  processes 
find  analogies  in  mental  action  is  not  altogether  clear.  Many 
of  our  psychologists  are  fond  of  describing  *  the  stream  of  con- 
sciousness' and  in  so  far  as  the  metaphor  is  justifiable  one  may 
naturally  think  of  the  physiological  circulation  as  its  counter- 
part. But  there  are  perhaps  as  many  differences  as  there  are 
resemblances  between  the  two.  Certainly  the  cyclical  char- 
acter of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  finds  no  precise  analogue 
in  the  flow  of  psychical  phenomena.  Similarly  the  periodicity 
of  respiration  may  suggest  the  fluctuation  of  attention,  the  storing 
of  mental  dispositions  may  be  connected  with  secretion,  the 
casting  off  of  mental  irrelevancies  may  be  likened  to  excretion, 
etc.  But  these  relations  are  so  largely  metaphorical  in  char- 
acter that  one  can  hardly  assign  them  a  larger  consequence 
than  springs  from  such  amusement  as  they  may  afford. 

It  would  perhaps  be  difficult  to  disprove  the  theory  that  re- 
production can  be  regarded  as  a  mental  category  quite  as  truly 
as  a  physiological  category,  not  only  in  the  sense  in  which  one 
mind  can  be  conceived  as  the  parent  of  other  minds,  but  also  in 
the  familiar  sense  in  which  the  mind  is  thought  of  as  recreating 
its  own  ideas  from  time  to  time. 

Yet  granting  all  this,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  however 
numerous  the  analogies  connecting  the  mental  functions  with  the 
physiological  functions  may  be,  we  are  not  at  present  in  a  posi- 
tion to  take  advantage  of  them  in  any  very  serious  way.  Motion 
is  by  common  consent  applicable  to  the  physiological  alone  and 
sensibility  is  in  the  intent  of  the  classification  appropriate  to  the 
psychical  alone.  The  basal  categories  utilized  by  physiologists 
seem  therefore  to  render  us  but  little  assistance.  This  view  is 
vigorously  maintained  by  many  modern  writers,  but  generally 
on  a  priori  grounds. 

If  we  examine  the  historically  conspicuous  classifications  of 
mental  process  made  by  psychologists,  we  discover,  as  was 


78  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

pointed  out  in  an  earlier  paragraph,  that  they  are  frequently 
suggestive  of  definitely  functional  conceptions.  The  Aristotel- 
ian divisions,  the  so-called  Kantian  divisions,  the  divisions  into 
higher  and  lower  powers  characteristic  of  the  faculty  psycholo- 
gists (and  many  others  not  commonly  ranked  as  such),  and  Bren- 
tano's  and  Stout's  classifications,  to  mention  no  more,  are  all  de- 
cidedly based  on  dynamic  and  functionalistic  considerations.  On 
the  other  hand,  not  a  few  of  our  contemporary  authorities,  notably 
Wundt,  classify  their  material  under  the  more  statical  and  me- 
chanical categories  —  *  elements  and  compounds.' 

Professor  Warren  has  recently  suggested  an  interesting  clas- 
sification in  which  he  proposes  as  the  fundamental  functional 
categories  the  following  five  :  Sensibility,  which  gives  us  the 
sensory  continuum  ;  modification,  which  connotes  our  ability  to 
become  aware  of  intensive  modifications  in  the  continuum  ;  Dif- 
ferentiation, which  covers  our  capacity  to  experience  qualitative 
differences  ;  association,  which  does  not  require  interpretation, 
and  discrimination,  which  refers  to  our  ability  to  perform  defi- 
nite acts  of  rational  apprehension  and  to  articulate  purposes.1 
These  functions  taken  together  will,  he  alleges,  account  for  all 
forms  of  consciousness  and  they  are  not  derivatives  from  phe- 
nomena of  the  material  world  which  he  regards  as  outside  the 
pale.  I  do  not  propose  at  this  time  to  offer  any  detailed  criti- 
cism of  Professor  Warren's  valuable  paper.  Indeed,  until  his 
views  are  more  fully  elaborated,  extended  criticism  would  be 
premature. 

One  distinction,  however,  to  which  he  calls  incidental  atten- 
tion as  a  biological  distinction,  is  formulated  in  an  admirable 
statement  with  which  I  fully  agree.  It  presents  a  sort  of  func- 
tional analysis  which  seems  to  me  at  once  pregnant  and  sound. 
He  speaks  of  the  three-fold  division  of  cognition,  affection  and 
process  as  intrinsically  biological  in  character  and 


corresponding  broadly  to  the  differences  among  the  external, 
the  systemic  and  the  kinaesthetic  senses  ;  the  first  reporting  to 
us  the  outer  world,  the  second  our  own  general  organic  tone 
and  the  third  supplying  experiences  of  our  motor  activity  by 
means  of  which  voluntary  control  is  developed. 

1  '  The  Fundamental  Functions  of  Consciousness,'  Psychological  Bulletin, 
1906,  p.  217. 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  79 

Particularly  significant  is  his  remark  that  the  *  fundamental 
functions  of  consciousness  and  the  kinds  of  experience '  are 
something  quite  distinct  from  one  another.  It  is  because  he 
believes  that  the  *  rise  of  any  particular  experience  and  its  make- 
up as  a  datum  of  consciousness  can  be  fufly~cTescribed  in  termsl 
of  certain  mental  functions '  that  he  feels  it  possible  to  elaborate  I 
an  independent  natural  science  of  psychology  free  from  neuro- 
logical, physiological  and  biological  considerations.  It  is  not 
clear  that  this  conclusion  flows  from  Professor  Warren's  premises 
any  more  exclusively  than  from  the  premises  of  the  so-called 
structuralist's  point  of  view.  Nor  is  there  any  strictly  logical 
impracticality  in  carrying  out  the  program  of  such  a  pure  psy- 
chology. But  it  is  fair  to  emphasize  the  extremely  pale,  atten- 
uated and  abstract  character  of  such  a  science  as  compared  with 
one  which  should  report  upon  conscious  processes  as  they  are 
really  found  amid  the  heat  and  battle  of  the  actual  mind-body 
life.  It  may  be  a  pure  science,  .but  it  is  surely  purity  bought 
at  a  great  price  —  /.  e.,  truth  to  life. 

All  pure  science  must  abstract  in  a  measure  from  the  actual 
circumstances  of  life,  but  in  the  so-called  exact  sciences  the 
abstraction  is  always  away  from  the  irrelevant  and  disturbing. 
The  type  of  abstraction  which  Professor  Warren  champions,  in 
common  with  many  other  distinguished  scholars,  is  one  which 
appeals  to  me  as  an  abstracting  away  from  the  more  significant, 
with  the  consequent  fixation  of  attention  upon  the  relatively  less 
important. 

It  is  a  commonplace  of  logic  that  classification  is  intrinsically 
teleological  and  that  the  merits  of  any  special  classification, 
assuming  that  it  does  not  distort  or  misrepresent  the  facts,  is  to 
be  tested  by  the  success  with  which  it  meets*  the  necessities  for 
which  it  was  devised.  If  one  desires  to  emphasize  the  taxo- 
nomic  and  morphological  features  of  mentality,  no  doubt  some 
such  division  as  Wundt  employs,  using  the  rubrics  elements 
and  compounds,  is  preferable.  If  one  wishes  primarily  to 
emphasize  qualitative  similarities  and  dissimilarities,  the  Kan- 
tian principle  of  irreducibility  is  judicious  ;  and  if  one  wishes  to 
bring  out  the  dynamic  character  of  consciousness,  such  a 
principle  as  Brentano's,  based  on  the  mode  in  which  conscious- 


So  JAMES  ROWLAND   AN G ELL 

ness  refers  to  its  object,  is  effective.  If  functional  psychology 
really  possesses  several  distinct  zones  of  interest,  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  different  classifications  may  be  necessary  to  fulfil 
most  satisfactorily  the  demands  in  these  several  fields.  In  any 
case  we  must  forego  further  discussion  of  the  matter  at  this  point 
and  return  to  offer  our  description  of  the  third  of  the  main  sub- 
divisions of  the  functional  problem. 

III. 

The  third  conception  which  I  distinguish  is  often  in  practice 
merged  with  the  second,  but  it  involves  stress  upon  a  problem 
logically  prior  perhaps  to  the  problem  raised  there  and  so  war- 
rants separate  mention.  Functional  psychology,  it  is  often 
alleged,  is  in  reality  a  form  of  psychophysics.  To  be  sure,  its 
aims  and  ideals  are  not  explicitly  quantitative  in  the  manner 
characteristic  of  that  science  as  commonly  understood.  But  it 
finds  its  major  interest  in  determining  the  relations  to  one  another 
of  the  physical  and  mental  portions  of  the  organism. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many  of  those  who  write  under 
functional  prepossessions  are  wont  to  introduce  frequent  refer- 
ences to  the  physiological  processes  which  accompany  or  con- 
dition mental  life.  Moreover,  certain  followers  of  this  faith  are 
prone  to  declare  forthwith  that  psychology  is  simply  a  branch  of 
biology  and  that  we  are  in  consequence  entitled,  if  not  indeed 
obliged,  to  make  use  where  possible  of  biological  materials. 
But  without  committing  ourselves  to  so  extreme  a  position  as 
this,  a  mere  glance  at  one  familiar  region  of  psychological  pro- 
cedure will  disclose  the  leanings  of  psychology  in  this  direction. 

The  psychology  of  volition  affords  an  excellent  illustration 
of  the  necessity  with  which  descriptions  of  mental  process 
eventuate  in  physiological  or  biological  considerations.  If  one 
take  the  conventional  analysis  of  a  voluntary  act  drawn  from 
some  one  or  other  of  the  experiences  of  adult  life,  the  descrip- 
tions offered  generally  portray  ideational  activities  of  an  antici- 
patory and  deliberative  character  which  serve  to  initiate  imme- 
diately or  remotely  certain  relevant  expressive  movements. 
Without  the  execution  of  the  movements  the  ideational  per- 
formances would  be  as  futile  as  the  tinkling  cymbals  of  Scrip- 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  Si 

ture.  To  be  sure,  many  of  our  psychologists  protest  themselves 
wholly  unable  to  suggest  why  or  how  such  muscular  movements 
are  brought  to  pass.  But  the  fact  of  their  occurrence  or  of  their 
fundamental  import  for  any  theory  of  mental  life  in  which  con- 
sciousness is  other  than  an  epiphenomenon,  is  not  questioned. 

Moreover,  if  one  considers  the  usual  accounts  of  the  onto- 
genesis of  human  volitional  acts  one  is  again  confronted  with 
intrinsically  physiological  data  in  which  reflexes,  automatic  and 
instinctive  acts  are  much  in  evidence.  Whatever  the  possibil- 
ities, then,  of  an  expurgated  edition  of  the  psychology  of  voli- 
tion from  which  should  be  blotted  out  all  reference  to  contam- 
inating physiological  factors,  the  actual  practice  of  our  repre- 
sentative psychologists  is  quite  otherwise,  and  upon  their 
showing  volition  cannot  be  understood  either  as  regards  its 
origin  or  its  outcome  without  constant  and  overt  reference  to 
these  factors.  It  would  be  a  labor  of  supererrogation  to  go  on 
and  make  clear  the  same  doctrine  as  it  applies  to  the  psychology 
of  the  more  recondite  of  the  cognitive  processes ;  so  intimate  is 
the  relation  between  cognition  and  volition  in  modern  psycho- 
logical theory  that  we  may  well  stand  excused  from  carrying 
out  in  detail  the  obvious  inferences  from  the  situation  we  have 
just  described. 

Now  if  someone  could  but  devise  a  method  for  handling  the 
mind-body  relationships  which  would  not  when  published  im- 
mediately create  cyclonic  disturbances  in  the  philosophical  at- 
mosphere, it  seems  improbable  that  this  disposition  of  the  func- 
tional psychologist  to  inject  physiology  into  his  cosmos  would 
cause  comment  and  much  less  criticism.  But  even  parallelism, 
that  most  insipid,  pale  and  passionless  of  all  the  inventions  be- 
gotten by  the  mind  of  man  to  accomplish  this  end,  has  largely 
failed  of  its  pacific  purpose.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
the  more  rugged  creeds  with  positive  programs  to  offer  and  a 
stock  of  red  corpuscles  to  invest  in  their  propagation  should  also 
have  failed  of  universal  favor. 

This  disposition  to  go  over  into  the  physiological  for  certain 
portions  of  psychological  doctrine  is  represented  in  an  interest- 
ing way  by  the  frequent  tendency  of  structural  psychologists  to 
find  explanation  in  psychology  substantially  equivalent  to 


82  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

physiological  explanation.1  Professor  Titchener's  recent  work 
on  Quantitative  Psychology  represents  this  position  very  frankly. 
It  is  cited  here  with  no  intent  to  comment  disparagingly  upon 
the  consistency  of  the  structuralist  position,  but  simply  to  indi- 
cate the  wide-spread  feeling  of  necessity  at  certain  stages  of 
psychological  development  for  resort  to  physiological  considera- 
tions. 

Such  a  functional  psychology  as  I  have  been  presenting 
would  be  entirely  reconcilable  with  Miss  Calkins'  *  psychology 
of  selves '  (so  ably  set  forth  by  her  in  her  presidential  address 
last  year)  were  it  not  for  her  extreme  scientific  conservatism  in 
refusing  to  allow  the  self  to  have  a  body,  save  as  a  kind  of 
conventional  biological  ornament.  The  real  psychological  self, 
as  I  understand  her,  is  pure  disembodied  spirit — an  admirable 
thing  of  good  religious  and  philosophic  ancestry,  but  surely  not 
the  thing  with  which  we  actually  get  through  this  vale  of  tears 
and  not  a  thing  before  which  psychology  is  under  any  obliga- 
tion to  kotow.2 

It  is  not  clear  that  the  functional  psychologist  because  of  his 
\ 

JCf.  Miinsterberg's  striking  pronunciamento  to  this  effect  in  his  paper 
entitled '  Psychological  Atomism,'  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1900,  p.  i.  The  same 
doctrine  is  incorporated  in  his  '  Grundziige  der  Psychologic '  and  we  await  with 
interest  the  completion  of  that  task  in  order  to  discover  the  characteristic  features 
of  a  psychology  consistently  built  on  these  foundations. 

2  Miss  Calkins'  views  on  this  matter,  which  are  shared  by  many  of  our  lead- 
ing psychologists,  have  been  lucidly  expounded  on  several  papers  [particularly 
'  Der  doppelte  Standpunkt  in  der  Psychologic,'  and  a  '  Reconciliation  between 
Structural  and  Functional  Psychology,'  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1906,  p.  61],  to 
say  nothing  of  their  embodiment  in  her  widely  quoted  Introduction  to  Psy- 
chology. She  has  done  yeoman  service  in  emphasizing  the  fundamental  sig- 
nificance of  the  'self  '  consciousness  for  all  psychological  doctrine  and  I  am  in 
entire  sympathy  with  her  insistence  on  this  fact.  But  she  seems  to  me  unduly 
to  circumscribe  the  legitimate  scope  of  this  '  self. '  Possibly  I  misinterpret  her 
meaning,  but  the  following  sentences  together  with  the  procedure  in  her  Intro- 
duction to  Psychology  seem  to  justify  me.  "By  self  as  fundamental  fact  of 
psychology  is  not  meant  .  .  .  the  psychophysical  organism,  .  .  .  the  objection 
is,  very  briefly,  that  the  doctrine  belongs  not  to  psychology  at  all,  but  to 
biology,"  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1906,  p.  66.  After  which  reference  is  made 
to  Professor  Baldwin's  Development  and  Evolution  as  a  non-psychological 
treatise.  Such  a  settlement  of  the  issue  is  easy  and  logically  consistent.  But 
does  it  not  leave  us  with  a  gulf  set  between  the  self  as  mind  and  the  self  as 
body,  for  the  crossing  of  which  we  are  forthwith  obliged  to  expend  much 
needless  energy,  as  the  gulf  is  of  our  own  inventing? 


PROVINCE   OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  83 

disposition  to  magnify  the  significance  in  practice  of  the  mind- 
body  relationships  is  thereby  committed  to  any  special  theory 
of  the  character  of  these  relationships,  save  as  was  said  a 
moment  since,  that  negatively  he  must  seemingly  of  necessity 
set  his  face  against  any  epiphenomenalist  view.  He  mightcj 
ceivably  be  an  interactionist,  or  a  parallelist  or  even  an  advocate 
of^ome^wholly  r>nTwrrrrr-ereggT  As  a  matter  ot  fact  certain  of 
our  most  ardent  functionalists  not  only  cherish  highly  definite 
articles  of  faith  as  regards  this  issue,  they  would  even  go  so  far 
as  to  test  functional  orthodoxy  by  the  acceptance  of  these  tenets. 
This  is  to  them  the  most  momentous  part  of  their  functionalism, 
their  holy  of  holies.  It  would  display  needless  temerity  to  at- 
tempt within  the  limitations  of  this  occasion  a  formulation  of 
doctrine  wholly  acceptable  to  all  concerned.  But  I  shall  venture 
a  brief  reference  to  such  doctrine  in  the  effort  to  bring  out 
certain  of  its  essentials. 

The  position  to  which  I  refer  regards  the  mind-body  relation 
as  capable  of  treatment  in  psychology  as  a  methodological  dis- 
tinction rather  than  a  metaphysically  existential  one.  Certain 
of  its  expounders  arrive  at  their  view  by  means  of  an  analysis 
of  the  genetic  conditions  under  which  the  mind-body  differen- 
tiation first  makes  itself  felt  in  the  experience  of  the  individual.1 
This  procedure  clearly  involves  a  direct  frontal  attack  on  the 
problem. 

Others  attain  the  position  by  flank  movement,  emphasizing 
to  begin  with  the  insoluble  contradictions  with  which  one  is  met 
when  the  distinction  is  treated  as  resting  on  existential  differ- 
ences in  the  primordial  elements  of  the  cosmos.2  Both  methods 
of  approach  lead  to  the  same  goal,  however,  t.  e.9  the  convic- 
tion that  the  distinction  has  no  existence  on  the  genetically 
lower  and  more  naif  stages  of  experience.  It  only  comes  to 
light  on  a  relatively  reflective  level  and  it  must  then  be  treated 

1  The  most  striking  attempt  of  this  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted  is 
Professor  Baldwin's  paper  entitled  '  Mind  and  Body  from  the  Genetic  Point  of 
View,'  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1903,  p.  225. 

2  Cf.   on   this  general  issue   Bawden,    '  Functional   View  of  the   Relation 
Between  the  Psychical  and  the  Physical,'  Philosophical  Review,  1902,  [XL],  p. 
474,  and  '  Methodological  Implications  of  the  Mind-body  Controversy,'  Psycho- 
logical Bulletin,  1906,  p.  321. 


84  JAMES  ROWLAND  AN  CELL 

as  instrumental  if  one  would  avoid  paralogisms,  antinomies  and 
a  host  of  other  metaphysical  nightmares.  Moreover,  in  dealing 
with  psychological  problems  this  view  entitles  one  to  reject  as 
at  least  temporarily  irrelevant  the  question  whether  mind  causes 
changes  in  neural  action  and  conversely.  The  previous  ques- 
tion is  raised  by  defenders  of  this  type  of  doctrine  if  one  insists 
on  having  such  a  query  answered.  They  invite  you  to  trace 
the  lineage  of  your  idea  of  causality,  insisting  that  such  a 
searching  of  one's  intellectual  reins  will  always  disclose  the 
inappropriateness  of  the  inquiry  as  formulated  above.  They 
urge  further  that  the  profitable  and  significant  thing  is  to  seek 
for  a  more  exact  appreciation  of  the  precise  conditions  under 
which  consciousness  is  in  evidence  and  the  conditions  under 
which  it  retires  in  favor  of  the  more  exclusively  physiological. 
Such  knowledge  so  far  as  it  can  be  obtained  is  on  a  level  with 
all  scientific  and  practical  information.  It  states  the  circum- 
stances under  which  certain  sorts  of  results  will  appear. 

One's  view  of  this  functionalistic  metaphysics  is  almost  inev- 
itably colored  by  current  philosophical  discussion  as  to  the  essen- 
tial nature  of  consciousness.  David  Hume  has  been  accused 
of  destroying  the  reality  of  mind  chiefly  because  he  exorcised 
from  it  relationships  of  various  kinds.  If  it  be  urged,  as  has 
so  often  been  done,  that  Hume  was  guilty  of  pouring  out  the 
baby  with  the  bath,  the  modern  philosopher  makes  good  the 
disaster  not  only  by  pouring  in  again  both  baby  and  bath,  but 
by  maintaining  that  baby  and  bath,  mind  and  relations,  are  sub- 
stantially one.1  Nor  is  this  unity  secured  after  the  manner 

1  To  the  simple-minded  psychologist  this  saying,  in  which  many  authors 
indulge,  that  consciousness  is  merely  a  relation  seems  a  trifle  dark.  The  psy- 
chologist has  no  natural  prejudice  against  relation,  but  in  this  special  case  he 
is  as  a  rule  given  too  little  information  concerning  the  terms  between  which 
this  relation  subsists.  Possibly  his  vision  has  been  darkened  by  a  perverse  logic, 
but  relations  imply  termini  in  his  usual  modes  of  thought  and  before  assenting 
too  unreservedly  to  the  '  relation  '  philosophy  of  consciousness,  he  urges  a 
fuller  illumination  as  to  the  character  and  status  of  these  supporting  end  terms. 

The  following  well-known  papers  will  introduce  the  uninitiated,  if  any  such 
there  be,  into  the  thick  of  the  battle.  A  complete  bibliography  would  probably 
monopolize  this  issue  of  the  REVIEW.  James,  '  Does  Consciousness  Exist  ? ' 
Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology  and  Scientific  Methods,  I.,  p.  477.  Wood- 
bridge,  '  Nature  of  Consciousness,'  in  the  same  Journal,  II.,  p.  119.  Also  Gar- 
man,  '  Memorial  Volume,'  p.  137.  Perry,  '  Conceptions  and  Misconceptions  of 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  85 

prescribed  by  the  good  Bishop  Berkeley.  At  all  events  the 
metaphysicians  to  whom  I  refer  are  not  fond  of  being  called 
idealists.  But  the  psychological  functionalist  who  emphasizes 
the  instrumental  nature  of  the  mind-body  distinction  and  the 
metaphysician  who  regards  mind  as  a  relation  are  following 
roads  which  are  at  least  parallel  to  one  another  if  not  actually 
convergent. 

Whether  or  not  one  sympathizes  with  the  views  of  that  wing 
of  the  functionalist  party  to  which  our  attention  has  just  been 
directed  it  certainly  seems  a  trifle  unfair  to  cast  up  the  mind-body 
difficulty  in  the  teeth  of  the  functionalist  as  such  when  on  log- 
ical grounds  he  is  no  more  guilty  than  any  of  his  psychological 
neighbors.  No  courageous  psychology  of  volition  is  possible 
which  does  not  squarely  face  the  mind-body  problem,  and  in 
point  of  fact  every  important  description  of  mental  life  contains 
doctrine  of  one  kind  or  another  upon  this  matter.  A  literally 
pure  psychology  of  volition  would  be  a  sort  of  hanging-garden 
of  Babylon,  marvelous  but  inaccessible  to  psychologists  of  ter- 
restrial habit.  The  functionalist  is  a  greater  sinner  than  others 
only  in  so  far  as  he  finds  necessary  and  profitable  a  more  con- 
stant insistence  upon  the  translation  of  mental  process  into  phy- 
siological process  and  conversely. 

IV. 

If  we  now  bring  together  the  several  conceptions  of  which 
mention  has  been  made  it  will  be  easy  to  show  them  converging 
upon  a  common  point.  We  have  to  consider  (i)  functionalism 
conceived  as  the  psychology  of  mental  operations  in  contrast  to 
the  psychology  of  mental  elements ;  or,  expressed  otherwise, 
the  psychology  of  the  how  and  why  of  consciousness  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  psychology  of  the  what  of  consciousness. 
We  have  (2)  the  functionalism  which  deals  with  the  problem  of 
mind  conceived  as  primarily  engaged  in  mediating  between  the 
environment  and  the  needs  of  the  organism.  This  is  the  psy- 
chology of  the  fundamental  utilities  of  consciousness ;  (3)  and 

Consciousness,'  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  1904,  XI.,  p.  282.  Bush,  'An  Empi- 
rical Definition  of  Consciousness,'  Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology  and  Scien- 
tific Methods,  II.,  p.  561.  Stratton,  '  Difference  Between  Mental  and  Physical,' 
Psychological  Bulletin,  1906,  p.  i.  *  Character  of  Consciousness,'  Ibid.,  p.  117. 


86  JAMES  ROWLAND  AN  CELL 

lastly  we  have  functionalism  described  as  psychophysical  psy- 
chology, that  is  the  psychology  which  constantly  recognizes  and 
insists  upon  the  essential  significance  of  the  mind-body  relation- 
ship for  any  just  and  comprehensive  appreciation  of  mental  life 
itself. 

The  second  and  third  delineations  of  functional  psychology 
are  rather  obviously  correlated  with  each  other.  No  descrip- 
tion of  the  actual  circumstances  attending  the  participation  of 
mind  in  the  accommodatory  activities  of  the  organism  could  be 
other  than  a  mere  empty  schematism  without  making  reference 
to  the  manner  in  which  mental  processes  eventuate  in  motor 
phenomena  of  the  physiological  organism.  The  overt  accom- 
modatory act  is,  I  take  it,  always  sooner  or  later  a  muscular 
movement.  But  this  fact  being  admitted,  there  is  nothing  for 
it,  if  one  will  describe  accommodatory  processes,  but  to  recog- 
nize the  mind-body  relations  and  in  some  way  give  expression 
to  their  practical  significance.  It  is  only  in  this  regard,  as  was 
indicated  a  few  lines  above,  that  the  functionalist  departs  a  trifle 
in  his  practice  and  a  trifle  more  in  his  theory  from  the  rank  and 
file  of  his  colleagues. 

The  effort  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  natural  sciences  and 
delimit  somewhat  rigorously — albeit  artificially  —  a  field  of  in- 
quiry, in  this  case  consciousness  conceived  as  an  independent 
realm,  has  led  in  psychology  to  a  deal  of  excellent  work  and  to 
the  uncovering  of  much  hidden  truth.  So  far  as  this  proced- 
ure has  resulted  in  a  focusing  of  scientific  attention  and  endeavor 
on  a  relatively  narrow  range  of  problems  the  result  has  more 
than  justified  the  means.  And  the  functionalist  by  no  means 
holds  that  the  limit  of  profitable  research  has  been  reached  along 
these  lines.  But  he  is  disposed  to  urge  in  season  and  out  that 
we  must  not  forget  the  arbitrary  and  self-imposed  nature  of  the 
boundaries  within  which  we  toil  when  we  try  to  eschew  all  ex- 
plicit reference  to  the  physical  and  physiological.  To  overlook 
this  fact  is  to  substitute  a  psychology  under  injunction  for  a  psy- 
chology under  free  jurisdiction.  He  also  urges  with  vigor  and 
enthusiasm  that  a  new  illumination  of  this  preempted  field  can 
be  gained  by  envisaging  it  more  broadly,  looking  at  it  as  it  ap- 
pears when  taken  in  perspective  with  its  neighboring  territory. 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  87 

And  if  it  be  objected  that  such  an  inquiry  however  interesting 
and  advantageous  is  at  least  not  psychology,  he  can  only  reply  ; 
psychology  is  what  we  make  it,  and  if  the  correct  understand- 
ing of  mental  phenomena  involves  our  delving  in  regions  which 
are  not  at  first  glance  properly  mental,  what  recks  it,  provided 
only  that  we  are  nowhere  guilty  of  untrustworthy  and  unveri- 
fiable  procedure,  and  that  we  return  loaded  with  the  booty  for 
which  we  set  out,  and  by  means  of  which  we  can  the  better 
solve  our  problem? 

In  its  more  basal  philosophy  this  last  conception  is  of  course 
intimately  allied  to  those  appraisals  of  mind  which  emphasize 
its  dominantly  social  characteristics,  its  rise  out  of  social  circum- 
stances and  the  pervasively  social  nature  of  its  constitutive  prin- 
ciples. In  our  previous  intimations  of  this  standpoint  we  have 
not  distinguished  sharply  between  the  physical  and  the  social 
aspect  of  environment.  The  adaptive  activities  of  mind  are 
very  largely  of  the  distinctly  social  type.  But  this  does  not  in 
any  way  jeopardize  the  genuineness  of  the  connection  upon 
which  we  have  been  insisting  between  the  psychophysical 
aspects  of  a  functional  psychology  and  its  environmental  adap- 
tive aspects. 

It  remains  then  to  point  out  in  what  manner  the  conception 
of  functionalism  as  concerned  with  the  basal  operations  of  mind 
is  to  be  correlated  with  the  other  two  conceptions  just  under  dis- 
cussion. The  simplest  view  to  take  of  the  relations  involved 
would  apparently  be  such  as  would  regard  the  first  as  an  essen- 
tial propaedeutic  to  the  other  two.  Certainly  if  we  are  intent 
upon  discerning  the  exact  manner  in  which  mental  process 
contributes  to  accommodatory  efficiency,  it  is  natural  to  begin 
our  undertaking  by  determining  what  are  the  primordial  forms 

Expression  peculiar  to  mind.  However  plausible  in  theory 
this'conc'eplioh  of  the  intrinsic  logical  relations  of  these  several 
forms  of  functional  psychology,  in  practice  it  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult wholly  to  sever  them  from  one  another. 

Again  like  the  biological  accommodatory  view  the  psycho- 
physical  view  of  functional  psychology  involves  as  a  rational 
presupposition  some  acquaintance  with  mental  processes  as 
these  appear  to  reflective  consciousness.  The  intelligent  corre- 


88  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 

lation  in  a  practical  way  of  physiological  and  mental  operations 
evidently  involves  a  preliminary  knowledge  of  the  conspicuous 
differentiations  both  on  the  side  of  conscious  function  and  on 
the  side  of  physiological  function. 

In  view  of  the  considerations  of  the  last  few  paragraphs  it 
does  not  seem  fanciful  nor  forced  to  urge  that  these  various 
theories  of  the  problem  of  funtional  psychology  really  converge 
upon  one  another,  however  divergent  may  be  the  introductory 
investigations  peculiar  to  each  of  the  several  ideals.  Possibly 
the  conception  that  the  fundamental  problem  of  the  functionalist 
is  one  of  determining  just  how  mind  participates  in  accommo- 
datory  reactions,  is  more  nearly  inclusive  than  either  of  the 
others,  and  so  may  be  chosen  to  stand  for  the  group.  But  if 
this  vicarious  duty  is  assigned  to  it,  it  must  be  on  clear  terms 
of  remembrance  that  the  other  phases  of  the  problem  are 
equally  real  and  equally  necessary.  Indeed  the  three  things 
hang  together  as  integral  parts  of  a  common  program. 

I  The  functionalist's  most  intimate  persuasion  leads  him  to  re- 
gard consciousness  as  primarily  and  intrinsically  a  control  phe- 
nomenon. Just  as  behavior  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  dis- 
tinctly basic  category  of  general  biology  in  its  functional  phase  so 
controTwould-perhaps  serve_as  the 
functional  psychology^  the  special  forms  and  differentiations  of 
consciousness  simply  constituting  particular  phases  of  the  gen- 
eral process  of  control.  At  this  point  the  omnipresent  captious 
critic  will  perhaps  arise  to  urge  that  the  knowledge  process  is 
no  more  truly  to  be  explained  in  terms  of  control  than  is  control 
to  be  explained  in  terms  of  knowledge.  Unquestionably  there 
is  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  critic  a  measure  of  truth  in  this 
contention.  The  mechanism  of  control  undoubtedly  depends 
on  the  cognitive  processes,  to  say  nothing  of  other  factors.  But 
if  one  assumes  the  vitalistic  point  of  view  for  one's  more  final 
interpretations,  if  one  regards  the  furtherance  of  life  in  breadth 
and  depth  and  permanence  as  an  end  in  itself,  and  if  one 
derives  his  scale  of  values  from  a  contemplation  of  the  several 
contributions  toward  this  end  represented  by  the  great  types  of 
vital  phenomena,  with  their  apex  in  the  moral,  scientific  and 
aesthetic  realms,  one  must  certainly  find  control  a  category  more 


PROVINCE    OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY  89 

fundamental  than  the  others  offered  by  psychology.  Moreover, 
it  may  be  urged  against  the  critic's  attitude  that  even  knowledge 
itself  is  built  up  under  the  control  mechanism  represented  by 
selective  attention  and  apperception.  The  basic  character  of 
control  seems  therefore  hardly  open  to  challenge. 

One  incidental  merit  of  the  functionalist  program  deserves  a 
passing  mention.  This  is  the  one  method  of  approach  to  the 
problem  with  which  I  am  acquainted  that  offers  a  reasonable 
and  cogent  account  of  the  rise  of  reflective  consciousness  and 
its  significance  as  manifested  in  the  various  philosophical  disci- 
plines. From  the  vantage  point  of  the  functionalist  position 
logic  and  ethics,  for  instance,  are  no  longer  mere  disconnected 
items  in  the  world  of  mind.  They  take  their  place  with  all  the 
inevitableness  of  organic  organization  in  the  general  system  of 
control,  which  requires  for  the  expression  of  its  immanent  mean- 
ing as  psychic  a  theoretical  vindication  of  its  own  inner  princi- 
ples, its  modes  of  procedure  and  their  results.1  From  any  other 
point  of  view,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  several  divisions  of 
philosophical  inquiry  sustain  to  one  another  relations  which  are 
almost  purely  external  and  accidental.  To  the  functionalist  on 
the  other  hand  they  are  and  must  be  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
consanguineous  and  vitally  connected.  It  is  at  the  point,  for 
example,  where  the  good,  the  beautiful  and  the  true  have  bear- 
ing on  the  efficacy  of  accommodatory  activity  that  the  issues  of 
the  normative  philosophical  sciences  become  relevant.  If  good 
action  has  no  significance  for  the  enriching  and  enlarging  of 
life,  the  contention  I  urge  is  futile,  and  similarly  as  regards 
beauty  and  truth.  But  it  is  not  at  present  usually  maintained 
that  such  is  the  fact. 

These  and  other  similar  tendencies  of  functionalism  may 
serve  to  reassure  those  who  fear  that  in  lending  itself  to  bio- 
logical influences  psychology  may  lose  contact  with  philosophy 

1  An  interesting  example  of  the  possible  developments  in  this  direction  is 
afforded  by  Professor  G.  H.  Mead's  paper  entitled  'Suggestions  toward  a 
Theory  of  the  Philosophical  Disciplines,'  Philosophical  Review,  1900,  IX.,  p.  i. 
My  own  paper  referred  to  elsewhere  on  '  Psychology  and  Philosophy,'  Philo- 
sophical Review,  1903,  XII.,  p.  243,  contains  further  illustrative  material. 

Professor  Baldwin's  recent  volume  on  genetic  logic  ['Thought  and  Things,' 
etc.,  N.  Y.,  1906]  is  a  striking  case  of  functional  psychology  evolving  into  logic. 


9° 


JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 


nd  so  sacrifice  the  poise  and  balance  and  sanity  of  outlook 
which  philosophy  undertakes  to  furnish.  The  particular  brand 
of  philosophy  which  is  predestined  to  functionalist  favor  cannot 
of  course  be  confidently  predicted  in  advance.  But  anything 
approaching  a  complete  and  permanent  divorce  of  psychology 
from  philosophy  is  surely  improbable  so  long  as  one  cultivates 
the  functionalist  faith.  Philosophy  cannot  dictate  scientific 
method  here  any  more  than  elsewhere,  nor  foreordain  the  special 
facts  to  be  discovered.  But  as  an  interpreter  of  the  psycholo- 
gist's achievements  she  will  always  stand  higher  in  the  function- 
alist's favor  than  in  that  of  his  colleagues  of  other  persuasions, 
for  she  is  a  more  integral  and  significant  part  of  his  scheme  of 
the  cosmos.  She  may  even  outgrow  under  his  tutelage  that 

*  valiant  inconclusiveness '  of  which  the  last  of  her  long  line  of 
lay  critics  has  just  accused  her. 

-  A  sketch  of  the  kind  we  have  offered  is  unhappily  likely  to 
leave  on  the  mind  an  impression  of  functional  psychology  as  a 
name  for  a  group  of  genial  but  vaguer  ambitions  and  good  in- 
tentions.    This,  however,  is  a  fault  which  must  be  charged  to 
the  artist  and  to  the  limitations  of  time  and  space  under  which 
he  is  here  working.     There  is  nothing  vaguer  in  the  program  of 
the  functionalist  when  he  goes  to  his  work  than  there  is  in  the 
purposes  of  the  psychologist  wearing  any  other  livery.     He 
goes  to  his  laboratory,  for  example,  with  just  the  same  resolute 
interest  to  discover  new  facts  and  new  relationships,  with  just 
the  same  determination  to  verify  and  confirm  his  previous  ob- 
servations, as  does  his  colleague  who  calls  himself  perhaps  a 
structuralist.     But  he  looks  out  upon  the  surroundings  of  his 
science  with  a  possibly  greater  sensitiveness  to  its  continuity 
with  other  ranges  of  human  interest  and  with  certainly  a  more 
articulate  purpose  to  see  the  mind  which  he  analyzes  as  it  actu- 
ally is  when  engaged  in  the  discharge  of  its  vital  functions.     If 
his  method  tempts  him  now  and  then  to  sacrifice  something  of 
petty  exactitude,  he  is  under  no  obligation  to  yield,  and  in  any 
case  he  has  for  his  compensation  the  power  which  comes  from 
breadth  and  sweep  of  outlook. 

So  far  as  he  may  be  expected  to  develop  methods  peculiar 
to  himself  —  so  far,  indeed,  as  in  genetic  and  comparative  psy- 


PROVINCE  OF  FUNCTIONAL  PSTCHOLOGY  91 

chology,  for  example,  he  has  already  developed  such  —  they 
will  not  necessarily  be  iconoclastic  and  revolutionary,  nor  such 
as  flout  the  methods  already  devised  and  established  on  a  slightly 
different  foundation.  They  will  be  distinctly  complementary  to 
all  that  is  solid  in  these.  Nor  is  it  in  any  way  essential  that 
the  term  functionalism  should  cling  to  this  new-old  movement. 
It  seems  at  present  a  convenient  term,  but  there  is  nothing  sacro- 
sanct about  it,  and  the  moment  it  takes  unto  itself  the  pretense 
of  scientific  finality  its  doom  will  be  sealed.  It  means  to-day  a 
broad  and  flexible  and  organic  point  of  view  in  psychology. 
The  moment  it  becomes  dogmatic  and  narrow  its  spirit  will 
have  passed  and  undoubtedly  some  worthier  successor  will  fill 
its  place. 


DEFINITION   AND  ANALYSIS    OF   THE   CON- 
SCIOUSNESS  OF  VALUE.     (II.) 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILBUR  M.  URBAN, 
Trinity  College. 

I. 

The  analyses  of  the  preceding  paper  have  led  to  a  demarca- 
tion of  that  type  or  class  of  meanings  which  are  described  as 
worths  or  values.  Beginning  with  the  preliminary  definition  of 
worth  as  the  affective-volitional  meaning  of  the  object  for  the 
subject,  we  advanced  by  successive  stages  of  analysis  to  the 
more  specific  statement  that  the  worth  experience  is  always  a 
feeling  attitude  which  presupposes  the  actualization  of  some 
conative  disposition  by  acts  of  presumption,  judgment  or  assump- 
tion (implicit  and  explicit).  This  definition  obviously  involves 
a  certain  theory  of  the  nature  of  feeling  and  of  its  relation  to 
conation  (desire  and  volition).  For  one  thing,  the  broader  use 
of  the  term  feeling  involves  a  relative  distinction  between  feel- 
ing attitude  and  affective  tone  of  sensation,  a  distinction  which 
has  in  fact  been  insisted  upon,  and  it  also  leads  to  the  view  that 
feeling,  as  worth  feeling,  has  appreciative  distinctions  not 
found  in  passive  affection.  To  this  theory,  of  the  nature  of 
feeling,  and  the  more  abstract  psychological  analyses  which  it 
involves,  we  must  turn  our  attention  later ;  for  the  present  (and 
indeed  as  a  necessary  preliminary  of  this  later  study)  our  prob- 
lem is  the  further  development  of  the  appreciative  distinctions 
of  feeling. 

Earlier  in  our  study  a  distinction  was  made  between  the  *  ap- 
preciative '  and  *  reality '  (including  existence  -)  meanings  of 
worth  predicates.  Starting  with  the  analysis  of  the  latter, 
we  developed  the  definition  of  value  in  terms  of  its  functional 
presuppositions.  But  in  the  course  of  that  very  analysis  we 
came  upon  certain  appreciative  distinctions  in  feeling  (as  for 
instance  in  the  study  of  the  criteria  of  Lipps  and  Kruger)  such 
as  feeling  of  the  personality,  breadth  and  depth  of  feeling  in  the 

92 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF    VALUE  93 

personality,  which  were  taken  as  descriptive  of  feelings  of  value. 
Logically  this  analysis  of  appreciative  descriptions  of  feeling 
should,  perhaps,  have  come  first  in  our  own  study,1  but  the  order 
of  presentation  chosen  has  this  advantage,  that  the  critical  studies 
of  the  preceding  paper  have,  by  their  results  both  positive  and 
negative,  defined  the  sphere  of  worth  experience,  and  have 
given  us  the  clue  to  the  interpretation  of  the  different  qualifica- 
tions of  feeling  which  are  worth  suggestive,  that  is  give  rise  to 
those  meanings  of  objects  which  we  call  worth  predicates. 

These  qualifications  of  feeling  are  certain  aspects  of  feeling 
attitude  which  are  not  only  appreciable  but  which  may  be  de- 
scribed in  terms  which  convey  their  meaning.  It  has  already 
been  pointed  out  in  another  connection,2  that  the  meanings  of 
feeling  attitudes,  grouped  under  the  general  terms  transgredient 
and  immanental  references,  are  susceptible  of  communication 
and  description  in  their  own  special  terms,  no  less  than  the  con- 
tent which  acquires  these  meanings.  In  fact,  feeling  may  itself 
become  the  object  of  both  presentation  and  judgment,  and  when 
it  does  there  arise,  or  rather  become  explicit,  certain  selective 
meanings  which  find  their  own  type  of  description  and  their  own 
media  of  communication.  This  description  we  have  called  ap- 
preciative description.  Into  the  nature  of  this  description  —  its 
relation  to  the  normative  sciences  on  the  one  hand  and  to  psy- 
chological analysis  on  the  other  —  we  cannot  here  enter.  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  recall  that  such  description  always  conveys 
the  meaning  of  attitudes  and  fixes  the  place  of  a  feeling  attitude 
in  a  system  of  possible  attitudes  toward  reality  presupposed. 
At  the  center  of  that  system  of  meanings  is  the  self  to  which  all 
these  meanings  refer,  either  explicitly  or  implicitly. 

1  In   my  article  :  'Appreciation   and    Description   and  the   Psychology  of 
Values,'  Philosophical  Review,  November,  1905,  two  methodological  principles 
were  developed  as  guides  in  the  analysis  of  the  consciousness  of  value.     Psy- 
chological analysis  must  take  its  start  from  appreciative  description  and,  since 
appreciative   description  conveys   functional  meaning  as  well  as  the  content, 
psychological  description  involves  the  development  of  the  functional  presup- 
positions of  the  feeling. 

2  In  the  article  referred  to  above. 


94  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

II. 

A.  The  worth  predicates  themselves,  as  tertiary  qualities  of 
objects,  are,  in  their  manifold  modifications,  appreciative  dis- 
tinctions arising  from  differences  in  the  meaning  of  feelings. 
They  are  projections  into  the  object  of  distinctions  within  feel- 
ing.   The  supposition  presents  itself  immediately  that  these  pred- 
icates, since  they  are  funded  meanings  of   feeling  processes, 
correspond  directly  to  fundamental  differences  in  feeling  itself, 
and  that  there  are  as  many  differences  in  feeling  as  there  are 
worth  predicates.     Reflection,  however,  makes  clear  that  appre- 
ciative description  of  objects,  while  the  expression  of  worth  feel- 
ings, is  not  necessarily  the   appreciative   description   of  those 
feelings  themselves.     These  predicates  are  -what  we  feel  about 
the  object,  not  how  we  feel.    We  feel  beauty,  goodness,  nobility, 
sublimity,  obligation,  but  when  we  describe  how  we  feel  in  such 
cases  a  transition  has  been  made  to  the  appreciative  description 
of  the  feeling  itself.     The  feeling  has  been  made  the  object 
of  presentation  and  description  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  in 
this  appreciative  description  of  the  feeling  one  of  these  general 
worth  predicates  may  stand  for  different  modifications  of  feeling 
or  for  several  at  the  same  time.    Thus  the  predicate  good  may, 
when  applied  to  an  act,  have  as  its  equivalent  a  feeling  described 
as  the  tension  of  obligation,  at  another  the  feeling  of  satisfied 
repose.     In  order  to  adequately  describe  the  feeling  I  have  when 
I  call  an  object  sublime  it  may  be  necessary  to  use  the  terms 
elevation,  repose,  and,  if  I  wish  to  add  to  my  description  quanti- 
tative terms,  to  speak  of  the  depth  of  the  feeling.     It  will  be 
apparent  then  that  what  is  meant  by  the  appreciative  distinctions 
in  primary  worth  feeling  are  those  descriptions  of  his  feelings 
which  the  subject  seeks  as  equivalents  for  his  worth  predicates 
applied  to  objects.     The  ultimate  terms  in  which  such  feelings 
of  simple  appreciation  are  described  should  give  us  the  funda- 
mental modifications  of  worth  feeling. 

B.  It  has  been  said  that  there  are  innumerable  nuances  of 
feeling  and  in  the  same  breath  it  has  been  asserted  that  all  these 
differences  are  reducible  to  differences  in  intensity  and  duration 
of  a  one-dimensional  continuum,  pleasantness-unpleasantness, 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    VALUE  95 

these  differences  being  due  to  differences  in  the  sensational, 
perceptual,  ideal  content  with  which  the  feeling  is  connected. 
With  the  first  part  of  this  statement  we  may  agree  but  the  second 
requires  critical  examination.  The  consciousness  of  the  inade- 
quacy of  this  conception  of  the  dimensions  of  feeling  has  been 
growing  recently  and  the  demand  for  new  analysis  has  arisen 
from  two  distinct  quarters,  —  from  the  study  of  the  psychology 
of  worth  experience,  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  non-appre- 
ciative psycho-physical  analysis,  on  the  other  hand,  as  illus- 
trated in  Wundt's  three-dimensional  theory. 

In  the  case  of  the  *  worth  psychologists,'  with  whom  we  are 
in  this  connection  primarily  concerned,  the  logic  of  this  an- 
alysis is  clear  enough.  When  they  turn  from  the  worth  pred- 
icates of  objects  to  a  description  of  the  experiences  which  de- 
termine these  predicates,  they  find  the  old  terminology,  intensity 
and  duration  of  pleasantness-unpleasantness  inadequate  for  the 
reconstruction  of  this  experience.  In  the  analysis  of  Kruger 
which  we  have  already  considered,  worth  feeling  (which  is  dis- 
tinguished functionally  from  pleasure-causation  by  the  fact  that 
it  presupposes  conative  constants)  is  distinguished  appreciatively 
by  a  new  dimension  depth  and  breadth  in  the  personality. 
Simmel,1  who  likewise  makes  feeling  the  worth  fundamental, 
also  finds  it  necessary  to  distinguish  the  aspects  of  depth  and 
breadth  of  feeling  from  intensity.  Another  class  of  analysts, 
who  hold  a  voluntaristic  theory,  find  modifications  of  worth  ex- 
perience, which  cannot  be  correlated  with  feeling  if  feeling  be 
conceived  merely  as  intensity  of  pleasantness-unpleasantness. 
Brentano2  is  compelled  to  assume  quasi-logical  dimensions  of 
acts  of  preference,  to  which  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness 
are  related  merely  as  redundant  passive  phenomena  and  more 
recently  and  definitely,  Schwartz3  has  found  it  necessary  to  dis- 
tinguish fundamentally  between  degrees  of  worth  experience, 
satisfaction  (Sattigung  des  Gefallen)  and  intensity  of  feeling, 
and,  on  the  assumption  that  feeling  is  passive  pleasantness- 
unpleasantness,  to  seek  a  voluntaristic  basis  for  worth  experi- 

1  Simmel,  Einleitung\in  die  Moralzvissenschaft. 

2  Brentano,  Psychologic.     Also  Ursprung  der  sittlichen  Erkentniss. 

3  Schwartz,  Psychologic  des  Willens,  Chapter  II.,  also  Appendix  I. 


96  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

ence.  Despite  the  differences  in  theory  of  the  nature  of  the 
worth  fundamental,  it  is  clear  that  these  analyses  all  have  in 
view  the  object  of  doing  justice  to  appreciative  distinctions  in 
worth  experience,  whatever  that  may  be  found  to  be,  in  terms  of 
psychological  equivalents. 

C.  If  then  we  hold  to  our  view  already  developed,  that  worth 
experience  is  feeling  with  certain  characteristic  presuppositions, 
our  task  is  naturally  to  seek  some  conception  of  feeling  which 
lies  between  the  two  views  propounded  —  both  of  them  unwork- 
able for  worth  analysis  —  the  proposition  that  feeling  has  in- 
numerable modifications,  and  the  view  that  it  is  merely  intensity 
of  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness.  Now  the  key  to  our  pro- 
cedure is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  *  pleasantness-unpleasant- 
ness '  are  but  one  class  of  terms  which  may  be  applied  to  the 
description  of  the  concrete  feeling  attitude,  that  there  are  other 
class  terms  which  are  equally  fundamental  for  the  communi- 
cation of  the  qualitative  differences  in  feeling.  In  order  to 
communicate  the  subjective  experience  corresponding  to  the 
worth  predicate  the  qualitative  differences,  pleasantness-unpleas- 
antness, are  insufficient.  And  secondly,  when  this  has  become 
clear,  it  will  also  appear  that  in  order  to  express  quantitative 
differences  in  worth  feeling  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  use  of 
other  conceptions  than  that  of  intensity  (in  its  narrower  sense) 
which  has  been  transferred  from  sensation  to  the  pleasantness 
and  unpleasantness  which  accompanies  sensation. 

The  problem  then  is  —  what  are  the  fundamental  class  terms 
for  the  nuances  of  feeling  corresponding  to  the  tertiary  quali- 
ties, worth  predicates  attributed  to  objects?  The  answer  to  this 
question  would  naturally  take  the  direction  of  a  classification 
of  the  appreciative  descriptions  of  feeling  attitudes  and,  indeed, 
a  desideratum  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  present  situa- 
tion of  the  psychology  of  feeling  is  precisely  such  a  pre-scien- 
tific  classification  of  the  appreciative  terms  used  in  the  first 
stages  of  introspection.  As  was  pointed  out  in  the  article  re- 
ferred to,  the  psychology  of  religious,  ethical  and  aesthetic 
feeling  must  build  its  generalizations  almost  entirely  upon  these 
appreciative  introspections  (as  for  instance  in  the  questionnaire 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   VALUE  97 

method)  and  its  possibility  rests  ultimately  upon  the  existence 
of  uniformities  in  such  descriptions.  Partial  contributions  to 
such  a  classification  already  exist  —  notably  in  the  sphere  of 
religious  experience  —  but  in  default  of  any  adequate  view  of 
the  whole  range  of  such  descriptions,  and  in  view  of  the  im- 
possibility of  attempting  such  a  classification  here,  we  may 
resort  to  the  more  usual  and  more  direct  method  of  analysing 
our  experience  directly  for  the  primary  fundamental  meanings 
of  feeling,  and  then  seeking  to  develop  the  secondary  derived 
meanings  by  genetic  progressions  from  the  fundamental.  This 
special  application  of  the  genetic  method  of  analysis  will  have 
the  advantage  of  presenting  our  results  in  such  a  form  as  to  con- 
nect them  immediately  with  the  results  of  the  preceding  analy- 
sis of  functional  presuppositions,  and  the  two  will  act  as  mutually 
supplementary  and  corrective. 

III. 

A.  What,  then,  are  the  primary,  irreducible  aspects  of  feeling 
without  use  of  which  as  predicates  the  meaning  of  a  feeling 
attitude,  i.  £.,  its  place  in  a  system  of  meanings,  cannot  be  fixed? 
As  has  been  suggested,  these  aspects  must  be  expressed  in  terms 
both  of  quality  and  degree.  Our  first  concern  is  therefore  with 
the  quality  meanings.  Every  concrete  feeling  attitude  has  two 
primary  aspects  or  meanings,  its  directions  and  its  references. 
Its  direction  is  either  positive  or  negative.  Its  reference  is 
either  transgredient  or  immanental.  Of  the  first  aspect  little 
need  be  said.  It  is  that  fundamental  duality  of  quality  which, 
when  feeling  is  viewed  retrospectively  as  passive,  as  abstracted 
from  conation,  is  described  as  pleasantness-unpleasantness.  As 
direction  or  meaning  of  feeling  attitude,  however,  it  presupposes 
relation  of  the  attitude  to  conation. 

What  have  been  described  as  the  references  of  feeling  specify 
more  completely,  on  the  other  hand,  this  relation  to  conation : 
they  are  aspects  of  the  feeling  which  refer  to  something  pre- 
supposed, to  a  disposition  already  acquired  and  for  which  the 
object  has  a  meaning.  In  the  case  of  the  transgredient  refer- 
ence it  is  the  sense  of  a  subjective  control  leading  on  to  other 
states.  In  the  case  of  the  immanental,  it  is  a  sense  of  a  control 


98  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

more  objective  leading  to  continuance  or  repose  in  the  same 
state.  When  it  comes  to  describing  these  directions  and  ref- 
erences, their  different  nuances  and  suggestions,  use  is  made  of 
metaphorical  and  analogical  terms  the  significance  of  which  we 
must  consider. 

The  most  fundamental  analogical  differentiation  of  feeling 
in  appreciative  description  is  in  connection  with  its  directions 
and  is  brought  about  by  application  of  contrast  pairs  from  the 
different  sense  regions.  Feelings  are  described  as  sweet  or 
bitter,  bright  or  dull,  soft  or  hard,  etc.  They  specify  for 
finer  discrimination  and  description  the  two  fundamental  direc- 
tions of  feeling,  the  positive  and  negative,  pleasant  and  unpleas- 
ant, and  the  basis  of  this  transference  is  the  fact  that  the  conative 
tendency  connected  with  these  feelings,  as  well  as  the  actual 
organic  attitude,  even  when  the  feelings  are  connected  with 
perceptual  and  ideational  activity,  are  the  same  as  those 
associated  with  sensations  in  terms  of  which  the  feeling  is 
described. 

The  second  group  of  terms  employed  in  differentiating  the 
worth  suggestions  of  feeling  attitudes  are  those  which  may  be 
described  as  dynamic.  They  describe  the  dynamic  suggestions 
of  the  feeling,  specify  the  transgredient  reference.  This  trans- 
gredient  reference  is  ordinarily  described  metaphorically  in  terms 
of  movement  forms  from  the  external  world.  Of  the  large 
number  of  movement  forms  made  use  of  in  such  descriptions  a 
slight  study  of  appreciative  literature,  or  of  those  appreciative 
prescientific  introspections,  to  which  reference  has  already  made 
been,  makes  us  immediately  aware.  They  are  full  of  terms  for 
different  nuances  of  movements  of  the  crescendo  or  diminuendo 
type  —  of  soaring,  of  uplift,  of  sudden  breaking  in  upon  con- 
sciousness and  of  dying  away,  of  height  and  depth,  etc.  They 
can  probably  all  be  included  under  the  general  terms  tension, 
restlessness  (and  perhaps  contraction),  the  nature  of  which 
dimensions,  and  the  theory  connected  with  this  classifica- 
tion, we  shall  consider  presently.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  content  such  movement  forms  are  also  probably  complexes 
founded  in  intensity  and  duration  relations  of  more  ultimate 
elements. 


CONS  CIO  USWJSSS   OF   VALUE  99 

However  that  may  be,  the  characteristic  of  these  symbolic 
dynamic  descriptions  is  that  they  describe  transitional  aspects  of 
experience,  transitions  from  one  aspect  of  content  to  another  by 
which  meaning  is  acquired.  By  this  I  mean  that  in  the  present 
feeling  there  is  always  a  transgredient  reference  to  a  past  or 
future  attitude.  The  present  experience  is  always  the  fore- 
ground of  a  background,  past  or  future,  which  is  still,  or  already, 
dimly  felt.  Of  course  in  such  a  feeling  there  is  always  refer- 
ence to  conation,  and  it  might  be  objected  that  we  are  here  deal- 
ing with  impulse  and  desire  rather  than  with  feeling  if  it  were 
not,  as  we  shall  seek  to  show,  that  feeling  cannot  be  completely 
abstracted  from  conation. 

A  third,  and  qualitatively  opposite,  class  of  terms  is  used 
to  characterize  appreciatively  the  nuances  of  immanental  refer- 
ence of  feeling.  They  may  all  be  grouped,  I  think,  under  the 
general  terms,  repose,  relaxation,  expansion.  Feelings  of  ex- 
pansion have  an  unusual  wealth  of  descriptive  terms  at  their 
service.  Favorite  descriptions  are  in  terms  of  pervasion,  pos- 
session. The  subject  of  the  emotion  describes  himself  as  per- 
vaded —  as  by  an  ether,  a  fluid  —  as  swallowed  up  by  the 
emotion,  and  in  the  mystical  amorous  and  religious  literature  of 
which  such  descriptions  are  typical,  it  is  with  love  with  the  glory 
or  the  will  of  God  that  the  subject  is  filled.  These  suggestions, 
meanings,  of  feelings  are  likewise  probably  aspects  or  qualities 
founded  in  more  elementary  content.  The  significance  of  the 
terms  of  their  description  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  they 
specify,  in  their  symbolic  way,  nuances  of  that  fundamental 
meaning  of  feeling  which  we  have  called  its  immanental 
reference. 

That  immanental  reference  of  repose,  with  its  expansion  of 
feeling,  is  a  meaning  which  the  feeling  gets  when  the  conative 
tendency  or  disposition,  presupposed,  has  reached  the  stage  of 
habit  after  accommodation.  The  object  of  the  feeling  occupies 
the  whole  consciousness  but  into  the  meaning  of  the  object  is 
taken  up  all  the  accumulated  meaning  of  the  processes  of 
accommodation  for  which  the  disposition  now  stands.  The  ref- 
erence of  the  feeling  is  not  beyond  the  present  state  but  to  some- 
thing more  deeply  involved  in  it. 


100  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

In  the  case  of  the  term  expansion  (and  contraction  its  corre- 
lative transgredient  term)  it  is  obvious  that  such  descriptions  are 
metaphorical  transferences  from  the  spatial  world  of  perception, 
but  I  think  it  can  scarcely  be  denied  that,  as  appreciative 
descriptions,  they  are  as  fundamental  as  the  other  descriptions 
transferred  from  the  experiences  of  intensity  and  duration.  It 
has  been  objected  to  the  three-dimensional  theory  of  feeling 
that  if  the  analogical  terms,  tension-relaxation,  restlessness- 
quiescence  are  introduced,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  terms 
contraction-expansion  should  not  be  applied.  There  is  none  in 
fact  —  the  only  question  is  whether  they  are  equally  irreducible 
terms  of  appreciative  introspection.  With  an  introspection 
which  is  not  appreciative  we  have  in  this  connection  no  concern. 

That  contraction-expansion  are  in  this  sense  fundamental 
aspects  of  feeling  I  think  there  can  be  no  question.  And  in  this 
connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that  in  a  recent  study 
of  feeling  by  experimental  methods  withont  these  appreciative 
distinctions  it  was  found  impossible  to  distinguish  the  feeling 
tone  of  simple  sensation  from  a  mood  or  disposition  feeling. 
"The  former  attaches,  so  to  speak,  to  the  stimulus-  complex 
(taste)  while  the  latter  spreads  over  the  whole  consciousness." 
It  was  further  found  that  they  have  different  pneumographic 
expressions.  The  former  is  attended  by  quickening,  the  latter 
by  slowing  of  respiration.1 

B.  The  relation  of  this  analysis  to  the  so-called  three-dimen- 
sional theory  of  feeling  developed  by  Wundt  may  be  stated  as  fol- 
lows. For  us  the  terms  of  this  theory  are  descriptive  equivalents 
appreciative  meanings  of  total  feeling  attitudes,  for  Wundt  they 
are  qualities  of  elementary  content.  The  difference  arises 
necessarily  from  the  different  points  of  view  from  which  the 
description  of  the  same  experience  is  approached.  The  appre- 
ciative descriptions  try  to  fixate  the  meaning  of  the  conative 
references  (transgredient  and  immanental)  implicit  in  the  feel- 
ing attitude,  references  to  preceding  and  succeeding  conation. 
The  analysis  of  Wundt,  on  the  other  hand,  seeks  to  fixate  the 
same  experience  by  terms  from  which  the  worth  connotation  is 

1  G.  Storring,  '  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zur  Lehre  von  Geftihl,'  Archivjiir 
die  gesammte  Psychologic ,  Bd.  I.,  Heft  3. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  IOI 

more  completely  abstracted,  where  the  implicit  reference  to  the 
self  is  ignored.  Royce,  it  should  however  be  noted  in  passing, 
finds  the  interest  in  the  hypothesis  in  the  '  statement  it  makes 
possible  of  the  relation  of  feeling  and  conduct,  not  adequately 
conceived  on  the  one-dimensional  theory/  a  clear  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  he  is  concerned  with  appreciative  description. 

This  theory,  of  which  Royce's  recent  formulation  is  in  prin- 
ciple the  same,  distinguishes  three  fundamental  qualities,  of 
feeling,  pleasantness-unpleasantness,  tension-relaxation,  rest- 
lessness-quiescence (or  excitement-tranquilization).  Concrete 
feelings  represent  combinations  of  pleasantness-unpleasantness 
with  some  member  of  the  other  groups.  There  may  be  a 
pleasant  or  unpleasant  feeling  of  tension,  as  hope  or  fear,  a 
pleasant  or  unpleasant  feeling  of  relaxation,  as  contentment  or 
resignation.  These  illustrations,  it  will  be  observed,  are  all  on 
the  cognitive  level  of  emotion  or  sentiment.  The  question  is 
whether  they  are  likewise  aspects  of  simple  hypothetical  feeling 
elements,  sensation  feelings. 

That  the  three  dimensional  theory  constitutes  a  true  descrip- 
tion of  total  feeling  attitudes  is  then  scarcely  open  to  dispute. 
The  slightest  appreciative  introspection  enables  us  to  distinguish 
between  the  exciting  pleasure  of  hope  and  the  tranquil  pleasure 
of  peace,  between  the  painful  tension  of  dread  and  the  equally 
painful  relaxation  of  despair.  The  question  at  issue  is  not  then 
whether  these  differences  are  appreciable  among  total  feeling 
attitudes  and  constitute  worth  suggestions  but  rather  whether 
they  are  equally  characteristic  of  sensation  feelings.  On  this 
question  there  is  no  conclusive  answer  to  be  made  at  the  present 
time.  Wundt  has  brought  forward  experimental  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  view  that  these  additional  qualities  belong  also  to 
simple  sensation  feelings  (the  feeling  tone  of  colors  and  sounds, 
for  instance).  As  to  the  value  of  the  evidence  there  is  of  course 
still  doubt.  Some  experimenters  do  not  find  the  modifications 
of  the  curves  corresponding  to  the  three-dimensional  analysis. 
But  even  if  there  were  no  question  in  regard  to  the  facts  them- 
selves, the  meaning  of  these  facts  would  not  be  unequivocal. 
We  cannot,  for  one  thing,  be  sure  that  while  the  stimuli  are  so- 
called  simple  sensations  the  feeling  reactions  are  simple  feel- 


102  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

ings.  They  may  be  —  and  indeed  probably  are  —  on  the 
emotional  level,  the  organic  and  muscular  sensations  due  to  the 
surplus  excitation.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  results  are  most 
apparent,  both  in  the  graphic  registration  and  in  introspection, 
as  reference  to  Wundt's  studies  will  show,  in  those  cases  where 
the  reactions  are  on  the  emotional  level.  Besides,  as  has 
already  been  pointed  out,  although  the  feeling  tone  of  sensa- 
tion is  itself  not  worth  suggestive,  on  the  level  of  worth  feeling, 
nevertheless,  when  the  stimulus  has  reached  a  certain  intensity 
(or  duration)  it  gives  rise  to  a  feeling  attitude  which  is  worth 
suggestive.  Until  the  experimental  evidence  is  more  un- 
equivocal both  introspection  and  logic  would  rather  lead  to  the 
view  that  these  dimensions  of  feeling  which  seem  to  belong  to 
simple  feeling  tone  of  sensation  are  really  qualities  of  a  second- 
ary feeling  attitude  following  upon  pleasure-causation.  Stor- 
ring's  analyses,  already  referred  to,  would  indicate  the  truth  of 
this  view.1 

IV. 

A.  Be  this  as  it  may,  I  think  it  may  nevertheless  at  least  be 
said  that  these  aspects  of  experience,  whether  that  experience  be  a 
hypothetical  feeling  element  or  sensation  content,  become  -worth 
suggestive^  acquire  the  transgredient  and  immanental  references 
only  on  the  emotional  level,  only  when  the  feeling  is  a  feeling 
attitude  toward  an  object.  And  I  think  it  may  further  be  said 
that  the  criterion  of  such  a  feeling  attitude,  of  emotion  (the  term 
emotion  being  used  in  its  broadest  sense  to  include  passion, 
emotion,  sentiment  and  mood),  is  the  presence  of  the  cognitive 
presuppositions  already  analyzed,  presumption,  judgment  and 

1  Recent  criticisms  of  the  three  dimensional  theory  have  been  entirely 
justified  in  saying,  on  the  one  hand  (Calkins),  that  these  qualifications  of  feel- 
ing are  taken  from  the  side  of  conative  meaning,  and  on  the  other  (Washburn), 
that  when  we  look  for  content  equivalents  for  them  we  find  them  only  in  sensa- 
tions, kinaesthetic  and  organic.  Both  statements  are  true  and  at  the  same  time 
thoroughly  consistent  with  each  other,  as  will  appear  in  our  studies  of  feeling. 
It  is  only  in  the  appreciatively  described  total  meaning  of  the  attitude  that 
these  appear  as  primary  qualities  of  experience.  When  we  take  the  abstract 
point  of  view  of  function  they  break  up  into  relations  of  affirmation  and  arrest  of 
tendency.  When  we  take  the  abstract  point  of  view  content  or  structure,  they 
break  up  into  complexes  or  series  of  sensations,  the  reconciliation  of  structural 
and  functional  points  of  view  in  psychology  is  to  correlate  them  both  with  the 
appreciative  description  from  which  both  take  their  origin. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  103 

assumption.  What  is  meant  by  this,  to  state  the  point  more 
fully,  is  that  the  differences  in  feeling  attitude  appreciatively 
distinguishable  appear  only  in  total  feeling  attitudes  and  are  not 
qualities  of  the  mere  feeling  tone  of  sensations.  It  may  be  that 
the  content  which  acquires  these  meanings  are  certain  simple 
affective  or  sensational  elements  but  they  acquire  these  mean- 
ings only  on  the  cognitive  level  of  emotion. 

The  view  here  developed  involves  the  further  conception 
that  the  criterion  of  an  emotion,  a  feeling  attitude,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  presence  of  a  cognitive  act  (presumption,  judgment,  as- 
sumption) as  the  presupposition  of  the  feeling.  Can  this  view 
be  maintained?  I  think  it  may  not  only  be  reasonably  main- 
tained, but  is  in  fact  inevitable  if  we  approach  the  study  of  feel- 
ing psychoses  (on  the  level  of  emotion)  from  the  standpoint  of 
their  meaning.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  another  point  of  view  (the 
more  abstract  study  of  content  and  of  emotional  expression) 
from  which  this  scarcely  seems  to  be  the  necessary  criterion, 
as  for  instance  in  the  case  of  the  inherited  instinctive  emotions, 
of  which  the  instinctive  fears  of  animals  is  a  good  illustration. 
But  while  this  is  true  —  and  with  this  view  of  the  facts  our  pres- 
ent analysis  must,  in  its  proper  place,  be  brought  into  harmony, 
it  is  nevertheless  also  true  that,  as  a  meaning,  an  emotional  atti- 
tude always  presupposes  such  cognitive  acts.  Joy  and  sorrow, 
the  two  typical  and  fundamental  emotional  attitudes  which  have 
these  worth  suggestions  or  meanings,  become  meaningless,  lose 
all  internal  meaning,  when  conceived  apart  from  these  presup- 
positions. They  are  usually  judgment  feelings,  although  not 
always  such  (as  Meinong  maintains),  for  they  may  follow  upon 
simple  presumption  or  assumption  of  reality.  The  joy  in  the  pre- 
sumed, assumed  or  judged  reality  of  an  object  is  toto  genere  dif- 
ferent from  the  pleasantness  of  a  sensation.  And  the  same  is  true 
of  those  modes  of  emotional  attitude,  such  as  fear,  dread,  despair, 
hope,  elation,  in  which  the  cognitive  act  is  further  modified  in 
the  direction  of  mere  possibility  or  necessity.  It  is  further  to  be 
observed  that,  from  the  point  of  view  of  appreciative  analysis, 
these  emotional  attitudes  are  variously  specified  according  as 
the  fundamental  positive  or  negative  direction  has  transgredient 
reference  with  its  tension  or  restlessness,  or  immanental  refer- 


104  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

ence  with  its  relaxation  and  repose.  Joy  or  sorrow,  as  we  have 
seen,  may  be  of  either  type.  The  inevitable  conclusion  seems 
to  be  that  these  meanings  arise  only  when  there  is  that  totaliza- 
tion of  attitude  the  condition  of  which  is  the  actualization  of 
conative  dispositions  through  acts  of  the  type  described.1 

There  are,  however,  certain  phenomena  which  constitute  an 
apparent  exception  to  this  law,  namely  objectless  feelings  (emo- 
tions, sentiments  and  moods)  which  are  clearly  worth-suggestive 
in  our  sense  and  find  expression  in  worth  judgments.  Practi- 
cally all  the  concrete  emotional  attitudes,  joy,  sadness,  anger, 
fear,  may  appear  as  worth  feelings  without  concrete  perceptual 
or  ideal  objects.  A  nameless  sadness  or  fear,  an  objectless 
anger,  may  arise  in  consciousness  with  all  the  worth  suggestions 
of  enhanced  or  thwarted  conation,  but  without  any  object  upon 
which  it  is  definitely  directed.  This  does  not  mean  that  there 
are  not  adequate  conditions  (physiological)  but  merely  that  there 
are  not  sufficient  presuppositions,  judgmental  reference  to  the 
existence  or  non-existence  of  objects.  They  would  appear  at 
first  sight  to  be  without  such  presuppositions.  In  reality,  how- 
ever, they  are  to  be  viewed  as  in  the  main  analogous  to  the  im- 
personal judgment  in  the  sphere  of  cognition.  As  in  the  im- 
personal judgment  there  is  no  directly  asserted  subject  of  the 
predicate  discoverable,  so  in  objectless  emotions  and  moods 
there  is  no  directly  asserted  object  of  judgment  to  which  the 
worth  predicates  implied  in  the  feelings  of  joy,  sorrow,  etc., 

1  Wundt  (and,  it  may  be  added,  Hoffding  before  him)  makes  much  of  the 
principle  of  totalization,  of  total  resultant,  in  his  analysis  and  theory  of  feel- 
ing. Whatever  be  the  nature  of  the  simple  feelings  (the  manifold  elements 
of  content)  they  all  tend  to  merge  in  a  total  resultant  a  unitary  feeling. 
This  principle  of  '  Einheit  der  Gefiihls-Lage '  is  referred  to  the  principle 
of  unity  of  apperception  for  its  explanation,  all  feeling  being  viewed  as  the 
subjective  aspect  of  apperception.  The  truth  of  this  general  proposition  is 
beyond  question  but  there  are  different  grades  of  apperception  and  direrent 
degrees  of  totalization.  Undoubtedly  when  attention  is  held  by  a  sensation  of 
sound  or  color,  or  by  an  organic  sensation,  its  feeling  tone  tends  to  dominate 
consciousness  and  to  fuse  with  it  all  other  feeling  tones.  But  it  is  not  until 
there  is  explicit  reference  of  the  sensation,  as  object,  to  a  conative  disposition 
through  judgment  or  assumption,  that  totalization  of  attitude  takes  place 
which  gives  rise  to  the  worth  suggestions  of  feeling.  In  such  a  totalization 
the  feeling  tone  of  sensations,  as  such,  becomes  irrelevant  and  subordinate  to 
the  worth  feelings  of  the  attitude  as  a  whole. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  105 

are  applied.  Reality  is  implied — the  feelings  are  real  and 
earnest  but  there  is  no  existential  judgment  about  any  definite 
object  in  reality.  There  is  merely  an  undifferentiated  pre- 
sumption or  assumption  of  reality  as  presupposition.  But  this 
is  sufficient  to  make  them  worth  feelings. 

The  psychology  of  the  impersonal  judgment  scarcely  leaves 
us  room  to  doubt  of  its  nature.  There  is  for  such  judgment 
neither  subject  nor  predicate,  nor  reference  of  the  one  to  the 
other.  It  is,  so  to  speak,  the  amorphous,  protoplasmic  germ  of 
later  reflective  judgments  which  do  involve  a  separation  of  subject 
and  predicate.  Whatever,  in  the  interests  of  systematic  logic,  we 
may  seek  to  supply  as  the  subject  of  such  judgment  (in  order 
to  bring  it  within  the  classifications  of  logical  judgment)  — 
whether  we  may  describe  the  subject  as  universal,  undeter- 
mined, the  whole  of  reality,  or  as  a  determined  and  particular 
sensation  of  the  moment  —  the  fact  remains  that  psycholog- 
ically, the  <  if9  of  the  impersonal  judgment  is  contentless.  Pre- 
cisely similarly,  in  the  objectless  worth  feeling  the  object  is  no 
presentation,  with  the  added  judgment  of  existence  or  non- 
existence,  no  presentation  either  universal  or  particular,  no  sen- 
sation either  peripheral  or  organic.  Subject  and  predicate, 
presentation  and  feeling  are  not  discriminated.  We  have  to  do 
here  with  a  protoplasmic  worth  attitude  without  judgmental 
presuppositions  but  which  may  become  definite  through  inclusion 
among  its  presuppositions,  which  are  now  merely  conative  and 
dispositional,  of  some  explicit  act  of  judgment. 

B.  Can  we  then  correlate  these  meanings  of  worth  feelings, 
thus  appreciatively  described,  with  specific  types  of  cognitive 
presuppositions  ?  The  necessary  presupposition  of  worth  feeling, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  the  actualization  of  a  conative  disposition 
through  acts  of  presumption,  assumption  and  judgment.  Can 
we  connect  the  specific  type  of  reference  of  the  feeling  with  a 
definite  type  of  actual  presupposition? 

The  two  directions  of  worth  feeling  (positive  and  negative),  as 
distinguished  from  mere  pleasantness-unpleasantness,  contain 
some  presupposition  of  reality — witness  our  study  of  joy  and 
sorrow,  love  and  anger,  hope  and  despair.  And,  as  we  shall  see 


106  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

later,  positive  and  negative  worth  may  vary  independently  of 
pleasantness-unpleasantness.  But  it  is  with  the  other  qualifica- 
tions of  feeling,  references  to  conation,  that  we  are  chiefly  con- 
cerned. When  we  turn  to  the  transgredient  reference,  with  its 
tension,  restlessness,  contraction,  and  immanental  reference  with 
its  relaxation  repose  and  expansion,  we  find  that  they  are  closely 
connected  with  changes  in  the  presupposition  of  reality,  with 
modification  of  the  cognitive  presuppositions. 

In  general  the  transgredient  reference  appears  in  all  those 
emotional  attitudes  where  an  habitual  presupposition  of  reality 
meets  with  opposition  or  arrest,  where  for  instance  primitive 
presumption  passes  into  assumption  and  judgment.  In  such  a 
case  it  may  be  either  the  subjective  control  factor,  the  conative 
disposition  which  is  felt  in  the  background  and  gives  rise  to  the 
assumption,  or  the  more  objective  factor  of  control,  the  recog- 
nitive,  determining  and  giving  rise  to  judgment.  In  either 
case,  however,  the  transgredient  reference  is  to  a  disposition  in 
the  background,  in  the  process  of  determining  a  new  accom- 
modation. 

The  immanental  reference  to  reality,  on  the  other  hand, 
represents  the  emotional  attitude  which  goes  with  accommoda- 
tion realized.  It  is  the  feeling  which  attaches  to  judgment 
habit  or  to  the  assumption  of  the  second  type  arising  out  of  that 
habit.  The  fact  that  habit  has  its  own  feeling,  its  own  worth 
suggestions,  is  a  point  which  must  be  emphasized  throughout. 

V. 

A.  With  the  analysis  of  these  primary  aspects  or  meanings 
which  feelings  disclose,  we  are  led  to  the  problem  of  derived  or 
acquired  feeling  attitudes.  There  are  two  possible  conceptions 
of  the  nature  of  these  attitudes  and  of  the  process  of  their 
derivation.  The  first  of  these  is  the  concept  of  fusion  or  mix- 
ture of  feelings,  purely  analytical  in  character.  On  this  view 
the  aspects  of  feeling,  the  selective  meanings  of  appreciative 
description,  are  hypostatized  as  elements  and  all  acquired  mean- 
ings are  conceived  as  fusions  or  mixtures  of  these  elements. 
The  second  concept,  genetic  and  functional  in  character,  looks 
upon  the  derived  attitude,  the  acquired  meaning,  as  a  new 


CONSCIOUSNESS   Of    VALUE  107 

aspect,  the  product  of  a  new  *  totalization '  of  consciousness  in 
which  the  old  aspects  are  taken  up  into  the  new,  but  in  which 
the  new  meaning  is  not  exhausted  by  its  analysis  into  the  old 
elements.  The  new  feeling  attitude  is  a  new  accommodation, 
a  *  progression  '  in  meaning  or,  in  terms  of  worth  theory,  a  value 
movement. 

The  former  of  these  views,  of  very  limited  applicability  at 
the  best  in  any  region  of  psychological  explanation,  is  wholly 
inapplicable  to  the  explanation  pf  the  meanings  of  feeling 
attitudes.  Wundt,  unfortunately,  despite  his  three-dimensional 
theory,  is  still  too  much  under  the  influence  of  this  conception, 
although  in  applying  his  fundamental  law  of  psychical  causality, 
the  law  of  resultants,  he  explicitly  asserts  that  there  is  an  ac- 
quired meaning  in  the  resultant  complexes  or  fusions  not  found 
in  the  elements.  It  is  better  to  abandon  the  concept  of  elements 
entirely  in  this  connection  and  to  make  use  wholly  of  the  genetic 
concept  of  progression  or  acquirement  of  meaning  through 
change  in  presuppositions. 

The  acquired  qualifications,  selective  meanings  of  feelings 
may  be  divided  into  two  groups  :  (i)  the  acquired  meanings  of 
simple  appreciation  and  (2)  those  of  characterization  and  par- 
ticipation. If  we  recall  these  distinctions,  previously  made,  it 
will  be  remembered  that  simple  appreciation  of  an  object  is  an 
appreciation  of  its  affective-volitional  meaning  or  worth  prior  to 
explicit  reference  of  the  object  to  the  Ego  or  the  Alter  or  to 
other  objects,  prior,  in  other  words,  to  secondary  possessive  or 
instrumental  judgments.  On  the  level  of  simple  appreciation 
appear,  then,  certain  qualifications  of  the  general  transgredient 
and  immanental  references  of  feeling. 

B.  The  first  of  these  acquired  meanings  to  be  considered  is 
the  feeling  of  ougktness  or  obligation.  The  feeling  of  oughtness 
that  a  thing  should  &e,  that  an  act  should  take  place,  is  a  specific 
form  of  the  feeling  of  worth.  As  such,  upon  our  view,  it 
should  be  defined  in  terms  of  its  presuppositions.  Apprecia- 
tively described,  it  is  an  acquired  modification  of  the  general 
feeling  of  transgredient  reference,  of  tension.  Apart  from 
appreciative  description  it  is  an  experience  of  mere  strain,  per- 


IOS  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

haps,  from  the  point  of  view  of  content,  a  mere  strain  sensation. 
Its  differentia  is  to  be  found  in  the  precise  character  of  the 
transgredient  reference  and  therefore  in  the  character  of  its 
cognitive  presuppositions.  Now  the  feeling  of  oughtness,  in 
its  simplest  form,  attaches  to  objects,  to  things.  It  is  felt  that  if 
a  thing  does  not  exist  it  ought  to.  As  thus  applied  (for  instance 
by  a  child  who  as  yet  has  practically  no  sense  of  personal, 
ethical  obligation)  it  means  little  more  than  that  the  thing  is  de- 
sired. But  just  that  little  additional  meaning  is  the  important 
modification.  Is  it  possible  to  define  that  additional  meaning? 

The  point  of  difference  is  to  be  found,  I  think,  in  the  fact 
that  the  presuppositions  of  the  feeling  of  oughtness  are  not  sim- 
ple as  in  the  case  of  a  simple  mode  of  feeling  or  desire.  The 
feeling  of  oughtness  is  in  fact  a  transition  mode  between  two 
existential  judgments,  in  which  an  existential  feeling  is  quali- 
fied by  an  assumption  feeling.  The  object  does  not  exist,  and 
we  have  the  corresponding  feeling  or  desire,  but  so  strong  is 
the  conative  disposition  presupposed,  that  it  gives  rise  to  an 
assumption  of  existence.  This  assumption  is  felt  to  be  not 
merely  possible  but  necessary  and  thus,  as  Simmel  has  said, 
obligation  is  in  one  aspect  a  mode  of  thought  lying  midway  be- 
tween possibility  and  necessity.1  The  source  of  this  assumption 
is  the  subject's  conative  disposition  and  the  feeling  of  oughtness 
is  the  feeling  of  that  subjective  control,  but,  since  the  subjective 
control  is  not  explicitly  acknowledged  in  judgment,  the  ought- 
ness  is  felt  as  a  tertiary  quality  of  the  object. 

The  transgredient  reference  of  the  assumption  is  therefore 
to  the  disposition.  To  refer  again  to  the  figure  of  the  fore- 
ground and  background  of  consciousness,  the  judgment  of  ex- 
istence or  non-existence  of  the  object  is  in  the  foreground,  the 
modification  of  the  feeling  which  we  describe  as  oughtness  has 
reference  to  an  object  in  the  background  which  at  first  is 
revealed  merely  in  this  modification  of  feeling,  but  which  later, 
through  the  activities  of  ideal  construction  and  judgment,  becomes 
an  explicit  ideal  object,  the  self  or  the  social  will,  when  de- 

1  Simmel's  masterly  study  of  the  mode  of  oughtness,  das  Sollen  ( '  Einleitung 
indie  Moral  wissenschaf  t ' )  can  be  merely  referred  to  in  passing,  fuller  treat- 
ment being  reserved  for  another  connection.  The  important  point  is  that  it  is 
A  fundamental  mode,  at  the  same  time  cognitive  and  affective-volitional. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  109 

veloped  ethical  obligation  is  felt.  In  a  sense  the  simple  feeling 
of  oughtness  is  objectless  until  this  stage  of  ideal  construction  is 
reached. 

C.  Corresponding  to  the  feeling  mode  of  oughtness,  the  pri- 
mary mode  out  of  which  ethical  obligation  develops,  we  find  a 
second  mode  of  simple  appreciation  which  represents  a  special 
qualification  of  the  immanental  reference  of  feeling,  the  '  sem- 
blant '  or  aesthetic  mode.1  This  mode,  the  aesthetic  psychosis,  is 
always  appreciatively  described  in  terms  of  repose  and  expansion 
and  its  worth,  in  so  far  as  the  experience  is  purely  aesthetic,  is  im- 
manental. Here  again,  we  have,  not  a  simple  aspect  of  feeling 
with  simple  presuppositions,  but  an  attitude  implying  transition 
and  accommodation,  characterized  by  typical  changes  in  cogni- 
tive presuppositions. 

The  characteristics  of  this  mode  of  feeling,  its  repose, 
relaxation  and  expansion,  have  their  origin  in  the  fact  that  the 
judgments  of  existence  and  non-existence,  and  with  them  ex- 
plicit conation,  desire,  are  inhibited,  reduced  to  a  minimum, 
remain  in  fact  merely  as  a  dispositional  presupposition,  while 
consciousness  is  largely  absorbed  in  presentational  content.  With 
the  laws  governing  the  ordering  of  that  content,  which  condi- 
tion the  arrest  of  desire  and  the  inducing  of  repose,  we  are  not 
at  this  point  concerned ;  it  is  sufficient  to  note  the  general  fact 
that  formal  principles  of  the  aesthetic  owe  their  significance  psy- 
chologically to  the  fact  that  they  are  instrumental  in  producing 
this  effect.  But,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  it  is  not  an 
adequate  view  of  the  aesthetic  to  regard  it  as  a  purely  presenta- 
tional consciousness.  While  explicit  judgment  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  its  place  is  taken  by  assumptions  which  relate  the 
object  to  the  desire  which  is  now  merely  dispositional.  These 
assumptions,  we  have  seen,  may  be  of  two  types,  the  assumption 
which  takes  the  place  of  primitive  presumption  after  arrest,  and 
that  which  becomes  the  substitute  for  the  disposition  or  habit 
created  by  judgment  and  desire.  In  the  first  case  we  have  the 

!For  the  use  of  the  term  ' semblant  mode,'  see  Baldwin's  Thought  and 
Things,  Vol.  I.,  especially  Chapter  VI.  As  to  the  complete  identification  of 
sembling  with  Einfuhlung,  I  think  there  is  some  doubt,  since  the  latter,  in  at 
least  some  of  its  aspects,  is  earnest,  and  the  feeling  has  presumption  and  judg- 
ment —  not  merely  assumption  —  as  its  presupposition. 


110  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

primitive  semblant  mode,  in  the  latter  the  more  developed  mode 
of  contemplation. 

In  general,  then,  the  aesthetic  mode  of  sembling  or  con- 
templation is  a  complex,  derived,  mode  of  feeling  of  value  in 
which  the  presuppostitions  are  presentational  content  and  assump- 
tions. To  use  again  the  figure  of  the  foreground  and  back- 
ground of  consciousness,  the  foreground  is  taken  up  with  pres- 
entational content,  the  psychical  energies  involved  in  judgment 
are  occupied  with  the  activities  of  mere  apperception  of  content 
in  its  relations,  with  contemplation,  while  in  the  background 
remains  the  assumption  of  existence,  with  its  reference  to  cona- 
tive  dispositions.  While  the  object  is  detached  from  immediate 
desire,  its  relation  to  desire  is  not  severed.  The  object  has  its 
own  reality  coefficient  and  the  feeling  ^s  a  feeling  of  value. 
The  source  of  these  assumptions  and  of  the  objectivity,  reality, 
which  the  object  has,  differs  in  important  respects  from  that  of 
the  assumption  in  the  feeling  of  oughtness.  While  the  control 
is  still  partly  subjective,  is  determined  by  conative  disposition, 
the  objective  factor,  the  presentational  content  has  a  much  larger 
share  in  the  determination  of  the  assumption. 

An  illustration  will  show  the  situation  with  greater  clearness. 
The  aesthetic  appreciation  of  feminine  beauty  is  a  psychosis 
grafted  immediately  upon  desire  and  desire  dispositions.  The 
process  by  which  the  aesthetic  psychosis  supervenes  upon  that 
of  crude  desire  is  one  of  arrest,  social  and  individual,  and  a 
rearrangement  of  the  elements  of  the  object  presented  either 
unconsciously,  or  consciously  as  in  art,  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
fill  the  foreground  of  consciousness  with  presentational  activity 
and  to  detach  the  object  from  immediacy  of  desire.  An  implicit 
assumption  of  the  existence  of  the  object  for  desire  is,  however, 
a  necessary  presupposition  of  the  aesthetic  appreciation.  Should 
the  conative  disposition  become  explicit  in  actual  desire,  the 
aesthetic  repose  would  cease  and  a  new  adaptation  take  place. 

In  both  these  appreciative  modes,  it  should  finally  be  ob- 
served, worth  or  affective  volitional  meaning  has  been  acquired. 
The  deepening  of  the  transgredient  or  immanental  reference,  as 
the  case  may  be,  becomes  part  of  the  funded  meaning  of  the 
object,  or  is  imputed  to  the  object.  The  recognition  of  this  fact 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  m 

is  of  far  reaching  importance  for  all  the  meanings  acquired  in 
these  modes  of  appreciation  enter  in  as  determinants  in  later 
judgments  of  value. 

D.  Simple  appreciation,  with  its  two  primary  modifications  de- 
scribed, is  further  differentiated  into  secondary  acquired  mean- 
ings, through  certain  value  movements,  progressions,  the  nature 
of  which  is  to  be  considered  more  fully  later,  but  which  we  may 
here  ignore  for  the  reason  that  our  problem  is  merely  apprecia- 
tive description  of  feeling  attitudes.  These  meanings  are  those 
which  we  describe  as  personal  worths  (of  possession  and  merit), 
instrumental  or  utility  meanings  (values  of  utilization)  and  the 
common  meanings,  or  feelings,  of  -participation  value.  The 
characteristic  of  all  these  modifications  of  primary  feeling  of 
value  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  they  arise  through  the 
establishment  of  relational  judgments  between  the  object  and 
the  disposition  presupposed.  Otherwise  expressed,  that  which 
in  simple  appreciation  was  a  merely  felt  transgredient  or  im- 
manental  reference,  now  acquires  its  explicit  object  which  is 
acknowledged  in  judgment. 

An  analysis  of  the  personal  feelings  makes  this  point  clear. 
The  feeling  of  possession  is  more  than  the  feeling  of  the  worth 
of  the  object,  as  presumed,  judged  or  assumed  to  exist.  The 
object  acquires  an  imputed  value  through  the  explicit  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  subject  for  which  it  exists.  So  also  in  the  case 
of  the  feeling  of  personal  obligation  or  merit  which  arises  on 
the  basis  of  a  reference  of  the  valued  disposition  to  the  person- 
ality. In  general  we  may  say  that  the  personal  feelings  have 
an  additional  presupposition  of  reality  which  the  primary  feel- 
ings have  not.  But  the  more  developed  modes  of  these  primary 
feelings,  the  obligation  and  the  semblant  are  germinal  to  these 
personal  values.  They  are  transition  stages  in  which  a  new 
feeling  mode  is  introduced,  through  the  transgredient  or  im- 
manental  reference  arising  upon  assumptions.  In  the  case  of  the 
personal  value  the  assumption  becomes  an  existential  judgment 
of  acknowledgment  of  the  self.  Of  course  such  a  transition  re- 
quires ideal  construction  of  the  self,  and  this  involves  the  *  feel- 
ing-in'  of  primary  experiences  into  others — an  extension  of 


112  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

simple  appreciation  through  sympathetic  Einfuhlung>  a  process 
to  be  studied  in  another  connection. 

The  impersonal  feelings  of  the  participation  values  or  utility 
values  of  dispositions  and  objects  involve  a  further  extension  of 
this  acquirement  of  common  meaning.  In  addition  to  the  pre- 
supposition of  the  reality  of  the  desired  object  there  is  an 
additional  presupposition  of  similar  desires  and  feelings  in  the 
minds  of  others  which  gives  rise  ultimately  to  judgments  and 
assumptions  of  over-individual  demands.  How  such  presup- 
positions arise  is  again,  of  course,  a  genetic  problem  of  psychol- 
ogy, more  especially  of  the  study  of  the  laws  of  sympathetic 
imitation  and  Einfuhlung\  the  main  point  here  is  that  the 
appreciative  differences  in  the  meaning  of  the  feelings  arises 
through  acknowledgment  of  references  which  were  previously 
merely  implicit. 

And  it  should  be  noted  finally  that  just  as  the  transgredient 
and  immanental  references  acquire  depth  of  meaning  through 
the  obligation  and  aesthetic  modes,  so  in  these  further  processes 
primary  feeling  is  deepened  and  broadened. 

IV. 

A.  Worth  predicates  have  been  defined  as  funded  meanings 
of  the  objects.  These  predicates  or  meanings  correspond,  we 
have  seen,  to  certain  qualitative  aspects  of  feeling,  primary  and 
derived.  But  these  meanings  or  values  have  also  a  quantita- 
tive aspect,  of  degree.  To  what  aspects  of  feeling  do  these 
differences  of  degree  correspond  ? 

It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  many  psychologists 
have  found  it  necessary  to  distinguish  between  degree  of  feel- 
ing of  value  and  degree  of  intensity  of  sensation-feeling  and 
some  have  used  such  terms  as  depth  and  breadth  of  the  feeling 
in  the  personality  to  characterize  quantitatively  the  worth  sug- 
gestion of  the  feeling.  And  when  we  follow  more  closely  the 
appreciative  distinctions  made  in  the  sphere  of  worth  experience 
it  becomes  clear  that  some  such  distinction  is  necessary.  For 
in  the  first  place  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  if  we  make  use  of  those 
appreciative  descriptions  of  feeling  subsumed  under  the  general 
terms  transgredient  and  immanental  references,  we  cannot 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  113 

properly  apply  the  quantitative  term  intensity.  While,  for 
instance,  we  may  speak  of  the  degree  we  cannot  properly  speak 
of  intensity,  of  repose  or  expansion.  Here  we  must  use  the 
terms  depth  and  breadth.  Thus  we  find  Munsterberg  l  accept- 
ing the  ordinary  formula  that  intensity  of  feeling  decreases 
with  repetition  and  at  the  same  time,  in  his  desire  to  do  justice 
to  the  concrete  facts  of  worth  experience,  insisting  that  repeti- 
tion may  increase  the  depth  of  feeling  tone.  Clearly  depth  and 
intensity  are  definitely  distinguished  and  admitted  to  be  inde- 
pendently variable.  It  would  appear,  then  that  we  must  make 
a  distinction  between  degree  (or  intensity  in  the  broader  Kantian 
sense)  and  intensity  in  the  narrower  sense  of  sensational  in- 
tensity, between  degree  of  feeling  of  value  and  intensity  of 
pleasantness-unpleasantness  as  feeling  tone  of  sensations.  In- 
tensity in  this  latter  sense  applies  to  all  sensation  feelings, 
1  pleasure-causation '  as  we  have  described  it,  and  probably  to 
all  sensation  feelings  which  enter  into  a  total  feeling  complex, 
but  properly  speaking  not  to  feeling  attitudes,  not  to  the  worth 
aspect  of  feeling. 

What  then  is  the  relation  between  the  degree  of  acquired 
meaning,  value,  of  a  feeling  attitude  and  intensity  of  pleasant- 
ness-unpleasantness? How  are  they  related  for  appreciative 
introspection  and  analysis,  and  how  shall  this  empirical  relation, 
when  determined,  be  connected  with  our  analysis  of  the  condi- 
tions, actual  and  dispositional,  of  these  two  aspects  of  feeling? 
This  question  is  of  the  utmost  importance  not  only  because  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  a  problem  implied  in  our  preceding  distinctions 
between  feeling  of  value  and  pleasantness-unpleasantness,  be- 
tween pleasantness-unpleasantness  and  the  appreciative  aspects 
of  feeling  attitude,  its  selective  meanings,  but  also  because  in 
the  solution  of  this  problem  is  involved  the  whole  question  of 
the  measurement  of  feelings  of  value  to  which  we  must  pres- 
ently turn. 

B.  We  find,  then,  that  not  only  is  worth  experience  distin- 
guishable, in  the  aspects  both  of  quality  and  degree,  from  pleas- 
ure-causation, but  also  that  the  worth  modifications  or  sugges- 
tions of  feeling  are  to  an  extent  variable  independently  of  hedonic 

1  Miinsterberg,  Grundziige  der  Psychologic ,  p.  39. 


114  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

intensity.  Two  phenomena  of  our  worth  experience  indicate 
this  relation,  (i)  Positive  worth  feeling  may  exist  side  by  side 
with  unpleasant  experiences  and  negative  worth  feeling  with 
pleasant.  (2)  Degree  of  worth  feeling  may  increase  with  de- 
crease of  hedonic  intensity  and  there  are  numerous  instances 
where  worth  feelings  are  practically  intensitiless.  These  facts 
have  led  to  the  general  conception  of  the  irrelevance  of  the 
hedonic  aspects  of  a  total  attitude  for  worth  judgment  and  the 
formulation  of  Brentano's  term  *  hedonic  redundancies '  to  de- 
scribe them. 

We  shall  examine  the  facts  briefly  and  then  turn  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  theories  of  the  relation  of  the  two  distinguish- 
able aspects.  The  first  phenomenon  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
classical  description  of  Lessing.  In  a  letter  to  Mendelssohn  he 
writes :  "  Darinn  sind  wir  wohl  doch  einig,  lieber  Freund,  dass 
alle  Leidenschaften  entweder  heftige  Begierden  oder  heftige 
Verabscheuungen  sind?  Auch  darinn  :  dass  wir  uns  bei  jeder 
heftigen  Begierde  oder  Verabscheuung  eines  grosser  Grads 
unserer  Realitat  bewusst  sind  und  dass  dieses  Bewusstsein  nicht 
anders  als  angenehm  sein  kann?  Folglich,  sind  alle  Leiden- 
schaften,.  auch  die  allerunangenehmsten,  als  Leidenschaften, 
angenehm."  The  paradox  of  calling  that  which  is  unpleasant 
pleasant,  and  the  lack  of  adequate  analysis  in  this  description, 
should  not  blind  us  to  its  essential  appreciative  truth.  While 
the  same  feeling  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  both  pleasant  and 
unpleasant,  it  is  quite  possible  that  we  are  concerned  here  with 
two  feelings  in  certain  relations  to  each  other. 

Plausible  explanations  have  been  given  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  identification  of  worth  feeling  with  pleasure-causa- 
tion. It  might  be  said  that  we  have  to  do  here  with  an  illusion 
of  judgment,  that  what  was  formerly  unpleasant  has  really  be- 
come pleasant  through  change  in  physiological  disposition,  and 
that  the  unpleasantness  instead  of  being  real  is  merely  a  memory 
of  former  unpleasantness.  It  seems  hardly  necessary,  however, 
to  deny,  in  the  interests  of  theory,  what  is  a  fairly  constant 
deliverance  of  appreciation,  namely  that  positive  worth  feeling 
may  be  coexistent  with  actual  unpleasantness.  Or  it  has  been 

1  Quoted  from  Him,  Origins  of  Art,  London,  1900,  p.  60. 


CONSCIOUSNESS    OF   VALUE  "5 

said  that  we  have  a  simple  case  of  mixed  feeling.  A  pleasant 
and  unpleasant  sensation  feeling  may  exist  side  by  side  in  the 
same  state  of  consciousness  (as  for  instance  the  pleasant  taste 
of  sugar  and  the  unpleasant  sensations  of  satiety  as  they  are 
just  beginning  to  appear) —  why  should  not  two  worth  feelings 
or  worth  feeling  and  simple  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness? 
To  this  we  may  answer  that  the  two  cases  are  not  parallel.  The 
inapplicability  of  the  concept  of  mixture  or  fusion  to  feelings  of 
value  we  have  already  pointed  out  and  in  this  case  the  figure  is 
especially  misleading. 

If  we  look  at  Lessing's  description  more  closely  we  find  that 
his  paradox  really  arises  from  a  failure  to  analyze  —  to  distin- 
guish between  two  aspects  of  the  total  psychosis,  the  feeling  of 
value  and  the  irrelevant  hedonic  accompaniments.  The  situa- 
tion he  describes  admits  of  two  interpretations.  On  the  one 
hand  the  passion,  of  anger  let  us  say,  is  really  a  feeling  of 
negative  worth,  with  certain  cognitive  presuppositions,  unpleas- 
ant, as  Lessing  says.  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the 
organic  disturbance  may  be  pleasantly  toned,  especially  after 
long  continued  arrest,  with  its  accompanying  strain  sensations 
negatively  toned.  We  have  here  then  pleasant  accompaniments 
of  a  feeling  of  negative  worth.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally 
possible  that  what  Lessing  calls  the  pleasantness  of  the  un- 
pleasant passion  may  really  cover  a  gradual  transition  from  one 
feeling  of  value  to  another,  and  what  he  calls  the  pleasantness 
of  the  psychosis  may  be  a  feeling  of  value  of  the  personal  type. 
The  object  itself  may  have  negative  worth  while  the  entire  ex- 
perience of  having  such  a  passion,  or  in  fact  the  knowledge  of 
the  capacity  for  such  reaction,  may  give  rise  to  a  feeling  of 
satisfaction,  of  personal  worth.  This  might  even  extend  to 
such  passions  which  have  unpleasant  hedonic  accompaniments. 
Feelings  of  value  might  be  accompanied  by  unpleasant  sensa- 
tion-feelings. 

The  second  group  of  facts  which  lead  to  this  appreciative 
differentiation  of  degree  of  intensity  of  pleasantness-unpleasant- 
ness from  degree  of  worth  or  meaning  of  the  feeling,  are  the 
so-called  intensitiless  attitudes  or  acts  of  valuation  or  preference. 
Here,  it  is  maintained,  quasi-logical  modifications  take  the  place 


II 6  WILBUR   M.    URBAN. 

of  intensity.  If  we  begin  with  those  two  primary  modifications 
of  simple  appreciation,  the  ethical  and  aesthetic,  we  find  intensity 
giving  place  to  other  modifications.  A  quiet  sense  of  obligation 
may  reveal  a  degree  of  worth  of  an  ideal  object  which  the  in- 
tensest  passion  or  emotion  does  not  suggest.  Similarly  in  the 
aesthetic,  semblant  mode  a  degree  of  immanental  worth  may  be 
suggested  in  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the  feeling  when  the  ele- 
ment of  intensity  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  But  still  more  evi- 
dent do  these  facts  become  when  we  pass  to  the  secondary, 
derived  feelings,  the  personal  and  the  impersonal  over-individual 
references.  In  a  case  of  preference  between  objects  to  which 
these  feelings  correspond,  a  relatively  intensitiless  feeling  of 
personal  worth  may  have  an  affective-volitional  meaning  which 
the  intensest  passion  connected  with  a  condition  worth  has  not, 
and  so  with  the  over-individual  feelings.  If  then  by  intensity  we 
mean  not  the  broader  Kantian  conception  of  any  modification 
of  degree  of  inner  experience,  but  that  particular  degree  which 
applies  to  sensation  and  feeling  tone  of  sensation,  there  can  be 
no  question  but  that  worth  feelings,  as  determined  by  judg- 
ment and  assumption,  may  be  practically  intensitiless.  These 
acts  are  of  course  causally  connected  with  sensation  tendencies, 
both  peripheral  and  organic,  and  every  such  act  has  as  accom- 
paniment secondary  hedonic  resonances  of  more  or  less  inten- 
sity, but  the  point  is  that  appreciatively  we  can  distinguish  the 
two  factors  and  are  aware  that  the  latter  do  not  determine  the 
worth  judgment. 

The  facts  upon  which  this  hypothesis  of  independent  varia- 
bility of  the  two  factors  in  a  total  worth  attitude  is  based  are 
now  before  us,  as  well  as  some  insight  into  the  subordinate  role 
which  the  hedonic  resonance  plays  in  worth  judgments.  We 
are,  however,  as  yet  wholly  without  any  conception  which  will 
enable  us  to  understand  this  relation  functionally. 

C.  There  are  two  general  theories  of  this  relation,  which 
may  be  described  as  the  dualistic  and  monistic,  or  genetic.  The 
dualistic  theory  is  represented  by  Brentano  and  Schwartz.  In 
Brentano's  view,1  as  we  have  seen,  any  concrete  attitude  of  valu- 

1  Brentano,  Psychologic,  especially  page  197.  Also  Ur sprung  der  sittlichen 
Erkentniss,  especially  page  86. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  117 

ation  can  be  analyzed  into  two  aspects,  intensitiless  acts  of 
preference,  acts  of  love  and  hate,  and  the  hedonic  redundancies 
which  accompany  them.  To  the  latter,  as  sensation  feelings, 
belong  alone,  properly  speaking,  degrees  of  intensity.  To  the 
primary  reaction  belong  quasi-logical  directions,  worth  sugges- 
tions, which  give  rise  to  worth  predicates  and  judgments.  In 
Schwartz's  view l  feeling  intensity  belongs  to  the  passive  side 
of  consciousness  while  degrees  of  worth  to  the  active,  voluntar- 
istic  side.  They  appear  in  the  form  of  acts  of  analytic  and 
synthetic  preference.  The  essential  of  both  conceptions  is  the 
dualism  between  feeling  and  will,  and  the  reference  of  worth 
distinctions  to  modifications  of  will. 

The  facts  which  have  given  rise  to  this  theory  are,  as  we 
have  seen,  true  enough.  So  also  is  the  conception  of  hedonic 
redundancies,  in  so  far  as  it  merely  describes  for  appreciation 
the  functional  relation  of  these  two  aspects.  But  it  is  far  from 
certain  that  it  is  necessary  to  draw  their  dualistic  conclusion. 
That  would  follow  only  on  condition  that  feeling  and  will  are 
totally  different  elements  and  the  distinction  between  them  as 
active  and  passive  is  ultimate,  and  secondly,  that  the  only 
modification  of  feeling  which  could  be  made  the  equivalent  of 
degrees  of  worth  is  hedonic  intensity. 

Whether  these  assumptions  are  necessary  must  be  deter- 
mined ultimately  by  a  consideration  of  the  whole  question  of 
the  psyschology  of  feeling  and  will  and  their  relations,  which 
must  be  reserved  for  another  connection.  It  will  be  sufficient 
here  to  deny  the  necessity  of  such  assumptions,  and  in  the 
meantime  to  suggest  a  second  possible  conception,  monistic  and 
genetic  in  character.  Feeling,  according  to  our  analysis,  has 
other  modifications,  other  meanings  than  passive  pleasantness 
unpleasantness,  transgredient  and  immanental  references  to 
conative  dispositions.  These  references  which  arise  only  when 
the  disposition  is  actualized  by  cognitive  acts  of  presumption, 
judgment,  assumption,  are  signs  of  the  affective-volitional 
meaning  of  the  object,  its  relation  to  conation.  Feeling  as 
passive  is  therefore  not  to  be  separated  from  will  as  active. 
But  more  than  this  —  these  references,  these  aspects  may,  con- 

1  Schwartz,  Psychologie  des  Willens,  Chapter  II.,  also  Appendix  I. 


Ii8  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

ceivably, —  with  repeated  actualization  of  the  dispositions  — 
become  differentiated,  as  selective  meanings,  from  the  aspect 
of  hedonic  intensity,  and  increase  in  depth  and  breadth.  If 
this  view  should  prove  tenable,  we  should  have  a  relation  anal- 
ogous to  that  between  the  general  concept  and  the  particular 
presentation.  As  the  meaning  of  the  concept  develops  with 
actualization  of  the  judgment  disposition  in  successive  cog- 
nitive acts,  the  particular  presentation  becomes  less  and  less 
significant,  until  what  is  practically  im  ageless  apprehension 
may  appear.  So  also  with  the  development  of  the  selective 
meanings  of  feeling  attitude,  the  hedonic  resonance  may  become 
less  and  less  significant  until  relatively  intensitiless  appreciation 
of  the  worth  of  the  object  appears.  The  substantiation  of  such 
a  conception  of  affective  generalization  involves  a  more  ex- 
tended excursion  into  the  psychology  of  feeling.  Here  we  may 
merely  note  the  fact  that  such  feeling  attitudes  exist,  in  the  case 
where  the  presuppositions  are  assumptions,  either  of  the  explicit 
or  implicit  type. 

V. 

A.  In  concluding  this  study  we  may  with  advantage  return  to 
a  consideration  of  that  preliminary  definition  of  worth  and  worth 
predicates  from  which  this  entire  analysis  took  its  start.  This 
analysis,  it  will  be  seen,  has  given  content  to  that  definition.  It 
has  also  given  us  the  ground  work  for  further  researches  into 
the  principles  governing  the  concrete  phenomena  of  valuation 
of  different  types,  economic,  ethical,  aesthetic,  etc.  A  more 
general  view,  both  retrospective  and  prospective,  will  serve  to 
give  unity  to  the  results  attained. 

In  general,  we  found  worth  or  value  to  be  the  funded  affec- 
tive-volitional meaning  of  the  object  for  the  subject.  That 
funded  meaning,  expressed  in  terms  of  the  worth  predicates, 
goodness,  utility,  beauty,  obligation,  desert,  etc.,  represents  the 
desirability  of  the  object  (although  not  necessarily  the  fact  of 
actual  desire).  The  funded  meaning  is  acquired  through  actu- 
alization of  conative  dispositions  by  acts  of  presumption,  judg- 
ment and  assumption,  and  this  actualization  results  in  feeling 
which  undergoes  certain  modifications,  with  change  in  presup- 
positions, and  with  repetition.  This  feeling,  with  its  modifica- 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  119 

tions,  reflects  the  funded  meaning  of  the  object.  Worth  predi- 
cation, in  the  aspects  both  of  quality  and  degree,  is  determined 
by  appreciative  modifications  of  feeling  which  in  turn  are  deter- 
mined by  changes  in  presuppositions  of  the  feeling. 

To  these  funded  meanings,  roughly  classified  as  simple  ap- 
preciation of  objects  (with  its  obligation  and  semblant  modes) 
personal  worths  of  characterization,  and  common  over-individ- 
ual values  of  participation  and  utilization,  correspond  certain 
classes  of  objects,  primary  and  founded,  perceptual  and  ideal. 
All  these  derived  objects,  with  their  corresponding  attitudes,  are 
perceptual  and  ideal  constructions  which  emerge,  through  cer- 
tain value  movements  or  progressions,  from  simple  appreciation. 
The  genesis  of  these  objects,  with  their  corresponding  predi- 
cates, is  one  of  the  chief  problems  which  present  themselves. 
This  differentiation  and  fixation  of  objects  and  predicates  of 
valuation  must  be  traced  to  fundamental  laws  of  psychical 
process,  of  processes  by  which  affective-volitional  meaning  is 
acquired.  These  laws  we  may  describe  as  the  Laws  of 
Valuation. 

B.  But  worth  predication  has  a  quantitative  as  well  as  qualita- 
tive side.  Worth  judgments  express  the  degree  of  preferability 
of  one  object  over  another  (as  well  as  degrees  of  preferability  of 
amounts  of  the  same  object).  We  are  thus  led  to  the  problem 
of  the  measurement  of  the  worth  or  funded  meaning  of  objects. 
At  this  point  several  questions  arise.  Is  worth  or  value,  as  we 
have  conceived  it,  an  object,  a  function,  to  which  the  concepts 
of  quantity  and  measurement  can  be  applied? 

In  answering  this  question  we  must  first  note  the  fact  that 
such  quantitative  judgments  do  exist.  Within  the  various 
regions  of  worth  predication  numerous  empirical  uniformities 
are  discoverable  connecting  quantity  of  object  with  degree  of 
worth  predicated.  Thus  in  the  region  of  economic  *  condition  ' 
worths,  there  are  certain  empirical  laws  connecting  changes 
in  the  intrinsic  desirability  or  in  the  utility  (instrumental 
desirability)  of  an  object  with  changes  in  its  quantity.  In  the 
region  of  personal  worth  judgments  the  obligation  or  desert 
predicated  varies  in  certain  definite  ways  with  changes  in  the 


120  WILBUR  M.    URBAN. 

amount  of  the  object  (in  this  case  in  dispositions  displayed). 
The  same  is  true  of  those  judgments  upon  dispositions  according 
to  their  over-individual,  participation  value.  It  is  clear  then  that 
merely  empirical  relations  of  a  quantitative  character  may  be 
established  between  objects  and  their  worth  predicates  or  funded 
meanings.  But  such  empirical  laws  would  constitute  no  ex- 
planation, nor  would  they  enable  us  to  establish  relations  of 
degree  between  objects  of  these  different  types.  While  we 
might  formulate  empirical  statements  of  dependence  of  degree 
of  value  of  the  object  upon  changes  in  the  object  without  for- 
mulating any  theory  of  the  psychological  grounds  for  this  depen- 
dence, this  measurement  must,  if  it  is  to  lead  to  any  insight  into 
the  nature  of  worth  judgments,  involve  the  reduction  of  these 
empirical  uniformities  to  more  ultimate  psychological  laws.1 

The  question  whether  worth,  or  funded  meaning  of  an  ob- 
ject as  we  have  defined  it,  is  susceptible  of  measurement  is 
reduced,  then,  to  the  still  more  fundamental  question  whether 
the  psychological  determinants  of  that  meaning  are  objects  of 
measurement.  Into  the  acquired,  funded  meaning  of  an  object 
enter  various  elements  presupposing  various  processes  and  atti- 
tudes. If  these  can  be  analyzed  out  and  their  contributions  to 
the  total  worth  of  the  object  determined,  such  measurement  is 
possible.  On  the  view  which  we  have  rejected — that  degree 
of  worth  is  to  be  equated  with  degree  of  intensity  of  pleasant- 
ness-unpleasantness (or  as  sometimes  formulated,  with  a  func- 
tion of  intensity  and  duration) — the  problem  is,  at  least  theoreti- 
cally, simple.  The  laws  of  habit,  satiety,  contrast,  etc.,  for 
sensation  feelings  might  be  applied  directly  to  feelings  of  value. 
But  such  a  procedure  is  impossible  after  our  analysis.  The 

1  Thus  to  take  an  illustration  from  another  region  of  psychology,  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  empirical  formulation  of  Weber's  law  for  perception  holds 
good  irrespective  of  any  theory  of  its  psychological  explanation.  Or,  to  take 
another  illustration  from  a  more  closely  related  region  of  investigation,  from  a 
special  region  of  economic  worth  analysis,  the  law  of  marginal  utility  is  an 
empirical  law  which  holds,  within  limits,  irrespective  of  its  interpretation  and 
is  capable  of  explanation  in  terms  which  do  not  necessitate  the  hypothesis  of 
continuous  change  in  hedonic  intensity.  We  must  therefore  distinguish  be- 
tween the  merely  empirical  formulation  of  more  and  less  and  our  theory  of  the 
psychological  determinants  of  the  change  in  worth  or  affective  volitional  mean- 
ing of  the  object. 


CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   VALUE  121 

psychological  determinants  are  for  us  more  complex.  Having 
defined  feelings  of  value  as  feelings  presupposing  dispositions 
actualized  by  presumption,  judgment  and  assumption,  our  prob- 
lem is  the  determination  of  the  capacity  of  the  object,  as  pre- 
sumed, judged  or  assumed  to  exist,  to  call  out  feelings  of  value. 
Since  the  worth  of  the  object  is  a  function  of  the  capacity  of  the 
subject  for  feeling,  as  determined  by  these  preceding  processes 
of  accommodation  in  judgment  and  assumption,  we  must  inquire 
into  the  effect  of  these  processes  upon  the  dispositions  presup- 
posed. The  analysis  and  formulation  of  these  factors  constitute 
the  laws  of  valuation.  Such  laws  are  capable  of  determination, 
and  when  determined  they  enable  us  to  explain  the  empirical 
laws  of  '  more  and  less '  already  described. 


A   STUDY   OF   AFTER-IMAGES    ON    THE   PERIPH- 
ERAL  RETINA. 

BY  HELEN  BRADFORD   THOMPSON   AND    KATE   GORDON, 
From  the  Psychological  Laboratory  of  Mount  Holyoke  College. 

In  a  recent  paper  in  this  REVIEW  l  Miss  Grace  Fernald  dis- 
cussed the  effect  which  the  brightness  of  different  backgrounds 
has  upon  the  color  tone  of  stimuli  seen  in  indirect  vision.  Her 
work,  performed  in  this  laboratory,  suggested  to  the  writers  a 
research  in  which  peripheral  after-images  should  be  observed 
with  special  reference  to  the  brightness  of  the  backgrounds  upon 
which  they  were  cast.  So  far  as  the  writers  know  this  is  the 
first  systematic  study  of  this  particular  point.  For  a  general 
statement  about  peripheral  after-images  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Dr.  Baird's  work  *  The  Color  Sensitivity  of  the  Peripheral 
Retina,'  pp.  63-65. 

The  following  experiments  were  made  in  the  laboratory  of 
Mt.  Holyoke  College  and  extended  through  the  academic  years 
of  1904-1906.  The  subjects  were  Miss  Lucia  Bradley  B,  Miss 
Mabel  Fernald  F,  students  who  had  had  laboratory  training  but 
who  did  not  know  the  purpose  of  this  research,  and  the  writers 
T  and  G.  T  and  G  did  not  anticipate  the  results  and  avoided 
as  far  as  possible  any  speculation  during  the  progress  of  the 
investigation.  All  these  subjects  had  normal  color  vision,  ex- 
cept for  the  fact  that  B  had  color  processes  of  unusual  duration. 

All  observations  were  made  upon  the  light-adapted  eye  and 
in  daylight  illumination.  The  walls  and  floor  of  the  room  were 
colorless  ;  white  curtains  at  the  windows  were  lowered  on  bright 
sunny  days  and  drawn  aside  at  other  times ;  nearly  all  work 
was  done  in  the  morning  between  the  hours  of  nine  and  twelve, 
and  on  very  dark  days  no  experiments  were  made.  As  stimuli 
we  used  nine  colors  of  the  Hering  tissue  paper  series  ;  carmine, 
red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue-green,  green-blue,  blue  and 
violet.  These  colors  were  shown  upon  back-grounds  of  differ- 

1  Vol.  XII.,  p.  386  ff. 

122 


AFTER-IMAGES    ON   THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA.         123 

ing  brightness  made  of  papers  taken  from  the  Hering  gray 
series.  The  five  following  backgrounds  were  used  :  paper  no. 
i  called  white,  no.  3  which  matched  the  yellow  tissue  paper  in 
brightness  and  was  called  the  yellow  background,  no.  7  which 
matched  the  green  in  brightness,  no.  38  which  matched  the  blue 
and  no.  50  which  was  called  black.  The  greater  number  of 
readings  was  taken  on  the  yellow,  green  and  blue  grounds  (want 
of  time  prevented  work  on  a  background  matching  red).  In 
matching  the  above  colors  in  brightness  two  methods  were  fol- 
lowed ;  first,  in  indirect  vision  the  point  was  found  where  yellow 
(resp.  green  or  blue)  looked  gray,  and  the  color  was  then  ex- 
posed on  a  variety  of  the  Hering  grays  until  the  best  match  was 
determined  on ;  in  the  second  place  a  small  patch  of  gray  was 
pasted  on  a  disc  of  color  and  the  disc  rotated,  and  the  gray 
selected  which  appeared  to  make  least  change  in  the  brightness 
of  the  color.  These  tests  were  made  on  several  subjects  and 
at  various  times. 

The  apparatus  and  method  of  color-exposure  were  the  same 
as  those  described  by  Miss  Fernald.1  The  papers  which  served 
as  backgrounds  were  mounted  upon  a  campimeter,  and  along 
this  campimeter  fixation  points  were  marked.  The  colors,  how- 
ever, were  always  shown  from  the  same  point,  i.  £.,  directly 
below  the  eye.  At  the  beginning  of  each  test  the  subject  stood 
with  the  head  bent  over  the  campimeter,  the  eye  being  steadied 
by  a  rest  moulded  to  suit  the  brow  and  cheek-bone,  and  looked 
down  through  a  small  circular  opening  in  the  campimeter  into 
a  mirror  below.  The  precise  adjustment  of  the  eye  was  ac- 
complished by  means  of  this  image  in  the  mirror ;  with  one 
subject,  for  example,  there  was  only  one  position  in  which  the 
eye  could  see  itself  in  the  glass,  and  at  the  same  time  get  the 
two  corners  of  the  eye  in  line  with  the  row  of  fixation  points  on 
the  campimeter.  The  subject's  field  of  view  is  pictured  in  Fig. 
i.  She  stands  at  X  looking  down  with  the  right  eye  at  T. 
Starting  then  from  this  constant  position  the  eye  could  be  turned 
to  any  desired  fixation  point.  As  soon  as  a  fixation  had  been 
taken,  the  color  to  be  exposed,  covered  by  a  gray  screen  like 
the  background, was  laid  over  the  mirror ;  the  gray  screen  was 
then  taken  off  and  the  color  shone  up  through  the  opening  at  T 

1  Op.  dt. 


124  HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

and  stimulated  an  eccentric  part  of  the  retina.  When  the 
stimulation  had  lasted  the  desired  time  the  screen  was  again 
put  over  the  color,  thus  making  with  the  campimeter  a  uniform 


FIG.  i. 

gray  surface  upon  which  the  after-image  could  be  observed.1 
The  size  of  the  retinal  image  is  thus  kept  constant  throughout 
the  experiments,  /.  £.,  its  distance  and  relative  position  to  the  eye 
being  constant,  its  absolute  area  in  this  case  was  that  of  a  circle 
about  i. 08  mm.  in  diameter.2  Twenty  fixation  points  were  used, 
the  retinal  area  explored  extending  from  o°  —  macular  vision  — 
to  93°  of  eccentricity.  These  points  were  all  on  the  nasal  merid- 
ian of  the  right  eye.  The  location  of  the  blind-spot  was  deter- 
mined for  all  subjects  and  no  stimulus  allowed  to  come  near 
enough  to  have  its  effect  diminished. 

Two  plans  were  followed  in  regulating  the  time  of  exposure 
for  the  stimulus.  In  the  first  set  of  experiments  the  stimulus 
was  allowed  to  remain  until  the  color  had  completely  faded,  and 
at  the  spoken  signal  '  gone '  from  the  subject  the  gray  screen 
was  replaced  and  the  subject  left  to  observe  the  after-image 
until  it  too  had  completely  faded.  On  the  periphery  these  times 
were  not  long  enough  to  be  fatiguing  to  the  subject,  but  in  the 
paracentral  region  the  process  of  waiting  for  a  complete  fading 
was  found  somewhat  exhausting.  The  time  was,  therefore,  in 
this  region  limited  to  45  seconds  (in  a  few  cases  to  30  sec.),  but 
the  after-image  as  before  was  observed  until  its  complete  disap- 

1  For  further  description  of  apparatus  cf.  Miss  Fernald,  loc.  cit. 

2  Distance  from  cornea  to  middle  of  circular  opening  in  campimeter  =  172 
mm. ;  from  anterior  surface  of  cornea  to  nodal  point  of  eye  (after  Foster)  —  6.7236 
mm.;  from  nodal  point  to  retina  =  16.0954  mm.     Diameter  of  color  shown  = 
12  mm. 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        125 

pearance.  In  the  second  series  the  time  of  all  exposures  was 
limited  to  3  seconds  l  and  the  after-image  watched  until  com- 
pletely faded.  Between  the  complete  fading  of  an  after-image 
and  giving  a  new  stimulation  an  interval  of  2  minutes  was 
given.  All  times  were  kept  by  a  stop-watch.2  Colors  were 
presented  in  constantly  changing  order,  so  that  the  subject 
could  not  anticipate  them. 

Judgments  of  color  tone  were  made  with  reference  to  a  men- 
tal standard,  and  color  names  were  clearly  understood  before 
the  tests  began.  A  little  practice  showed  that  it  would  be  con- 
venient to  distinguish  about  nine  intermediate  tones  between 
neighboring  colors,  t.  e.,  nine  tones  between  the  colors  under 

each  bracket,  carmine,  red,  orange,  yellow,  green,  blue-green, 

« i < 

green-blue,  blue,  violet,  including  only  nine  gradations  between 

green  and  blue.  The  following  abbrevations  are  used  in  tabu- 
lating results :  for  carmine,  car,  orange,  or,  yellow,  yl,  green, 
gr,  blue,  bl  and  for  violet,  m\  for  the  intermediate  hues,  e.  g., 
between  car  and  red  there  is  (i)  a  very  slightly  reddish  car- 
mine recorded  as  —  red-car ',  (2)  a  slightly  reddish  carmine  = 
red-car •,  (3)  a  reddish  carmine  s  red-car,  (4)  a  decidedly  red- 
dish carmine  =  red-car,  (5)  a  color  half  way  between  red  and 
carmine  car  +  red,  (6)  a  decidedly  carmine  red  m  car-red  and 
so  on  to  pure  red,  the  complete  series  being 

car/—  red-car/ =  red-car/^  red-car/=  red-car/car  -f  red/=  car- 
red/=  car-red/=  car-red/—  car-red/red. 

J  Subject  B  felt  somewhat  hurried  and  dissatisfied  with  so  short  a  time,  and 
the  exposures  were  in  her  case  lengthened  to  4  seconds. 

*  Since  the  completion  of  our  work  Dr.  Baird's  monograph  '  The  Color 
Sensitivity  of  the  Peripheral  Retina  '  has  appeared,  and  in  this  it  is  reported, 
p.  47,  that  an  interval  of  6  minutes  was  allowed  between  stimulations.  We  be- 
lieve, however,  that  for  daylight  vision  our  interval  of  2  minutes  is  satisfactory, 
and  for  the  following  reasons  :  (i)  Our  interval  was  not  from  the  beginning  of 
one  stimulus  to  the  beginning  of  another,  but  from  the  end  of  a  completely  faded 
after-image  to  the  beginning  of  the  next  stimulus,  (2)  Since  we  worked  in  day- 
light illumination  and  with  only  reflected  light  from  pigment  colors  it  is  prob- 
able that  our  stimuli  were  relatively  less  intensive,  and  (3)  An  additional  series 
of  tests  was  made  in  which  an  interval  of  5  minutes  was  maintained  and  the  re- 
sults of  these  tests  are  in  harmony  with  our  previous  results.  These  last  tests 
are  recorded  in  Tables  XXIV. -XXXII.  Subjects  were  G  (Gordon)  and  F 
(Fernald). 


126  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND    KATE   GORDON. 

If,  now,  a  stimulus  is  given  several  times  at  the  same  fixation 
point,  and  a  series  of  different  judgments  made,  the  mean  judg- 
ment is  found  in  this  way ;  in  the  series  —  car-red,  car  +  red, 
=5  car-red,  the  middle  color  is  ss  car-red.  The  middle  varia- 
tion must  depend  upon  the  position  of  the  three  colors  in  the 
series  between  car  and  red.  According  to  this  the  =  car-red 
is  two  steps  from  car  -f-  red  and  two  steps  from  —  car-red  and 
the  middle  variation  is  then  2. 

In  the  tables  on  page  135  ff,  the  stimulus  is  given  at  the  top 
of  each  table,  the  first  column  at  the  left  gives  the  number  of 
degrees  of  eccentricity  of  the  retinal  point  stimulated,  the  columns 
headed  nos.  i,  3,  7,  38  and  50  contain  the  results  for  the  back- 
grounds whose  brightnesses  were  those  of  white,  yellow,  green, 
blue  and  black  respectively.  In  each  of  these  columns  is  re- 
corded (i)  the  number  of  experiments  made,  (2)  the  middle 
judgment  as  to  what  the  stimulus  color  was,  i.  e.,  «  color  seen,' 
(3)  the  middle  variation  for  such  judgments,  (4)  the  middle 
judgment  on  the  color-tone  of  the  after-image,  and  (5)  the 
middle  variation  for  these  judgments.  In  the  last  ten  tables  only 
one  test  was  made  at  each  point,  hence  columns  (i),  (3)  and  (5) 
do  not  appear. 

RESULTS. 

I.  Extent  of  the  Color  Field. 

On  the  darker  backgrounds  the  colors  are  seen  farthest  out 
in  the  periphery ;  for  example,  green,  Table  V.,  is  visible  as  gr 
out  to  73.5°  on  the  yl  ground,  visible  as  gr  +  yl  to  76.5°  on  gr 
ground,  as  =  gr-yl  to  79°  on  bl  ground,  and  is  seen  as  yl  to 
87.5°  on  the  gr  and  bl  grounds.  No  conclusion  can  be  drawn 
about  the  relative  extension  of  blue  and  yellow,  red  and  green 
since  we  worked  with  pigment  colors  varying  in  their  bright- 
ness, saturation  and  purity  of  color  tone. 

II.  Color  Tone  of  Stimuli  as  Perceived. 
i .  Affected  by  Retinal  Location .  —  At  the  extreme  periphery 
all  colors  looked  gray ;  next  within  this  zone  was  a  region 
where,  at  least  on  the  dark  backgrounds,  all  colors  tended 
towards  bl  and  yl^  and  within  this  zone  was  the  region  of  full 
color  vision.  No  indication  appeared  of  the  "  gegenfarbige 


AFTER-IMAGES    ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        127 

Zone  "  of  which  Hellpach  l  writes,  except  in  the  case  of  one  sub- 
ject and  here  for  one  color  only,  i.  e.,  Table  XXVI.,  F  saw^r 
five  times  as  an  unquestioned  red.  However,  this  one  instance 
does  not  occur  in  a  region  outside  of  the  black-white  zone  as 
Hellpach's  theory  demands. 

2.  Efect  of  Background  upon  Color  Tone  of  Stimulus. — 
A  given  background  appears  to  enhance  that  color  component 
in  the  stimulus  which  differs  the  more  from  itself  (the  back- 
ground) in  brightness.  Or,  for  instance,  looks  =  red-or  on  the 
light  grounds  but  a  =  or-yl  on  the  dark.  This  tendency  of  the 
background  to  alter  the  color  tone  of  the  stimulus  frequently 
works  against  the  tendency  above  referred  to,  namely,  for  all 
colors  to  approach  at  the  periphery  either  bl  or  yl;  for,  as  in 
Table  II.  on  the  light  grounds  red  stays  red  as  long  as  it  is  seen 
at  all,  and,  Table  V-  on  the  light  grounds  gr  stays  gr.  Up  to 
this  point  our  work  merely  repeats  and  confirms  facts  which 
Miss  Fernald  has  already  established. 

III.    Color  Tone  of  After-images.2 

There  are  at  least  five  factors  which  must  be  considered  as    1 
cooperating  to  determine  the  color  tone  of  the  after-image. 

1.  First  and  most  obvious  is  the  color  of  the  stimulus.     If 
this  alone  were  operative  and  if  it  were  seen  in  its  proper  hue 
the  after-image  would  probably  be  a  perfect  complementary. 

2.  A  second  factor  in  the  color  tone  of  the  after-image  is  its    y 
retinal  location.     As  an  after-image  approaches  the  periphery 

it  tends  to  become  either  bl  or  yl.  Thus  in  Table  II.  on  the  yl 
ground  although  the  stimulus  red  is  seen  as  pure  redout  to  73°, 
yet  the  after-image  which  from  o°  to  49°  is  =gr-bl  is  from  49° 
to  73°  a  pure  bl.  In  Table  V.  ground  for  yl  the  stimulus  gr  is 
seen  as  pure  gr  out  to  73°  but  the  after-image  is  from  o°  to  55° 
—  red-car  or  car  and  from  55°  it  takes  on  a  distinctly  more 
bluish  color.  Once  more,  Table  VIII.  ground  for  yl,  gr  and 

1  'Die  Farbenwahrnehmung  im  indirecten  Sehen,'  Phil.  Stud.,  XV. 

2  It  was  stated  above  that  in  one  series  of  tests  the  stimulus  was  allowed  to 
remain  exposed  until  it  had  completely  faded  from  sight,  except  that  stimuli 
lasting  as  long  as  45  seconds  were  stopped  at  that  time,  and  that  a  second  series 
had  the  stimuli  limited  to  3  and  4  seconds  duration.     This  difference  in  the 
stimuli  seemed  not  to  affect  the  color  tone  of  the  after-images  and  the  results 
of  the  two  series  are  therefore  not  entered  separately  in  our  tables. 


128  HELEN  B.    THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

bl,  the  stimulus  bl  is  seen  almost  without  exception  as  pure  bl, 
but  the  after-images,  which  vary  considerably  farther  in,  all 
approach  pure  yl  in  the  periphery.  This  result  agrees  with  the 
experiment  recorded  by  Baird.1 

3.  Effect  of  Background  on  the  After-image. — This  is  a 
somewhat  complex  effect  and  may  be  regarded  as  acting  in 
three  ways. 

(a)  As  we  saw  above,  the  background  is  first  operative  upon 
the  stimulus  color  which  it  surrounds.     To  trace,  for  example, 
the  career  of  an  after-image  of  red  we  must  start  with  the  com- 
plementary of  red  which  is  gr  4-  bl.     Now  on  a  dark  ground 
this  stimulus  looks  not  red  but  an  or-red,  so  that  we  should  ex- 
pect to  find  for  its  after-image  not  gr  +  bl  but  a  color  shading 
more  into  the  bl,  a  gr-bl  then. 

(b)  But  our  gr-bl  after-image  must  itself  appear  upon  a  dark 
ground.     The  same  dark  surface  surrounds  this  image  which 
surrounded  the  stimulus,  and  we  must  assume  that  its  power  of 
producing  a  simultaneous  contrast  effect  is  still  present.     This 
effect  would  tend  however  to  bring  out  the  lighter  or  gr  com- 
ponent in  our  after-image  thus  shifting  it  back  towards  gr  -f  bl 
or  even  bl-gr.     Thus  factor  (a)  and  factor  (b)  tend  to  neutralize 
each  other.     Finally, 

(c)  The  after-image  is  not  merely  surrounded  by  the  dark 
surface  but  is  being   cast  upon  it  and  so  mixed  with  the  light 
which  comes  from  it.      Now  since  the  effect  of  simultaneous 
contrast  is  probably  cancelled,  as  shown  above,  we  may  assume 
that  the  two  most  important  determinants  of  the  after-image  are 
its  stimulus  color  and  the  amount  of  light  with  which  the  image 
is  mixed  when  it  is  cast  upon  its  background. 

The  effect  of  the  background  then  seems  to  be  this ;  that  in 
a  colored  after-image,  that  color  element  is  emphasized  which 
:  in  brightness  approaches  the  brightness  of  the  background, 
that  is,  on  the  lighter  grounds  the  brighter  element  comes  out 
and  on  the  darker  grounds  the  darker  color  element.  The 
transition  is  nicely  illustrated  in  Table  V.  at  11.5°.  On  the 
white  ground  the  after-image  for  gr  was  =  red-car ',  on  the  yl 
ground  =  red-car,  on  the  gr  ground  ==  vi-car,  on  the  bl  ground 
=  car-vi,  and  on  the  black  ground  =  car-vi.  At  59.7°  the  change 

1  Op.  cit.,  pp.  64-65. 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.         129 

runs  car,—  vi-car,  =  vi-car  =  vi-bl,  vi.  Not  every  point  exhibits 
so  regular  a  transition,  but  the  general  distinction  between  light 
and  dark  grounds  remains  apparent.  It  is,  perhaps,  most  strik- 
ing in  the  after-images  for  bl,  since  here  the  stimulus  is  most 
often  seen  in  its  true  color  tone  and  the  change  made  by  the 
background  is  best  isolated.  The  after-image  for  bl  ranges 
from  =  gr-yl  and  pure  yl  on  the  light  to  =yl-or  and  even  ==  or- 
red  on  the  dark  grounds.  In  Table  XXVII.  the  after-image  of 
gr-blis  pure  yl  on  the  yl  ground  and  pure  red  on  the  bl  ground, 
although  the  stimulus  is  seen  as  pure  bl  in  both  cases. 

The  following  simple  demonstration  of  this  result  was  suc- 
cessful with  the  few  persons  upon  whom  it  was  tried  and  is 
feasible  for  a  class  exercise.  The  color  to  be  observed  was 
placed  on  a  gray  background  which  matched  it  in  brightness, 
standing  beside  this  were  several  other  backgrounds  of  different 
degrees  of  brightness.  The  subject  after  fixating  the  color  for 
about  15  seconds  could  then  throw  the  after-image  upon  any 
ground  desired.  In  this  way  the  stimulus  and  the  ground 
against  which  it  was  seen  remained  constant.  A  set  of  judg-  j 
ments  taken  in  this  way  was  as  follows :  (i)  The  after-image 
of  gr  was  thrown  upon  white,  i.  e.,  Hering  gray  no.  I,  and  the 
tone  was  =  red-car,  (2)  Another  after-image  of  gr  was  thrown 
upon  no.  7,  judgment  =  red-car,  (3)  Upon  38,  =  bl-car  and  (4) 
Upon  50,  =  bl-car. 

IV.  Intensity  and  Distinctness  of  After-images. 

i.  Relative  vividness  of  after-image  and  stimulus.  In 
general  it  may  be  said  that  the  after-images  on  the  light  grounds 
were  about  equal  in  vividness  to  their  stimuli,  whereas  on  the 
dark  grounds  they  were  less  vivid  than  the  stimuli.  Moreover 
almost  all  after-images  were  more  difficult  to  see  on  the  dark 
grounds.  At  the  extreme  periphery  it  sometimes  happened  : 

(a)  That  a  stimulus  which  was   clearly   seen   produced  no 
after-image.     This  was  most  frequently  the  case  on  the  dark 
grounds  :  there  were  altogether  136  instances  and  of  these  78 
per  cent,  occurred  on  the  bl  and  black  grounds. 

(b)  On  the  other  hand  there  were  118  cases  in  which  a  sub- 
liminal stimulus  produced  an  after-image  which  was  perfectly 


130  HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

distinct  in  color,  and  83  per  cent,  of  these  instances  occurred  on 
the  grounds  for  white,  yl  and  gr.  That  this  somewhat  unusual 
result  was  not  the  outcome  of  imagination  or  suggestion  seems 
proved  by  the  fact  that  these  invisible  colors  gave  rise  to  their 
appropriate  after-images  :  thus,  Table  X.,  ground  yl  and  gr,  the 
after-image  of  an  unseen  car  is  =  yl-gr,  in  Table  XV.  grounds 
-white,  yl  and  gr  the  after-image  of  unseen  bl-gr  is  car  and  red, 
in  Table  XVI.  the  after-image  of  unseen  gr-bl  is  or  and  yl. 

It  appears  from  these  considerations  as  if  the  dark  back- 
grounds which  as  we  saw  above  tend  to  enhance  the  effect  of 
the  stimulus,  and  extend  the  color  field,  tend  to  do  just  the 
opposite  with  the  after-image,  to  reduce  and  suppress  it.  On 
the  other  hand  the  light  grounds  which  decrease  the  effect  of 
the  stimulus  tend  to  enhance  the  effect  of  the  after-image. 

2.  Intensity  as  dependent  on  retinal  location.  The  after- 
images of  the  paracentral  region  were  more  intense  than  those 
in  the  periphery  but  not  in  a  very  striking  degree.  All  of  the 
subjects  experienced  surprise  in  the  after-images  of  the  yellow 
spot ;  the  stimulus  seen  at  o°  was  at  its  maximal  intensity,  but 
the  after-image  was  strikingly  inferior  not  only  to  the  intensity 
of  the  stimulus  but  to  the  after-images  of  the  paracentral  and 
even  of  the  peripheral  region.  They  were  often  faded  and 
elusive  in  color  tone,  and  on  the  bl  and  black  grounds  were 
sometimes  wanting  altogether. 

V.    Color  Discrimination  in  After-images. 

1.  Color  discrimination  is  sometimes  finer  in  the  stimulus 
than  in  the  after-image.     Red,  or  and  yl,  although  clearly  dis- 
tinguished as  stimuli  may  give  rise  to  after-images  of  the  same 
color  tone,  e.  g.,  in  Tables  II.,  III.  and  IV.  ground  for  yl  from 
63°  outward  red  is  seen  as  red,  or  is  seen  as  =  red-or  and  yl 
is  seen  as  =  or-yl  or  pure  yl,  i.  e.,  the  three  though  not  seen 
in  their  pure  tones  are  nevertheless  different  from  one  another, 
but  all  of  them  give  for  their  after-images  pure  bl.     Similarly 
on  the  bl  ground  red  seen  as  =  or-red  or  =  red-or,  or  seen  as  or 
or  =  or-yl,  and  yl  seen  as  yl  all  give  rise  to  bl  after-images. 

2.  Again,  color  discrimination  is  sometimes  finer  in  the  after- 
images than  in  the  stimulus.     Thus,  Tables  XIV.  and  XV.  yl 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON   THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        131 

ground,  from  59°  outwards  gr  and  bl-gr  are  both  seen  as 
pure  gr,  but  the  after-images  are  car  or  =  vi-car  for  the  gr 
but  =  red-car  for  the  bl-gr.  Again,  the  stimuli  gr-bl,  bl  and  vt 
are  all  seen  in  the  periphery  as  pure  £/,  but  their  after-images 
are  distinguished  in  Tables  VII. ,  VIII.  and  IX.  on  the  bl 
ground  where  the  peripheral  after-image  for  gr-bl  lies  between 
red  and  or,  for  bl  between  or  and  yl,  and  for  vt  it  is  mostly 
-gr-yl. 

It  seems  from  these  facts  that  finer  discriminations  are  made 
in  the  colors  of  the  red-yl  end  of  the  spectrum  whether  those 
colors  appear  as  stimuli  or  as  after-images,  whereas  the  colors 
of  thegr-£/  end  tend  towards  uniformity  whether  in  stimulus  or 
after-image. 

VI.  Duration  of  After -images. 

The  duration  of  after-images  proved  to  be  so  variable  that 
the  number  of  our  tests  is  not  sufficient  to  make  a  quantitative 
statement  very  reliable.  The  following  points,  however,  are  to 
be  noted  : 

1.  At  the  peripheral  limits  of  color  the  stimulus  and  after- 
image both  appear  as  momentary  flashes. 

2.  The  duration  both  of  stimulus  and  after-image  gradually 
increases  as  the  center  is  approached.     This  is  also  true  of  the 
after-image  independently  of  the  duration  of  the  stimulus ;  for 
in  the  tests  where  the  length  of  exposure  of  jjthe  stimulus  was 
limited  the   after-images  increased  in  duration   as   they  came 
nearer  the  center. 

3.  At  the  fovea  the  after-images    were  frequently  briefer 
than  in  the  paracentral  region  and  occasionally  were  altogether 
wanting,  as  reported  above. 

4.  There  appears  to  be  some  correspondence  between  the 
duration  of  the  stimulus  and  of  the  after-image,  but  this  is  not  a 
simple  ratio  for  though  the   longer  stimulus    often    gives   the 
longer  after-image  yet :  (a)  a  brief  stimulus,  except  at  the  ex- 
treme periphery,  gives  rise  to  an  after-image  longer  than  the 
stimulus,  but  (d)  a  long  stimulus  frequently  occasions  an  after- 
image shorter  than  the  stimulus.     Thus  a  stimulus  of  3  seconds 
produces  an  after-image  of  from  about  4  to  10  seconds  whereas 


132  HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

a  stimulus  lasting  upwards  of  20  seconds  gives  usually  after- 
images ranging  between  about  TO  and  25  seconds.1 

5.  Where  the  duration  of  the  stimulus  is  constant  the  dura- 
tion of  the  after-image  is  likely  to  be  slightly  longer  on  the  light 
grounds  than  on  the  dark. 

VII.  Alterations  in  the  After-image  During  the  Process 

of  Fading. 

1.  After-images  decrease  in  saturation,  while  in  brightness 
they  seem  gradually  to  approach  the  brightness  of  the  back- 
ground on  which  they  are  seen. 

2.  Changes  in  color  tone  occur   sometimes  though   by  no 
means  always.2     The  commonest  of  these  changes  were  red 
passing  through   or  and  yl  to  gray,  and    or    and  gr  passing 
through  yl  to  gray. 

3.  Fluctuations  between    same    and    other   colored    phases 
occurred  with  24  of  B's  after-images,  Table  XXXIII.  shows  the 
distribution  of  this  phenomenon.     The  colors  which  oscillated 
were  usually  gr  and  car.     These  fluctuations  did  not  occur 
where  there  had  been  a  long  exposure  of  the  stimulus,  but  were 
the  result  in  every  case  of  stimuli  which  had  been  limited  to  3 
or  4  seconds'  duration. 

VIII.  Minor  Observations. 

1.  An  accidental  interruption  one  day  gave  this  result  with 
subject  B.    An  after-image  had  just  faded  out  and  B  was  saying 
*  gone '  when  a  metronome  was  started  in  the  adjoining  room. 
Immediately  the  color  flashed  into  the  after-image  again,  and 
returned  rhythmically  with  every  stroke  of  the  metronome  for 
several  seconds. 

2.  Subject  B  sometimes  found  that  the  after-image  was  not 
limited  in  area  by  the  size  of  the  stimulus,  but  in  the  case  of  car 
after-images  the  color  would  spread  out  and  occasionally  flood 
the  whole  field  of  vision. 

3.  Subjects  T  and  G  sometimes  experienced  a  splitting  up 
of  the  component  colors  in  an  after-image,  i.  <?.,  yl  at  about  70° 

1  These  numbers  hold  for  T,  G  and  F,  not  for  B  whose  color  processes  were 
uncommonly  long. 

2  In  our  tables  we  have  entered  always  the  first  stage  of  such  after-images. 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        133 

frequently  looked  to  be  or  and  gr  at  the  same  time.  The  sub- 
jects did  not  at  these  times  see  pure  yl  at  all  but  what  appeared 
as  or  and  gr  occupying  the  same  space  at  the  same  time. 

IX.    Theoretical. 

We  have  only  the  following  two  points  to  make  : 
i.  It  is  possible  with  the  light-adapted  eye  to  arouse  periph- 
eral after-images.  Our  records  show  upwards  of  4,500  tests 
ranging  from  o°  to  93°  on  the  retina.  Investigators  who  have 
worked  in  the  dark  room  find  that  after-images  are  very  diffi- 
cult to  observe  and  that  they  do  not  occur  much  beyond 
40°  eccentricity.  In  agreement  with  these  two  groups  of 
facts  are  the  relative  results  which  we  obtained  on  the  light 
and  dark  backgrounds,  where  we  found  that  the  lighter 
were  more  favorable  to  the  appearance  of  the  after-images. 
Now  these  facts  all  indicate  that  the  presence  of  white  light  is 
necessary  to  the  production  of  the  after-image  on  the  peripheral 
part  of  the  retina.  The  best  explanation  for  this  seems  to  us  to 
be  possible  upon  the  Ladd-Franklin  *  theory  of  color  vision.  It 
is  assumed  by  this  theory  that  after-images  are  due  to  the  suc- 
cessive phases  of  break-down  in  a  color  molecule.  A  ray  of 
light,  say  blue,  tears  out  the  blue  component  of  the  molecule 


OG 

leaving  the  remaining  elements  green  and  red  in  a  state  of 
such  instability  that  they  subsequently  fall  to  pieces  and  thus 
give  rise  to  the  after-image  sensation  of  yellow.  May  we  not 
suppose  that  in  the  central  and  paracentral  region,  which  all 
agree  are  more  sensitive,  the  color  molecules  are  more  unstable 
than  in  the  peripheral  region,  so  that  in  the  central  zone  the 
shattered  molecules  will  sometimes  fall  to  pieces  without  any 
further  external  stimulus,  thus  giving  rise  to  the  colored  after- 
images which  are  sometimes  seen  in  dark-adapted  vision.  The 
peripheral  molecule,  on  the  contrary,  we  may  assume  to  be  less 
easily  decomposed,  and  after  a  stimulus  has  been  given,  to  need 
1  Mind,  N.  S.,  Vol.  2  ;  PSY.  REV.,  Vol.  6,  etc. 


134  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

the  added  excitation  of  white  light  to  break  down  the  residual 
portion  and  so  give  the  after-image. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  what  the  explanation  would  be  upon  the 
Hering  theory,  for  we  should  have  to  suppose  that  after-images 
caused  by  an  assimilation  process  are  enhanced  by  the  addition 
of  white  light  which  stimulates  a  dissimilation  process.  More- 
over one  might  fairly  expect  on  the  basis  of  either  the  Hering 
or  Miiller  theory  that  the  antagonistic  color  process,  if  it  is  initi- 
ated by  the  retina,  could  take  place  as  well  in  the  dark  as  in 
the  light. 

2.  It  was  stated  above,  under  II.,  that  that  component  of  a 
stimulus  is  emphasized  which  varies  more  from  the  brightness 
of  the  background;  under  III.  it  was  stated  that  the  component 
of  an  after-image  was  emphasized  which  approached  the  back- 
ground in  brightness.  These  two  observations  are  simply  two 
illustrations  of  the  same  phenomenon,  i.  £.,  the  tendency  to 
interpret  certain  degrees  of  brightness  in  terms  of  certain  color 
tones.  A  stimulus  shown  on  a  dark  ground  is  being  mixed 
with  white  by  simultaneous  contrast,  whereas  an  after-image  in 
order  to  be  mixed  with  white  light  must  be  shown  on  a  light 
background.  The  tables  show  that  stimuli  exposed  on  dark 
grounds  and  after-images  cast  on  light  grounds  tend  to  have 
their  lighter  color  components  brought  out,  but  that  stimuli 
shown  on  light,  and  after-images  on  dark  grounds  tend  to  have 
the  dark  color  element  come  out.  These  facts  are  of  interest 
in  connection  with  the  case  of  pseudo-chromaesthesia  reported 
by  Professor  Martin.1  A  black  and  white  picture  was  shown  to 
her  subject  but  it  appeared  colored,  the  masses  of  shadow  being 
purplish  and  the  masses  of  light  being  yellowish.2 

1  PSYCH.  REV.,  XIII.,  No.  3,  Fechner  number. 

2  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  July  14,  1906.  —  ED. 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        135 


6 


•UOIJBI.IBA 


•naag  40103 


jo  -OM 


•UOI;BUBA 


•UOIJBUBA 


'twas  00103 


jo  -ON 


•UOIJBUBA 


•SJS3J,   JO  "ON 


•UOIJBUBA 


jo 


•UOTJBUBA 


o 

<U  '0>U          SJD  D    <L>          SJO  b£  b£  W  CuC  Cue 

a          acp~asii»-i~H.-«i-i.-ii-i 
o  o 

S  |HlHlHl-il-il4|Hl-il« 

3   3-g  g'S'S'E'S'S'S'g'H'S  3 
III  III  II  I  ||  III  III  III  II  III 

OOMOOOOOOOO 

O    V    V   V         V   V         MM  M  M  M 

o  a  o  a      pa       II  II   I    II 

0,0.0.0       o^^q^aa^^ 

So      So  MM  bio  So 
III  II  Illl  Ill      I     '??1lt1l 

gT  i>">1i i tJJ°PT t 

^*0     M     MMQMOMMONO 

M  M^  W)  bfl  M^»  M  MS  M 

II        ^    I  -    II    III          I  I     I 

o11?     t^iocoo^ocsoo 

""•*•<  -^    VH    V<    »H    Ui  £7 

?*       •->>>c3caeacS         ec 
'  n..     I    J^    ^^^WOOOj^O 

5^  111 3  iii  111 111  i  i     || 

M* 

u  a  u  fl 

M  O   MO 

I  a  II  a  in  111 111  u  u  111 
T II II 1 1 


O   t^  -^- 
ONOO  GO 


136  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 

•uopBUBA      |  ° 


Q 

w 


D 

I 


- 

£* 
CO 


So 
3 
III!  III!  III!  Ill 


•UOt}BI.IBA 


SS'SS 

'       »-" 


III!  II   I 


•S1S3J.JO    ON 


•noijBUBA 


OOOOOOOOOOO"?MOOt-iO 


•UOI;BUBA 


\  .....  Ill  II  III      III 


M'O'M         "? 


M 


T3  'O 

a;  a; 


1   1 


-H^-^^-^ja^,^^,^^,^,^^ 


)W)W)W)W) 

Illl  Illl  Illl  III 


o      o 


•U33S  -IOIOO 


M   <N    M   <N   <S   (N 


III  II  1 


•uaag  JOioo 


•sjsaj,  jo  -ON 


O   t^  Tj-OO   t^-vO   fO  t^ 
O\00  00  t-.t^\ 


M    fOO    M 


O   M 
CSM 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA. 

•nopBUBA      I 


137 


i 


h 
H 

W 

CO 


- 


&&3  + 
I  III     & 


•nopBUBA 


o      o 


KU 

oo 


SJS3J,  JO  -OJI 


•UOI;BUBA 


OOOOOOOOOOOOwMOOO 


•UOTIBT-IBA 


0   0 


IH  i_|    »H    >H    J-i    Ui 


•s;sax  jo  -OK  I    M       M 


oo 


<u 
P  ;_J 


Illl 


•UOpBUBA 


OOOOOOOOwOOwMOO 


. 

o^^o  5x3333  333  3'>3  So  So  So  So  tub 
c         c;s  1       II  Illl  III  II  III 


0^   0000000         00 

^  ^T3n3rO'GT3'drc3  v,pdnd  VH  »..  v< 

s  °  s  s  a  ^  s  t  s  °  s  s  °  °  ° 
III  III  III  III  III  1  II  III  III  II  II 


jo  -ON 


•UOIJBUBA 


bj 
333333bloti3D  &c3  3 

II  Illl  III  Illl 


j°  'ON  I 


lOUi^,    0x"MvO          ^ 
O\  O   l>«  ^00   t^v£5    ro  t^CO  V£>    rOO\ 
^00  CO  l^t^VO^OiO 


138  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND  KATE    GORDON. 

•UOIJBUBA        | 


W   I 


•UOHBUBA 


•s}S3x  jo  -ON 


•UOIJBI.IBA 


•UOpBUBA  OOOOOMOO"?wOOOOOOOOOO 


•U33S  aojoo 


\  \ 


jo  -OJM  I     CJ*O«*J«OtH«lfOC|l« 


kg 


(d  cs  .a  .a  ,a  ,0  ,a  .0  .a  x>  .a  >U2^  > 


•U93S  -10100 


>~,  ^>  >\  >>       O 


bo'd  '£>'£/>>  tii  So  bb  o  ^^  So  o  o  o 

s          1  1  II  1    1  1  II  1  1 


jo  -ON  I     -3-oo 


OOOOOOOO^Oi-OOOCOO"? 


O    O\flM   fOiOTj-TfiOO 


000 


•s;sax  jo  -ON 


D    <U  T^  °        ^^        O   O  '£>'£»'£> 

o  o  ^*^^  So  o  *§  *^  o  o^^^o  o  o 

1  III  II    II  II    II  1  III  II  II 


a  fl 


ja 

ofi 


^    JH  T3  «—  i  <—  i  i—  i 

^  O  Og>»          ^» 
'R'^'fiL-f-'R-j-  o  ^^  So  & 

^.111  g  II        II 


•SJS3J,  JO   'OK    I  M 


O  r-^  -^00  r>.vo  fO  t^oo  \o  fOON 
ONOO  00  t>.t^vOvO>O 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON    THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        139 

•UOpBUBA        |  "? 


o 


> 

9 


S3  §T3gPTp£f 

a  a 


•UOHBUBA 


•s;sax  jo  -ON  I 


! 


•uoyjBUBA 


OOO«VO«MOOHM 


.. 

o  J333  rt  J333  §33'>'> 

O  'O  'd  'd  fl  M 


'      ' 


•UOIJBIJBA 


000 


MOOOONOOWOOO 


•U33S  JO  100 


bo  bo  bfl  W)  ao  W) 


•sisax  jo  ON  I    M  n-  <s  co  N  co  w  M 


0         JjM   0  "7-H   0    0   M   0   O   O   O   "?  M   M 


OW^  1)^ 

o  o  3  3  §  '>  '>  3  '>  *>  3  '>  '> 
a  a        a  1   1      1   1      II  III 


'>">"> 
1  III  1 


»0<N  "?0  M  Jo  "?0  0  0  0  0  M 


•s;sax  J°  'ON  I    M  w  M 


•UOpBIJBA 


•UOI;BUBA 


OOwQOOOOOOOOO 


0  0     C  M'T' 

a  a          ? 


bflbJCW)W)W)bX)M)bJObabX) 


•s;sax  jo  -ON  |    M 


TT£ tT 


a    a 


•s;sax  jo  -ON  | 


140  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND  KATE    GORDON. 

•UOIJBUBA 


O 

w 


H 
CO 


-ON 


•U33S  -IOJOO 


•UOI1BIJBA 


•UOtJBUBA 


•s;s3£  jo  ON 


•UOJ1BUBA 


•naaS  40103 


•s  h 


III  !l 


IH    l-i    l-i    IH 

00  p^  00  00  M^j  3333 

' '  iir   ~  i  ii  111 111 111 

O    O    O    W   O    O 

n  P  *c  a  T:  -s  7!  'S  *S  js  b  .-H  .- .-  .^ .-  ^ 

oJOcs.  OoJc8efl<U«i22>>>S>>>H 

III  I    I  II  Illl  II 

^   bo  bo  bo  bo  bo  bo 
bo  bo  bo  bo  bo  bo  bo  i" 

aa^Hfl       ^a_in3"H 
o  0.0  o       o  o~t"^  > 

0  a  III  fl       III  arg  III    |    '    I    I    III  ... 

OOO        w^O^OO 

DOOO  DD  bcbobobobobo 
OOOO  00^^°^  bO.O  r>  ^  n  ^  n 
fl  fl  fl  fl  fl  fl |  |  III  III  ||  III 

4)    «U    <U    0*12    w'H    O        'H    O    O    t"8 

ggggiiitiiifgu  iii'H^^iii 

»0  000000000 

O   O~TcO   bOwuowow  CUU^Q  '£>'&  &  £> 

^3^  ||  III  III  III  HI 

M    C1    CO  CO  M    N 

^  B  eg  B  g  e  o>  o 

g  ||      ||      HI  II  II  III 

#  ^4    .....  bobobbbcbb 

^  ~  II  HII  Illl 


O   l^>  ^ 
ONOO  00 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA.         141 


W 

D 

I 

W 
W 


1 


B 

S» 
CO 


«   *  « 

bio      bio      bo  bo  be  bio  bio 


fl  g  "  III  I  III  III  .....  II  III  III  III  III 


O^OOOOOOOOOwOwQO 


ooooooooooooo 


142  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 


•UOIJBUBA 


•U33S  40100 


*. 

§7, 

a        Si     III 


W) 


jo  - 


53 


o  o  s^,s  o 

III  III     III  1  II 


oooooooooooooooooo 


•033S  40100 


(U   4J 

§§ 

a  a 


S 

PQ 
i 


jo  -oN 


•UOpBUBA 


'^T^  bb  So  bc 


So  bb^,  bb^+  So  bb  bb     bb 
1    1    1       1      7HI  1   II       1 


•UOIJBUBA 


oo10         MOO          o          MOO 


JO  -Ojsl    I      N    ^  j^oo   t^dMMWWlOMMlOMMMC* 


w 

D 
CO 


•aotjBtJBA 


*&  ~*  ~  ,     L*        ,        i     LJ     LJ        . 

^  R^Tsfibf^ 

I          II   I 


bbbb 
III   I 


•UOIJBUBA 


OOOOOOOOOO"?OU?MOOO 


•s;sax  jo  -OK  |    M  ri-oo  E 


cocO'«tfOcON 


, 


III  III! 


•UOHBUBA 


•S1S3X    JO  'ON    I  M 


^     ON^^M    "?VO     «. 

00  IXVO   fO  t^OO  VO   r 


M   cOO   M 


AFTER-IMAGES    ON   THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA. 

•nopBUBA  °       N 


1 


H 

B 

w 

g1 

CO 


X! 


•norjBUBA 


•U33S  JOPO 


0  WibC  >>  W  0 

r^,_(,_,  V-,     OrtJ 

^t^t^  bcS^ 

II  III  Illl  Ill  a  III 


00  0 


53 

rs 


-OK 


O     "?"?  M     "?VO 


•UOrjBlJBA 


•U33S  .10100 


<U  ^  0   (U  0  ^" 

a  ^l-c^-iCr 

o  °  bo  t^  o 

a       1  Illl  a  II  1  III  -&    III 


o  OJO     o  M 


OOOOOOOO^t»OOOOM(NOO 


^     ' 


•SJS3J,  jo  - 


M          COW    M 


•UOl}BUBA 


bOMQOMMaobOttO 

_j |_^H   ,__,-,,-,    _|_ 

7,71  ITl?  II  HIT, 


•UOTJBUBA 


oo"?o      o  o  o  "?o  "?  »o  »o  "?  co  "?  o 


•0339  -toioo 


•s;s3i  jo  -OK   |        MM 


•uotjBiaBA 


0  7>7>7>~t~  So  So  '  7,  bi)7>7>7>7> 

1  7JII  117,1  Illl  II  II  III  HI 


OOOOOOOOO^OMQO 


•s;s3£  jo  -ON 


bfl  bJO  bo  bfl  JM)  50  M 


»>      ^,,  >~ 
1  1  II  7>     1117,11  III  III  HIT, 


•U33S  aoxoo 


•S}S3£  JO  'ON 


C7\  O  t^  Tl-00 
ONCO  00 


. 

cOON»OTl-M   cOO   "i 
VO>0  TJ-MM 


144  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE   GORDON. 


< 

I 

p 


w 

D 
C/3 


X 

w 

tt 


•SJS3X  JO  'ON 


OOMQOOOOOOOOO 


O  rt   cd   co   O  O 
fl  T3  'O  "13  C   a 


o^cooooooooooooo^o 


I      <t    N    «  VO 


III  III 


<s  «0t^^«  0  0  0  M  M  JJ  0 


•U33S  aoioo 


•UOHBUBA 


fOO   0         OOOOMQMOOO 


w> 

be  &i)  bi) 


•UOI;BUBA 


rOOOOOOOOMO 


«8fE-s:gg  8  8883-88 


•SJS3J,  JO 


K^  W)  W) 
bC 

III     III 


S;S3£   JO  "ON    | 


CON 

ON  O   t^  -^fOO   t^vO   fO 
UNCO  00  t^t>. 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA. 

•UOIJBUBA        | 


145 


h 

g 

P? 
D 
CO 


~          — .    H    U,-H    ^  -J*£    ^    " 

3     3  So  So3  So  So3  So+  So  o 
II  III      III  llll  llll  13  llll53 


•uorjBUBA 


•U33S  .10103 


•S}S3£  JO  ' 


•UOPBUBA  MQ^OOOOOMMMMOOO"?  O 


w 
a  1       1 


o  o  o  o  o 
1   1  II  1  IIMIII333 


•uopBUBA  VOM«OOMOOMOOOOOOOO        O 


sll  sill  §111111 


•sjsaj.  jo  -ON    I     M 


cOcOrOfOfO«O<OfOcOf5'«rw 


§*•* 


bfjjD  bjoxs  oc  be  be  bo  ac  bcH  —  h  tc 

1      II      III  II  II  II  llll  3  3  III 


M         MO"? 


"?»OMOOMU?MM 
W  (S 


OOOM 


•nOTJBUBA 


•U33S  -10100 


t«o3  So  bo  So  Sg3  3 

;5     HUM         II 


o  o  t«o3  So  bo  So  Sg3  3  SD  SD  So  So  So  So  So~f~  So 


o 


|  w   •*  tO«   O    «S 


•UOI1BUBA 


.a  »Q  b/j  bc 

333333  +  So3  3  So 
So  llll  III  llll  III 


•naag  aopo 


3rd'dT3rCT3  vn'd'C'd 

882  82  gg  8-88 


•s;sax  jo  -OK 


10  0%    .   M"? 

M   COO   M 


146  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND  KATE   GORDON. 

•UOtJBUBA 


in 
t> 

J3 
S 

i 

CD 


w 


w 


III  a  III  III  III  Illl 


•naag 


•SJS3J,JO  'ON 


•uopBUBA  O        OO»OOOOOOOMOOO«OOO        »O 


•noijBUBA  OMOOcstowOOMMMOOOMOO        O 


•uaag  40^03 


0000         000 


•UOpBUBA 


c3  S3  3  So3  333 

**      |  1    1   II  III  III  III  III  1  III  1 


•nopBUBA     |  IOOIO^O^^^^^^MM^OOOO 


«« 

^  »-  n 


III  III 


•s;sax  jo  -ON 


000  ^^^        0  ^0  0  0  M  0  "?M  M 


.0.0.0,0 

buObflbcbc     3  bflbflbObCbObJCbCboba 
Illl  II    II   III  III   II   III   III  Illl   I 


0*0° 

M 


T-r    l-i  13    •-"  ^H    V<  rrt    Ui    V«    l-i    *H  l-i 

ruWO  S^°  OO^OOOO  O 

—,  «»d  n30w"T3  T3  T3  »-i  _i  T3  T3  n3  w,  VH  T3 

-f£  ^T,S2i  2i2i  oJS  g  £°  °  S 

^  o  111  1  II  Illl  ill  Illl  II  a  II  II  HI  1 


U3  .0  J2  ^3  X! 


bfl 


O   t- 
ONOO 


'-'    tOO   M 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA.        147 

•nopBUBA      I  "» 


1 

H 

s 


O 


X 

H 


•UOpBUBA 


*>'>3 
1  III 


•sjsax  jo  -OK  i 


•nopBUBA  OO^OOOOOMOOOOOMOM        M 


,0         ,0         .0         ,0 

l-jjS-pSuS^ 


•nopBUBA  "POOOOOOONOOOOOOOO        O 


•U33g  -IOIOO 


•S}S3X  JO   'OK     |      M    N   N    W    CM 


•nopBUBA  OOOOO^O^OOOOOOO^O"?"? 


•nopBUBA  o  "?  °?  O  O 

MM  M 


'C'M  o  o  o  o 


>>  p>^  O 


Illl  S  S  1  g  Illl  Illl  i 


•S}S3X  JO  'OK    | 


ooo^o    MOOOOOOOOMOO 


D  3     3333        3 

§333 

= 


1  II      1          1 


M  0  M  o  0  0  M  0  0  0  0 


«  «  T,  o  T.7,  o      oo 

' 


1  ill  ill  ill  II    ii 


•sjsax  jo  -ON   I    ot 


•UOpBUBA 


3    3333 


1    1 


•UOpBUBA 


o      o  >> 
o  o  7,  o  *£,  o  o 


•nopBool 


ON  O  i^»  rJ-00  t^vo  to  t^oo  vO  roON»OTi-M  rOO   M 
ONOO  00  t^t^vo       VO»0  •<*       MM 


H8  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GDRDON. 


O 

e 

w 
& 

CO 


So  So  &' 


H 

bb 


bo 


III  III 


% 


•UOIJBUBA 


0         ° 


M         J 


g+'H  S'>->  S  T  >'>->->T  J3 
fl      1      °3  III      II  III     III  III  III  III  Illl  II  Illl 


0   0   0  M   0  M   M   rOO  0   0   0   M   0   M         O 


bi)  So 


JO  'ON    I  <N   M   W   « 


•UOpBUBA 


o^yoyoo^oooyo 

T"tili5iH0Sii!iTfi 


•U33S  aotoo 


' 


•sjsaj,  jo  -ON 


O          O          *0»0         MMQMOOO^OO 


O         2         CO         OOOOOOM0?"?!-! 


jo  -ON 


M    COM    fO»-i   N    P»    M 


•UOIIBUBA 


g'S'g  S'S'P 

1    III  1     1  III 


•s;sax  jo  -ON 


ON  Q  t^  rl-CO  t^vO   fO  t-»OO 

ONOO  00  t>.t^vOVO«O 


AFTER-IMAGES    ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA.         149 

•uorjBUBA  O 


W 
W 
tf 

O 
w 


d 


g 

CO 


•UOpBUBA 


•U33S  aojoo 


jo 


•UOJJBUBA 


•naag  aojoo 


•s;sax  jo  -ON  | 


•UOI;BUBA 


jo  "°N 


•SJS3X  JO 


•UOIJBUBA     | 


•H33S  .10100 


III  III  -H 


bo  bx;-0  »°       be*0  bo  be  bJo  ba  So 
tl  bJDbb     1  Solj  |  It  I 

t1^ 

,?*  bc3  3  3 

III  III  III 

m  fO  ff 

S§  S3  S  +  S'S'H'S'S  S'>  biS 
a 5 1111  |i  1, 1111  I     1111 

o  o  o 

1  ^^ 
III III  II  III  I  III 

100  ioio£5^  o  2  o  £?!/: 

»-irr!         °         ^w'S'Ho  "Hcj 

°^  *gs I! 'Si  ii  ii^^^S'H 

OOOOO^MM^M10© 
O   O 

ag III  H  I 

I  "  II  "  II  III  III  III  III  'H 

M  .    .   SoSoSoSo 


<0 

ON  O  t^ 

ONOO 


«   ON!-!       vO     .        ic^.  M 

t^  ^-00  t^vO  fO  t^OO  VO   rOO\»O'5tM  fOO 
t^l>vOvO«0  ^-M 


HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND  KATE  GORDON. 

•UOTJBUBA 


I 

D 
E> 


B 

W 

D 
CO 


.rSp2rS 


'r 


•noiJBIJBA 


•naag  .10103 


3    3333^33^3^3  % 
\         III      1      III) 


III  1 


•UOflBUBA 


OOOWOOOOOOOOOWMMOO 


M  M  o*  M 


o"£»o"£/i>»         o  o  o      o      o 

»*  b  fend  — "d  «-"O  fd 
oooJip^lio^otH 


0000000000000 


(O   4>   0 


III  III  III 


"?OVO         0  "?        0   COO   0   0   "?0   0  "?"? 

M  CO  ^  MM 


t^5^P^t>»O  OO 

&•*&*%*•*$  SSS'S'g 

Illl  Ill  III  III   III  III       1  1 


O    OO    OOOOOOOOOO 


•S}saj,jo  -o^   |  M  c<  c<  M  r<  n  M 


O    O 


•U33S  -10100 


j-j 
*_- 


1        1    1 


•stjsaxjo  -ox   | 


•UOJJBOOl 


ON  Q  t>-  ^00  t^vO   to  t^CO 


Q  t>-  ^ 
ONOO  CO 


i-i   cOO   M 


AFTER-IMAGES    ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA.        151 

•UOpBTJBA 


W 


i 

d 

H 


•UOtJBUBA 


1  S  11117,111     Illl 


•UOIJBUBA 


«^  'S  0^,0  0  O^O^  0  0         07/^7, 

§  §  S'S  S'S'S'H  S'S  S'H'S  S'S  S  S  S  S7, 
a    III  II  1  III  III  Illl  III  Illl  III  III  III    III  II  III  III 


•UOIJBUBA  OO^^OOOOOOOOOOOOO        O 


JO  *•***•*       )-,,—(       >-,       »-.       >H 


>>  P^  O 


1     1  II  1  1  II    1  1  >JI  1     II 


000000000000000*^000 


'ON     I      CSlO^CINCSMCSMNCSesCJMMWtSCIWCS 


•UOI;BUBA 


fO         COM 


•zi  +7»  o  7>7>  So  So  So  o 

ill    ill  1  II  ill  1  1 


'^  SD  So  &o  bo  o  So 

1  ill  ill  ill  II  1 


o    oooooooooooooooo 


•s;saxjo  -ON 


fO^t  IO\O   ^-  CO  tO  d 


bo  bfi  W)  be  P^  W) 

|    «—  i  i—  (  t—  c    l-i      I 

»  «    ^  ^  ^  °    ' 

-&  Illl  III  Illl  117, 


O 

ON 


t>«  ^00  l^-VO   cOt^cXDvO   rOOMO'^1-'-'  COO   M 

OO  co  t>.t>.vovo>o          -^rwM 


152  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 


h 

s 

I 


CO 

d 

h 
u 

- 

& 
CO 


> 
XI 


M  M 

'  *>f"  *>>  So 

3          III  11 


•UOTJBUBA 


•U33S  .10100 


•UOIJBUBA 


•UOIJBUBA 


•UOtlBUBA 


jo 


•UOJIBUBA 


•033S  -IOPO 


•aSBun-jayv 


•naag 


C   ^'H   0   0   0^"?»      ^ 

'S  °  ST.'H'^o  bfl^M 

III  I  Illl  III  III  1  III  III  III 


oooooooooooooooo 


"ON      I  M     N    Tf   M     CO  N 


too 


OOOOOOOOOOOOOfO°?000 


NrOM 


o..   >»  f>->'^.  >*  >\  >>  >*>'>>'P~I  W)'^'>»  b/0  tuO  b£  tuC^  W 

^Ht<lH|Ml-l|H»-lJ-ljH»^_L_J-l»Hl»-(»-l_l»H^-  1 

t>>o  &OO  boo  bcbceuo  bo~r  bo  bc~f"  P-,  >%^  bo  t> 
1       1          Illl  III  III  1117,11!  Ill  >,  III  HUTU   I 


0    00000    0^00000000 


'>•>'} 


bo  bo  > 


III  Illl 


3  05  3  '>  S  3  *>  '>  '^  T  '> 
"0 


•s?sax  jo  -ON    | 


•UOHBDO1 


lOM    10^    «N«>-^ON<NM»0100 


AFTER-IMAGES   ON   THE   PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        153 

TABLE  XIX. 

SUBJECT  B. — STIMULUS — CARMINE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

•-1  a 

1 

If 

a 

* 

a 

1 

o 

d 

1 

. 

(fi 

to 

a 

. 

£ 

a* 

II 

H 

.2 

1 

.2 

$ 

I 

• 

•~ 

| 

1 

3 

a 

o 

11 

c 

1 

"3 

•n 

C 

3 

<4H 

o 

3 

rt 

•n 

3 

rt 

e 

| 

rt 
•fi 

1 

1 

o 

"o 

jj 

a 

gj 

6 

O 

5 

<£ 

»- 

o 

3 

& 

d 

fc 

o 

< 

% 

u 

o 

3 

93° 

9^-5 

I 

none 

none 

87-5 

I 

none 

none 

84-5 

I 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

none 

82 

I 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

none 

79 

I 

none 

none 

2 

bl 

0 

=  gryl 

4 

I 

car 

bl? 

76.5 

I 

none 

none 

3 

bl 

o 

0 

73-5 

I 

car 

=  gryl 

2 

car  +  vi 

15 

yl  +  gr 

5 

I 

§=  vi  car 

=  gryl 

71 

I 

ss  car  vi 

gr 

I 

car 

yi 

68.5 

2 

car 

o 

gr 

10 

bl 

—gryl 

2 

car 

0 

gr 

0 

66 

2 

—  rd  cr 

1.5 

=  blgr 

o 

vi 

2 

—  rd  car 

1.5 

gr 

o 

63.2 

2 

car  +  vi 

—  gryl 

o 

s=  car  vi 

=  gryl 

4 

car 

0 

gr 

I 

59-7 

3 

=  vi  car 

3 

Hi  gryl 

o 

=  vi  car 

gr 

I 

car 

gr 

55 

3 

=  vi  car 

i 

=  ylgr 

0 

=  car  vi 

gr 

2 

—  rd  car 

I 

gr 

0 

49 

2 

—  vi  car 

i-5 

gr 

0 

ss  car  vi 

gr 

2 

car 

0 

gr 

0 

41.2 

2 

—  vi  car 

1-5 

=ylgr 

•5 

3 

=  vi  car 

o 

=Eylgr 

o 

2 

=  rd  car 

T 

gr 

0 

31 

2 

=  vi  car 

•5 

gr 

0 

3 

=  vi  car 

0 

0 

2 

=  rd  car 

I 

gr 

0 

20.5 

2 

car 

3 

gr 

2.5 

i 

—  rd  car 

—  ylgr 

2 

—  rd  car 

1.5 

gr 

0 

11  -5 

2 

§=.  vi  car 

i 

gr 

0 

i 

car 

==  ylgr 

I 

car 

gr 

o 

2 

car 

0 

gr 

0 

i 

car 

gr 

I 

—  rdcar 

gr 

STIMULUS — RED. 


93° 

8°J 

I 

light 

dark 

84-5 

i 

none 

none 

i 

=  yl  or 

bl 

I 

yi 

bl 

82 

i 

none 

none 

i 

none 

none 

I 

=  yl  or 

bl 

79 

i 

dark 

bl 

3 

^  or  red 

4 

bl 

0 

76.5 

2 

=  or  red 

0 

bl 

0 

i 

red 

bl 

73-5 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

i 

=  or  red 

bl 

I 

ss  red  or 

bl 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

2 

—  or  red 

j   r 

bl 

o 

I 

33  or  red 

bl 

68.5 

3 

=  or  red 

i 

bl 

0 

I 

=  or  red 

=  grbl 

I 

=  carrd 

bl 

66 

2 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

1.5 

2 

=  or  red 

•5 

bl 

0 

2 

red 

3 

-grbl 

I 

63.2 

2 

=  or  red 

2 

bl 

0 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

2 

33  or  red 

2 

-grbl 

i 

59-7 

3 

=  or  red 

0 

bl 

0 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

2 

=  or  red 

0 

—grbl    i 

55 

3 

=  or  red 

0 

gr  +  bl 

2 

I 

=or'red 

bl 

2 

=  or  red 

0 

=  grbl    o 

49-2 

4 

=  or  red 

•5 

Hi  grbl 

1.5 

I 

red 

gr+bl 

3 

=  or  red 

0 

gr  +  bl 

2 

41.2 

2 

—  or  red 

1-5 

=  blgr 

I 

I 

=  or  red 

=blgr 

2 

=  or  red 

•5 

gr  +  bl 

2 

2 

—  or  red 

o 

-=blgr 

•5 

I 

s=  or  red 

=blgr 

2 

=  or  red 

•5 

•5 

20.5 

2 

—  or  red 

I 

=  blgr 

o 

I 

=  or  red 

=blgr 

2 

—  or  red 

i 

=  blgr 

o 

"•5 

I 

=  or  red 

gr  +  bl 

I 

s=  red  or 

=blgr 

3 

=  or  red 

o 

=  blgr 

I 

0 

2 

red 

0 

=  blgr 

i 

I 

red 

=blgr 

I 

red 

^grbl 

HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND  KATE  GORDON. 


TABLE  XX. 


SUBJECT  B. — STIMULUS — ORANGE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

11 

I 

I 

j 

1 

| 

I 

1 

d 
_o 

d 

bo 

1 

1 

ri 

I 

1 

| 

1 

n 
.2 

i] 

o 
6 

^O 

A 

M 

I 

rt 

'i 

o 

JD 

.2 

D 

.2 
1 

o 

6 

1 

1 

ji 

<a 

1 

^ 

° 

< 

* 

U 

^ 

93° 

I 

yl? 

none 

90.5 

none 

none 

I 

yl 

bl 

87.5 

dark 

light 

I 

yl 

none 

84-5 

dark 

light 

I 

none 

bl 

I 

=  yl  or 

bl 

82 

=  red  or 

4 

bl 

0 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

I 

=  or  yl 

bl 

79 

=  or  red 

bl 

I 

=  or  yl 

bl 

76.5 

=  or  red 

bl 

I 

=  or  red 

bl 

73-5 

=  or  red 

bl 

I 

=  red  or 

bl 

I 

—  or  yl 

bl 

71 

=  or  red 

bl 

2 

—  red  or 

1.5 

bl 

0 

I 

=  red  or 

bl 

68.5 

2 

or  +  red 

3 

-grbl 

I 

I 

ss  red  or 

bl 

I 

=  red  or 

bl 

66 

2 

=  or  red 

0 

bl 

o 

I 

=  or  red 

==blgr 

I 

^  or  red 

=  grbl 

63-2 
59-7 

2 
2 

ss  or  red 
—  or  red 

0 

'•5 

bl 
—grbl 

o 

I 

1 
I 

=  or  red 
=  red  or 

—grbl 
bl 

3 

2 

=  or  red 

ss  or  red 

0 
0 

-grbl 
-grbl 

i 
I 

55 

2 

=  or  red 

2-5 

-grbl 

.5 

I 

—  :  red  or 

bl 

2 

ss  red  or 

I<5 

-grbl 

I 

49 

3 

=  red  or 

I 

gr  +  bl 

I 

I 

s=yl  or 

bl 

2 

=  red  or 

2.5 

=  grbl 

i 

41.2 

2 

or  +  red 

2 

3-5 

I 

=  or  red 

gr  +  bl 

2 

m  red  or 

2.5 

==grbl 

o 

2 

=  red  or 

3-5 

g~r  +  bl 

2 

I 

or 

gr  +  bl 

2 

=  red  or 

4-5 

=  grbl 

0 

20.5 

I 

=  red  or 

I 

=  yl  or 

-grbl 

3 

—  yl  or 

o 

=  grbl 

0 

II-5 

0 

3 

2 

=  or  red 
=  red  or 

o 

o 

=  grbl 
-grbl 

3 
1-5 

I 
I 

=  red  or 
or 

=  grbl 

i 

2 

—  or  red 
or 

0 

^blgr 
^grbl 

.5 

STIMULUS — YELLOW. 


93° 

I 

yi 

bl 

90.5 

none 

none 

87.5 

yl? 

none 

I 

yi 

bl 

84.5 

none 

bl 

o 

i 

=  oryl 

bl 

82 

=  or  yl 

bl 

i 

—  gryl 

bl 

79 

33  or  red 

bl 

2 

=  yl  or 

6 

bl 

0 

76.5 

=  red  or 

bl 

==yl  or 

bl 

73-5 

—  red  or 

bl 

=  yl  or 

-grbl 

i 

yi 

bl 

=  or  yl 

=grbl 

i 

yi 

bl 

68.5 

2 

or 

3 

bl 

0 

=  or  yl 

vi 

I 

yi 

bl? 

66 

2 

or  +  red 

2 

bl 

0 

=  yl  or 

-grbl 

2 

i 

bl 

0 

63.2 

3 

or 

2 

bl 

o 

=  or  yl 

bl 

2 

—gryl 

1.5 

bl 

o 

59-7 

3 

or 

I 

bl 

o 

=  yl  or 

-grbl 

2 

yi 

•5 

bl 

0 

55 

3 

yl  +  or 

2 

bl 

0 

or 

bl 

2 

yi 

o 

-grbl 

I 

49 

3 

s=yl  or 

O 

-grbl 

0 

=  yl  or 

—  grbl 

2 

yi 

o 

-grbl 

I 

41.2 

2 

=  yl  or 

O 

—grbl 

J-5 

=  or  yl 

bl 

2 

yi 

0 

—  vibl 

!-5 

2 

=  oryl 

0 

bl 

o 

yl  +  or 

bl 

2 

yi 

0 

—  vibl 

2 

20.5 

3 

=  gryl 

0 

=vi  bl 

i 

=  or  yl 

bl 

3 

yi 

0 

bl 

O 

"•5 

2 

yi 

2-5 

bl 

0 

=  or  yl 

bl 

2 

yi 

o 

—  vibl 

I  r 

o 

2 

—gryl 

—  vibl 

I 

yi 

bl 

I 

yi 

=  vibl 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA. 


155 


TABLE  XXI. 


SUBJECT  B. — STIMULUS — GREEN. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

|| 

I 

H 

i 

d 
.2 

CO 

| 

d 

ui 

H 

d 

§ 

! 

d 

oJ 
H 

1 

1 

1 

g 

"o 

i 

."s 

cO 

j! 

rt 
'C 

CO 

o 

I 

1 

1 

1 

1 

I 

I 

1 

1 

I 

93° 

I 

light 

none 

90-5 

I 

yl? 

dark 

87-5 

none 

none 

I 

yi 

none 

84.5 

=  oryl 

none 

I 

yi 

bl 

I 

yi 

none 

82 

none 

none 

I 

yi 

bl 

I 

yi 

none 

79 

=  or  yl 

bl 

2 

—gryl 

I-5 

bl 

0 

76.5 

dark 

bl 

I 

=  ylgr 

bl 

I 

—  gryl 

none 

73-5 

yl 

vi 

I 

vi 

I 

bl 

£ 

3 

-ylgr 

2 

=  cr  vi 
car 

0 

-y^gr 

bl 
=cr  vi 

I 
2 

—gryl 

0 

bl 
vi 

0 

66 
63.2 

2 
2 

-blfr 
—  ylgr 

1-5 

2 

car 

0 
0 

=  ylgr 

=  cr  vi 
vi 

2 

2 

—gryl 

1-5 
o 

==vi  cr 
—  vi  cr 

0 

59-7 

3 

—  ylgr 

2 

car 

0 

yi+gr 

=  vicr 

2 

—gryl 

•5 

=  cr  vi 

i 

55 
49 
41.2 

3 
4 
3 

2 

—  blgr 

-ygirgr 

3 

2.5 

I 

2 

car 
car 
car 
—  rdcr 

0 
I 
I 

1-5 

yi 
-ygirgr 

.5 

=  crrd 
—  vi  cr 

-5 

2 
2 

3 
2 

=  gryl 
=  ylgr 
nylgr 

o 
i 

0 

i 

=  vi  cr 

cr-f-vi 
cr-j-vi 
=  vi  cr 

I 
5 
5 

3-5 

20.5 
11.5 

2 
2 

-ylgr 
—blgr 

0 

I 

—  rdcr 
—  rd  cr 

—ylgr 

=  vi  cr 
=  vicr 

2 

2 

—  ylgr 

—ylgr 

1-5 

i 

car 
car 

o 

0 

o 

2 

-blgr 

I 

car 

0 

2 

gr 

0 

car 

•5 

I 

=yigr 

cr-fvi 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE-GREEN. 


93° 

90.5 

87.5 

84-5 

bl 

none 

i 

bl? 

none 

82 

none 

none 

i 

bl 

none 

79 

i 

none 

none 

none 

none 

76.5 

i 

dark 

bl? 

none 

none 

I 

bl 

none 

73-5 

i 

dark 

bl? 

gr 

car 

i 

bl? 

none 

—  yi  gr 

=  ylor 

i 

bl 

car 

68.5 

i 

^grbl 

vi 

=  bl  gr 

car 

66 

2 

0 

—  vi  cr 

1.5 

gr 

=  rdcr 

2 

—  ylgr 

8-5 

car 

0 

63.2 

2 

gr 

3 

—  vi  cr 

1-5 

car 

2 

6-5 

=rdcr 

2-5 

59-7 

3 

=  bl  gr 

2 

car 

o 

none 

^crrd 

I 

=  yl  gr 

red 

55 

2 

=bl  gr 

i-5 

=  rdcr 

•5 

gr 

=  cr  vi 

2 

=  bl  gr 

5 

car 

0 

49 

3 

—  blgr 

2 

=  cr  rd 

3 

=  vicr 

2 

-blgr 

4-5 

=  crrd 

4-5 

41.2 

3 

—blgr 

I 

—  rdcr 

i 

gr 

car 

2 

—ylgr 

i 

car 

0 

20.5 

2 
2 

-blgr 
=blgr 

•5 
•5 

—  rdcr 
=  rdcr 

1-5 
•5 

-ygirgr 

•5 

s=rdcr 
—  vicr 

i 

2 

2 

-bTgr 

0 

1-5 

=  crrd 
—  rdcr 

5-5 
5 

2 

-blgr 

.5 

=rdcr 

•5 

=  bl  gr 

=  rdcr 

I 

=  bl  gr 

=  crrd 

0 

2 

gr+bl 

o 

=  cr  rd 

4-5 

gr 

Hscrrd 

2 

—blgr 

1.5 

=rdcr 

5-5 

HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND  KATE    GORDON. 


TABLE  XXII. 

SUBJECT  B. — STIMULUS — GREEN-BLUE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

|| 

I 

1 

1 

1 

I 

I 

1 

a 

i 

I 

I 

Tests. 

I 

I 

i 

i 

11 

•3 

0 

o 

3 

•§ 

rt 

1 

a 

IM 

O 

6 

1 

1 

"rt 

'£ 

f> 

"3 

*o 

1 

1 

i 

fc 

U 

•4 

fc 

° 

< 

^ 

o 

5 

93° 

90-5 

87.5 

bl 

none 

84-5 

I 

-grbl 

=  oryl 

bl 

none 

82 

I 

bl 

—  oryl 

bl 

none 

79 

I 

bl 

yl 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

o 

76.5 

I 

none 

=  oryl 

bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

—  orrd 

73-5 

2 

bl 

O 

—  oryl 

I 

bl 

=  rdor 

bl 

—  orrd 

2 

bl? 

O 

—  rdor 

I    r 

bl 

or 

bl 

=orrd 

68.5 

3 

bl 

0 

=  ylor 

4 

bl 

==oryl 

bl 

or 

66 

2 

-grbl 

I 

==ylor 

0 

bl 

yi 

2 

bl 

0 

or  +  rd 

2 

63-2 

2 

bl 

0 

yl+or 

2 

bl 

=oryl 

2 

bl 

0 

or 

O 

59-7 

2 

bl 

o 

•5 

bl 

—  oryl 

2 

bl 

o 

=  yl  or 

4 

55 

2 

—  grbi 

I 

=  rdor 

•5 

bl 

==oryl 

2 

bl 

0 

=  ylor 

4 

49 

4 

=  grbl 

I 

=  rdor 

o 

bl 

or 

2 

bl 

0 

or 

3 

41.2 

4 

=grbl 

.5 

—  rdor 

•5 

bl 

=  oryl 

2 

-grbl 

I 

ssrdor 

o 

31 

2 

0 

=  orrd 

4 

=  gr  bl 

=  ylor 

3 

bl 

0 

—  rdor 

o 

20.5 

2 

=  gr  bl 

0 

—  rdor 

i 

gr  +  bl 

=  rdor 

I 

gr+bl 

=  rdor 

"•5 

2 

=  gr  bl 

•5 

—  rdor 

•5 

gr  +  bl 

=  rd  or 

I 

=  gr  bl 

=  orrd 

o 

2 

-grbl 

•5 

=  rdor 

i 

=  grbl 

=  rdor 

3 

=  grbl 

0 

red 

0 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE. 


93° 

2 

none 

none 

9°-5 

i 

none 

none 

1 

bl 

none 

87.5 

i 

dark 

light 

i 

dark 

=  oryl 

I 

bl 

none 

84-5 

2 

bl 

0 

=  yl 

0 

I 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

82 

i 

bl 

—oryl 

I 

bl 

=  ylor 

79 

2 

bl 

0 

—  oryl 

i 

I 

bl 

—  gryl 

76-5 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

i 

bl 

yi 

73-5 

I 

bl 

yi 

i 

vi 

yi 

I 

bl 

==rdor 

7i 

I 

bl 

yi 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

o 

68.5 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

0 

2 

bl 

o 

—  gryl 

i-5 

2 

bl 

0 

—  ylor 

I 

66 

2 

bl 

o 

—  gryl 

0 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

2 

bl 

0 

==rdor 

0 

63.2 

2 

bl 

o 

yi 

1.5 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

2 

bl 

0 

yl  +  or 

5 

59-7 

3 

bl 

0 

=  gryl 

o 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

2 

bl 

0 

—  oryl 

i 

55 

3 

bl 

0 

=  gryl 

I 

I 

bl 

yi 

2 

-grbl 

I 

=  oryl 

3-5 

49 

5 

bl 

0 

=  gryl 

I 

I 

bl 

—oryl 

2 

-grbl 

i-5 

=  oryl 

0 

41.2 

3 

bl 

o 

=  gryl 

I 

I 

=  blvi 

=gryl 

I 

bl 

—  oryl 

3i 

2 

=  vibl 

3-5 

=  gryl 

1-5 

I 

bl 

yi 

2 

-grbl 

1-5 

^oryl 

3-5 

20.5 

2 

vi 

0 

=  ylgr 

o 

I 

=  bl  vi 

=  gryl 

2 

-grbl 

1-5 

—  oryl 

2 

H-5 

2 

bl 

0 

—  gryl 

•5 

I 

bl 

yi 

2 

=  grbl 

o 

=  ylor 

I 

0 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

•5 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

0 

2 

bl 

o 

—  oryl 

I 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA. 


'57 


TABLE  XXIII. 

SUBJECT  B.  —  STIMULUS  — VIOLET. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

.2 

. 

4J 

3 

. 

*; 

5 

«; 

l| 

i 

1 

a 
.2 

1 

i 

§ 

1 

1 

1 

CO 

§ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

I 

is 

o 

•g 

M 

1 

"o 

g 

te 
'C 

l-t 
b 

1 

"3 

o 

1 

1 

Cd  ^ 

i4 

i 

U 

CO 

y 

« 

i 

i 

at 

£ 

9 

1 

jf 

O 

o 

CB 

1 

cd 

93° 

90-5 

I 

bl 

=  ory? 

87.5 

dark 

none 

I 

bl 

none 

84.5 

dark 

yl? 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

82 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=  oryl 

I 

bl 

=  oryl 

79 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

76.5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

—  rdor 

73-5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

I 

bl 

—  ylor 

68.5 

5 

bl 

0 

yi 

0 

bl 

yi 

2 

bl 

O 

=  oryl 

2 

66 

2 

bl 

0 

yi 

0 

bl 

O 

yi 

o 

2 

—  vibl 

2.5 

yi 

•5 

63.2 

3 

bl 

0 

yi 

0 

bl 

—gryl 

I 

bl 

=gryl 

59-7 

2 

bl 

0 

—gryl 

.5 

bl 

yi 

3 

bl 

o 

=  gryl 

o 

55 

3 

bl 

0 

=gryl 

0 

bl 

yi 

2 

bl 

o 

•5 

49 

5 

bl 

0 

0 

bl 

O 

yi 

0 

2 

=  vibl 

I 

-fryl 

1.5 

41.2 

3 

vi 

0 

=  gryl 

0 

—  car  vi 

I 

=  gryl 

o 

2 

=  bl  vi 

6.5 

yi 

.5 

31 

2 

—  car  vi 

1.5 

yi+gr 

2 

vi 

2 

—  blvi 

8.5 

=gryl 

i 

20.5 

2 

vi 

3 

=  ylgr 

0 

vi 

^ylgr 

I 

vi 

—  gryl 

11.5 

2 

—  car  vi 

I 

sylgr 

3-5 

vi 

=gryl 

2 

vi 

0 

=  ylgr 

i 

0 

2 

vi 

0 

=  gryl 

•5 

=s  car  vi 

=  gryl 

2 

vi 

o 

=  ylgr 

•5 

i58 


HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND  KATE    GORDON. 


TABLE  XXIV. 

SUBJECT  F.  —  STIMULUS — CARMINE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

j 

1 

1 

n 

B 

§ 

a 

1 

11 

f 

1 

" 
o 

1 

V 
CO 

3 

3 

1 

3 

1 

I 

1 

93° 

90.5 

87.5 

84-5 

82 

dark 

light 

79 

red? 

yi 

76.5 

dark 

yi 

73-5 

dark 

car 

dark 

dark 

none 

=  car  vi 

dark 

68.5 
66 

red 
red? 

light 
light 

=  car  red 
car 

light 
light 

^carvi 
car  +  vi 

bl? 
dark 

63.2 
59-7 

red 
red 

light 
light 

car 
dark 

light 

car 
car 

=gryl 

55 

vi 

yl 

=  red  car 

light 

car 

=ylgr 

49 

car 

=gr  yl 

=  vi  car 

=yigr 

=red  car 

—  ylgr 

41.2 

car 

="ylgr 

=vi  car 

=  yl  gr 

car 

31 

car 

gr 

car 

=yigr 

car 

gr 

20.5 

car 

—  yl  gr 

car 

car 

gr 

"•5 

0 

s=  red  car 
car 

=yigr 

—red  car 
car 

—ylgr 

car 
car 

Ir 

STIMULUS — RED. 


93° 

90-5 

87.5 

84-5 

82 
79 

dark 
or  -f  red 

Hg. 

76.5 

red 

bl 

red 

bl 

73-5 

red 

bl 

—  red  or 

bl 

71 

red 

bl 

red 

bl 

red 

bl 

68.5 

=or  red 

bl 

red 

bl 

red 

bl 

66 

=or  red 

bl 

red 

bl 

=  red  or 

bl 

63.2 

red 

bl 

—  or  red 

bl 

=  or  red 

bl 

59-7 

red 

bl 

red 

bl? 

=or  red 

bl 

55 

=or  red 

bl 

=or  red 

bl? 

=  or  red 

bl 

49 
41.2 

red 
=or  red 

Hght 

=or  red 
red 

bl 
bl 

=or  red 
or 

bl 
=  grbl 

3i 

red 

=  grbl 

red 

bl 

=  red  or 

=  grbl 

20.5 
n-5 

0 

=or  red 
red 
red 

=  grbl 
^blgr 
=gr  bl 

—or  red 
red 
=  or  red 

=  blgr 
=  blgr 
none 

=or  red 
or 

=  or  red 

=  grbl 
=  grbl 
gr  +  bl 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        159 


TABLE  XXV. 

SUBJECT  F.  —  STIMULUS  —  ORANGE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

•38 

g 

& 

g 

1 

d 

V 

1 

11 

$ 

1 

</) 

i 

fl 

«2 

I 

3 

1 

1 

1 

1 

93° 

90-5 

87.5 

84.5 

82 

79 

=red  or 

bl 

76.5 

73-5 

=  red  or 

bl 

—  yl  or 

bl 

=  red  or 

bl 

m  red  or 

bl 

=red  or 

bl 

68.5 

=red  or 

bl 

=  red  or 

bl 

=  red  or 

bl 

r  66 

or 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

63.2 

=  or  red 

bl 

or 

bl 

=  red  or 

bl 

59-7 

or 

bl 

=  or  red 

bl 

or 

bl 

55 

=red  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

49 

or 

bl 

=n=  red  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

41.2 

=  red  or 

bl 

=red  or 

bl 

=yl  or 

bl 

or 

=  gr  bl 

=  red  or 

—  grbl 

or 

zzrgr  bl 

20.5 

0 

or 

=  red  or 
or 

=  grbl 
gr  +  bl 
bl 

=  red  or 
or 
=  red  or 

=  grbl 
gr  +  bl 
none 

or 
or 
or 

=  grbl 
=  grbl 
=grbl 

STIMULUS — YELLOW, 


93° 

90.5 

87.5 

84-5 

dark? 

light 

82 

or 

bl 

79 

=oryl 

bl 

765 

yl  +  or 

bl 

yi 

w 

73-5 

—  yl  or 

bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bi 

el's 

=  or  yl 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

66 

=  or  yl 

bl 

=or  yl 

bl 

—  or  yl 

bl 

63.2 

=  yl  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

59-7 

=  red  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

55 

or 

bl 

=oryl 

bl 

yi 

bl 

49 

or 

bl 

—  yl  or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

41.2 

or 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

31 

^oryl 

bl 

or 

bl 

—  or  yl 

bl 

20.5 
11.5 

=or  yl 
—  or  yl 

bl 
bl 

^oryl 
or 

bl 
bl 

—  or  yl 

yi 

bl 
bl 

0 

yi 

bl? 

ssylor 

bl 

yi 

none 

i6o 


HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND   KATE   GORDON. 


TABLE  XXVI. 

SUBJECT  F.  —  STIMULUS  —  GREEN. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

d 

£ 

j 

L 

d 

& 

I! 

-    # 

1 

<B 

1 

1 

1 

i 

11 

1 

M 
Vi 

if 

fM 

1 

1 

1 

u 

s 

U 

3 

° 

< 

93° 

Vi 

84.5 

82 

or? 

bl? 

79 

dark 

bl 

765 

red 

bl 

yi 

bl 

73-5 

red  red 

blbl 

yi 

none 

71 
68.5 

red  red 
=  or  red  ? 

blbl 
bl 

=  or  yl 

yi 

bl 
bl 

i 

none 
bl 

66 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

none 

63.2 

=  ylor 

bl 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

59-7 

gr 

none 

_yi  i 

bl 

yi 

bl 

55 

gr 

vi? 

bl 

yi 

s  vi  car 

49 

car 

—yigr 

=  vi  car 

yi 

car 

41.2 

gr 

car 

—  yigr 

car 

yi 

svibl 

31 

gr 

car 

car 

—  yigr 

—  vi'car 

20.5 

gr 

car 

—yigr 

car 

gr 

=vi  car 

u.5 

gr 

car 

gr 

car 

gr 

—  vi  car 

0 

gr 

car 

gr 

car 

gr 

red 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE-GREEN. 


93° 

90-5 

87.5 

84-5 

82 

79 

yl? 

bl? 

76.5 

73-5 

dark 

light 

dark 

light 

light 

none 

68.5 
66 

dark 
dark 

light 
light 

=  blgr 

dark 

=or  red 
car 

light 
light 

dark 
dark 

63.2 

dark 

light 

dark 

none 

light 

red 

59-7 

dark 

light 

dark 

none 

55 

=  blgr 

car 

gr 

car 

gr? 

dark 

49 

gr 

car 

—yigr 

car 

gr-fbl 

red 

41.2 

-blgr 

car 

gr 

car 

=  blgr 

red 

—  bl  gr 

car 

gr 

car 

=  blgr 

car 

20.5 

==  blgr 

=  red  car 

-blgr 

car 

=blgr 

—red  car 

u.5 

gr 

car 

gr 

car 

=  bl  gr 

==  car  red 

o 

^blgr? 

car 

gr 

car 

-blgr 

car 

AFTER-IMAGES  ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA. 


161 


TABLE  XXVII. 

SUBJECT  F.  —  STIMULUS  —  GREEN-BLUE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

d 

« 

d 

1 

d 

1 

!§ 

a« 

1 

1 

1 

B 
G 

CO 

1 

11 

J3 

D 

J3 

1 

h 

K--T 

*O 

o 

3 

o 

< 

0 

5 

93° 

90-5 

87-5 

84.5 

82 

79 

dark 

yi 

76.5 

bl 

73-5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

red 

bl 

yi 

68*5 

bl 

yi 

o 

yi 

bl 

red 

66 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

63.2 
59-7 

bl 
bl 

-grbl 
bl 

=oryl 

yi 

bl 
bl 

red 
red 

55 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=  or  yl 

bl 

red 

49 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=or  yl 

bl 

=  or  red 

41.2 

bl 

=  or  yl 

—grbl 

-oryl 

bl 

red 

=  grbl 

=  red  car 

=  gr  bl 

=  yl  or 

—  grbl 

=orred 

20.5 

=  gr  bl 

=  red  car 

=  grbl 

=or  red 

—  gr  bl 

or  4-  red 

«.  5 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

—  gr  bl 

=  or  red 

=  gr  bl 

=or  red 

0 

==grbl 

car 

—  grbl 

car 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE. 


93° 

90.5 

87.5 

84-5 

dark 

light 

82 

bl 

yl 

79 

bl 

=or  yl 

76.5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

73-5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

68Z5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=  red  or 

66 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

s=  or  red 

63-2 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

—  yl  or 

59-7 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

55 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

53  red  or 

49 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=gryl 

bl 

red? 

41.2 

bl 

yi 

bl 

-gryl 

bl 

=or  yl 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=gr  yl 

bl 

==gr  yl 

20.5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

—  gr  yl 

"•5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=  yl  or 

0 

vi 

=vibl 

yi 

162  HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND   KATE    GORDON. 


TABLE  XXVIII. 

SUBJECT  F.  —  STIMULUS  —  VIOLET. 


Background.  3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

d 

« 

1 

d 

1 

g 

1 

Q  .2 

<» 

1 

OB 

a 

ID 

i 

il 

1 

1 

I 

1 

1 

| 

93° 

84.5 
82 

79 

bl 

yi 

76.5 

bl 

yi 

73-5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

—  or  yl 

bl 

—  or  red 

£ 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

66 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

63.2 

bl 

—  or  yl 

bl 

yi 

59-7 
55 

bl 
bl 

=gryl 
yi 

bl 
bl 

yi 

bl 
bl 

==gryl 

yi 

49 

bl 

yi 

bl 

—  gr  yi 

bl 

=yigr 

41.2 

bl 

yi 

bl 

=  gryl 

bl 

-ylgr 

20.5 

vi 
vi 

yi+gr 
=gryi 

~bl 

yi-f-gr 

=  gryl 

bl 
bl 

=  ylgr 

H-5 

vi 

=  ylgr 

vi 

bl 

yi+gr 

0 

vi 

==vibl 

gr 

SUBJECT  G.  —  STIMULUS  —  CARMINE. 


93° 

90-5 
87.5 

dark 
dark 

light 
light 

light 
light 

dark 
dark 

84.5 

dark 

light 

light 

dark 

82 

dark 

light 

car 

dark 

79 

dark 

light 

—red  car 

dark 

76.5 

dark 

=  gryl 

=  red  car 

dark 

73-5 

dark 

—  gryl 

car 

gr 

7i 

dark 

yi 

car 

gr 

68.5 

dark 

=ylgr 

car 

gr 

66 

car 

=ylgr 

car 

gr 

63.2 
59-7 

car 
car 

=  ylgr 
=ylgr 

car 
car 

S 

55 

car 

—  ylgr 

car 

gr 

49 

car 

gr 

car 

gr 

41.2 

=vi  car 

—ylgr 

car 

gr 

3i 

car 

gr 

20.5 

car 

gr 

car 

gr 

ii-5 

car 

gr 

car 

gr 

0 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL   RETINA. 


I63 


TABLE  XXIX. 


SUBJECT  G.  —  STIMULUS  —  RED. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

11 

i 

i 

f 

1 

V 

H 

3 

S 

£ 

1 

fl 

I 

3 

1 

1 

r* 

I 

1 

i 

93° 

m 

dark 
dark 

light 
light 

light 

or 

bl 

84.5 
82 

dark 

light 
light 

=  or  yl 

gr 

79 

red 

bl 

yl  +  or 

gr 

76.5 

red 

bl 

or 

-grbl 

73-5 

red 

bl 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

7i 

—  or  red 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

bl 

•  68.5 

red 

bi 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

66 

red 

bl 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

63.2 

red 

bl 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

59-7 

red 

bl 

—  or  red 

-grbl 

55 

=or  red 

bl 

=  or  red 

=  grbl 

49 

red 

=grbl 

=  car  red 

=  gr  bl 

41.2 

red 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

gr  +  bl 

31 

red 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

—  grbl 

20.5 

red 

gr  +  bl 

red 

—  gr  bl 

n.5 

=or  red 

—  blgr 

—  or  red 

gr  +  bl 

0 

STIMULUS  —  ORANGE  , 


93° 

none 

none 

yl 

bl 

87  5 

yi 

bl 

84.5 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

82 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

79 

=  red  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

76.5 

=  red  or 

bl 

or 

bl 

73-5 

or 

bl 

or 

bl 

=  or  red 

bl 

=  orvl 

bl 

68*5 

=  red  or 

—  vibl 

=  red  or 

bl 

66 

or 

bl 

=  or  red 

—  grb- 

63.2 

or 

bl 

or 

bl 

59-7 

or 

—  grbl 

=  yl  or 

=  vibl 

55 

or 

—  grbl 

=  red  or 

—  grbl 

49 

or 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

-grbl 

41.2 

or 

-grbl 

33  red  or 

-grbl 

31 

or 

bl 

or 

-grbl 

20.5 

or 

-grbl 

or 

gr  +  bl 

n-5 

or 

—  blgr 

or 

S3  grbl 

0 

164 


HELEN  B.  THOMPSON  AND  KATE  GORDON. 


TABLE  XXX. 

SUBJECT  G, 


STIMULUS  —  YELLOW. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

--  n 

a 

1 

d 

| 

g 

i 

11 

OJ 

i 

& 

2 

1 

s§ 

| 

ID 

s 

V 

o 

w 

3 

a 

i 

"3 

u 

5 

a 

< 

93° 

9°-5 

light 

bl 

87.5 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

84.5 

=  yl  or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

82 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

79 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

76.5 

=  yl  or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

73-5 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yl  +  or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

6?S 

=  or  yl 

bl 

yi 

bl 

66 

or 

bl 

yi 

bl 

63.2 

yi 

bl 

yi 

=  vibl 

59-7 

=or  yl 

bl 

yi 

bl 

55 

yi 

bl 

yi 

bl 

49 

—  yl  or 

bl 

yi 

bl  +  vi 

41.2 

yl  +  or 

=vibl 

yi 

none 

=  or  yl 

bl 

yi 

==bl  vi 

20.5 

yi 

=vi  bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

=vibl 

yi 

=  vi  bl 

0 

STIMULUS  —  GREEN, 


93° 

90.5 

none 

none 

light 

none 

87-5 

dark 

light 

light 

dark 

84.5 
82 

dark 

light 
—  vi  car 

y? 

yi 

none 
bl 

79 

dfrk 

bl 

yi 

none 

76.5 

yl? 

bl 

yi 

none 

73-5 
7i 

-fryl 

vi 
bl 

=  gryl 

yi 

none 
bl 

68.5 

—  yl  or 

car 

=gryl 

=  car  vi 

66 

gr 

vi 

—gryl 

=bl  vi 

63.2 

gr 

=  red  car 

=  ylgr 

=vi  car 

59-7 

—  ylgr 

=vi  car 

=  car  vi 

55 

car 

=ylgr 

=bl  vi 

49 

gr 

—  red  car 

=vi  car 

41.2 

gr 

—  vi  car 

yi+gr 

car  +  vi 

3^ 

gr 

=vi  car 

=  car  vi 

20.5 

gr 

car 

gr 

vi 

gr 

=  vi  car 

gr 

33  car  vi 

0 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA. 


I65 


TABLE  XXXI. 

SUBJECT  G.  —  STIMULUS  —  BLUE-GREEN. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

a 

6 

, 

£ 

d 

1 

11 

i 

f 

1 

I 

1 

i 

t3  5 

o 

1 

i 

i, 

Ll 

o 

* 

§ 

sS 

§ 

£ 

3 

1 

93° 

9°-5 

light 

dark 

87-5 

dark 

none 

light 

dark 

84-5 

light 

dark 

82 

dark 

light 

light 

? 

79 

dark 

light 

light 

car 

76-5 

gr 

red 

light 

—  car  red 

73-5 

dark 

car  ? 
none 

light 
light 

dark 
=  red  car? 

68.5 

none 

red? 

gr  ? 

red 

66 
63.2 

—bfgr 

red 
or 

bl 

red 

59-7 
55 

—bfgr 

—  car  red 
—car  red 

light 
==blgr 

ss  red  car 
car 

49 

-blgr 

33  red  car 

=  bl  gr 

car 

41.2 

-bfgr 

33  red  car 
red  -f-  car 

=  blgr 

car 

ss  vi  car 

20.5 

-^~bl  gr 

car 

=  blgr 

33  vi  car 

11.5 

-blgr 

ss  red  car 

=  blgr 

=svi  car 

0 

STIMULUS  —  GREEN-BLUE. 


93° 

tt 

dark 

light 

light 
light 

none 
dark 

84-5 

dark 

none 

light 

33  red  or 

82 

bl 

—  or  yl 

-grbl 

=  or  red 

79 

bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

red? 

76.5 

dark 

yi 

light 

red 

73-5 

bl 

—  oryl 

bl 

33  red  or 

dark 

—  or  yl 

bl 

red 

68*5 

bl 

yl-fgr 

bl 

=•  or  red 

66 

==  gr  bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

ss  or  red 

63.2 

bl 

or 

bl 

=  or  red 

59-7 

bl 

or 

bl 

—  or  red 

55 
49 

—grbl 
-grbl 

or 
=  or  yl 

bl 
—grbl 

red 

ss  or  red 

41.2 

-grbl 

or 

=  bl  gr 

—  or  red 

3i 

ss  grbl 

or 

=  grbl 

ss  or  red 

20.5 

=  grbl 

or 

35  gr  bl 

33  or  red 

M.5 

33  grbl 

or 

=  gr  bl 

—  or  red 

o 

1 66 


HELEN  B.   THOMPSON  AND  KATE    GORDON. 


TABLE  XXXII. 

SUBJECT  G.  —  STIMULUS — BLUE. 


Background.    3  (Yellow). 

7  (Green). 

38  (Blue). 

j 

& 

c 

1 

d 

» 

11 

1 

3 

1 

I 

s 

i 

il 

1 

1 

& 

d 

1 

! 

1 

93° 

9°-5 

gr? 

light 

none 

none 

87-5 
84-5 

dark 
dark 

yi 

bl 
bl 

=or  yl 
=  red  or 

82 

dark 

—  or  yl 

bl 

or 

79 

dark 

=sor  yl 

bl 

=  or  red 

76.5 

bl 

—  gryl 

bl 

r-d 

73-5 

—  vibl 

=  gryl 

bl 

=  or  red 

dark 

* 

bl     1 

=  red  or 

' 

^ 

=  gryl 

68.5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

red 

66 

bl 

=  yl  or 

bl 

=  or  red 

63.2 

bl 

—  gr  yl 

bl 

=  or  red 

59-7 
55 

bl 
bl 

=  gryl 

yi 

bl 
bl 

=  red  or 

49 

bl 

=  gr  yl 

bl 

^  or  yl 

41.2 

bl 

—  or  yl 

bl 

=  red  or 

=  bl  vi 

=  ylgr 

bl 

yl-f  or 

20.5 

bl 

yl  -for 

H.5 

bl 

yi 

=  grbl 

=  or  yl 

0 

STIMULUS — VIOLET. 


93° 

90-5 

bl 

yi 

87.5 

none 

==or  yl 

84-5 

dark 

light 

bl 

—  yl  or 

82 
79 

bl 
dark 

yi 

=  yl  or 

bl 
bl 

=  red  or 
or 

76.5 

dark 

yi 

bl 

yi 

73-5 

dark 

—  or  yl 

bl 

yi 

7i 

dark 

=  gr  yl 

bl 

=  red  or 

68.5 

bl 

yi 

bl 

yi 

66 

bl? 

yi 

bl 

=  gryl 

63.2 

bl 

=  gryl 

bl 

yi 

59-7 

bl 

=  gryl 

bl 

=  yigr 

55 

bl 

is  gryl 

bl 

=  yl  or 

49 

bl 

=  gryi 

=  vibl 

=  gryl 

41.2 

—  vibl 

—  gryl 

=  vibl 

=  gryl 

31 

vi 

sylgr 

vi 

=  gryl 

20.5 

vi 

=  ylgr 

=  blvi 

=  yigr 

IT.5 

vi 

=yigr 

vi 

yi-fgr 

0 

AFTER-IMAGES   ON  THE  PERIPHERAL  RETINA.        167 

TABLE  XXXIII. 

SUBJECT  B. 


Background.    7  (Yellow). 

Background. 

38  (Blue). 

Fix.  ptJ 

Color  Seen. 

After-image. 

Fix.  pt. 

Color  Seen.    | 

After-image. 

STIMULUS  —  CARMINE. 


55° 

=  vi  car 

=  yl  gr  |  bl  j  car 

66° 

==  red  car 

gr  |  =  red  car 

41.2 

car 

/  =  ylgr  Igr  I 
\  =  red  car  |  gr 

3i 

=  red  car 

gr  |  car  |  =  yl  gr 

3i 

=  vi  car 

gr  |  H=  bl  gr  |  car 

STIMULUS  —  ORANQE. 


41.2 


red  or 


bl  |  SB  gr  bl  |  red    I 


STIMULUS  —  GREEN. 


59.7 

;E=  blgr 

car  |  =  bl  gr 

41-5 

=  gryl 

vi  +  car  |  =  yl  gr 

49 

=  blgr 

f  =  vi  car  | 
\  =  blgr  |  car 

3i 

gr-hyl 

car  |  =  yl  gr 

3i 

gr 

=  red  car  |  gr 

20.5 

=  ylgr 

car  |  gr 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE-GREEN. 


55 

=  blgr 

=  red  car  |  ==  bl  gr 

31 

gr 

car  |  gr 

41.2 

—  blgr 

car  j  ==  bl  gr 

-blgr 

car  j  —  gr  bl 

20.5 

=  bl  gr 

=  red  car  |  s  vi 

car  j  =  bl  gr 

STIMULUS  —  GREEN-BLUE. 


41.2 

-V« 

=  or  red  | 
=  car  red  |  =grbl 

55 

bl 
==blgr 

—  red  or  |  ssblgr? 

=  or  red  |  =  bl  gr 

STIMULUS  —  BLUE  . 

31 

bl 

^  yl  gr  |  ^  or  yl  | 
=  ylor   |  ^  red  or 
|  car 

66 
31 

bl 
=  grbl 

=  red  or  |  —  bl  gr 
=  ylor  |  =blgr 

STIMULUS  —  VIOLET. 

55 

bl 

=  y1  sr  1  =  y1  gr  1 

car  |  =  yl  gr 

EDITORS'  ANNOUNCEMENT. 

The  editors  of  the  REVIEW  announce  the  completion  of  ar- 
rangements to  issue  a  new  series  of  Monographs,  planned  on 
the  lines  of  the  Psychological  Monograph  Series  already  estab- 
lished. This  new  series  will  be  devoted  to  philosophical  topics, 
and  will  bear  the  title  Philosophical  Monographs.  The  two 
series  will  proceed  side  by  side,  being  devoted  respectively  to 
more  extended  papers  on  psychological  and  philosophical 
subjects.  We  are  glad  to  offer  to  authors  and  University  de- 
partments this  wider  channel  of  publication  on  the  terms  here- 
tofore extended  in  connection  with  the  old  series.  Correspon- 
dence with  reference  to  the  printing  of  Monographs  and 
manuscripts  should  be  addressed  as  follows : 
For  the  series  of  Psychological  Monographs ', 
to  Prof.  C.  H.  JUDD,  Yale  University, 

New  Haven,  Conn. 
For  the  series  of  Philosophical  Monographs, 

to  Prof.  J.  MARK  BALDWIN,  Johns  Hopkins  University, 

Baltimore,  Md. 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  3.  May,  1907 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


STUDIES   FROM  THE  LABORATORY  OF  THE  UNI- 
VERSITY OF  CHICAGO. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  PROFESSOR  JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL. 
THE  PENDULAR  WHIPLASH  ILLUSION  OF  MOTION. 

BY  HARVEY  CARR,  PH.D. 

I.  In  an  article  entitled  *  The  Participation  of  the  Eye 
Movements  in  the  Visual  Perception  of  Motion/1  Mr.  Dodge 
reviews  the  historical  trend  of  opinion  in  assigning  a  less  and 
less  importance  to  the  factor  of  eye  movement  in  mediating  the 
visual  consciousness  of  motion ;  he  further  takes  the  extreme 
radical  position  in  this  trend  of  thought  by  denying  to  eye 
movements  any  function  at  all ;  he  maintains  the  thesis  that  eye 
movements  alone  can  not  mediate  any  consciousness  of  visual 
motion.  "Not  only,  however,  is  there  no  independent  con- 
sciousness of  the  eye  movements,  adequate  to  the  refinement  of 
the  visual  perception  of  motion,  but  the  character  of  the  eye 
movements  which  occur  when  we  view  a  moving  object  furnishes 
evidence  that,  if  our  consciousness  of  them  were  complete  and 
exact,  it  would  be  either  useless  or  misleading  as  a  datum  in 
the  visual  perception  of  motion"  (p.  3).  In  speaking  of  the 
results  of  one  of  his  tests,  he  maintains  that  it  "  serves  at  once 
to  show  the  utter  inability  of  the  pursuit  movement  either  to  sub- 
serve the  perception  of  motion  of  the  fixated  point  or  to  correct 
the  exaggerated  data  from  the  displacement  of  the  retinal  image 
of  the  nonfixated  point"  (p.  14). 

A  crucial  test  of  the  theory  would  involve  the  elimination  of 
.all   other   possible   functioning  factors,  the    perception  of   an 

1  PSYCH.  REV.,  1904,  pp.  1-14. 

169 


170  HARVEY  CARR. 

isolated  moving  object  whose  stimulation  remains  stationary 
upon  the  retina.  Professor  Dodge  contends  that  these  ideal 
conditions  are  obtained  in  his  pendulum  test.  Two  lights  of 
weak  intensity  are  placed  on  the  two  arms  of  a  counterbalanced 
pendulum.  One  of  these  swinging  lights  is  followed  by  the 
eyes,  while  the  other  is  perceived  peripherally.  Former 
photographic  tests  have  demonstrated  that  the  image  of  the 
fixated  light  is  not  displaced  on  the  retina  during  the  last 
quarter  of  its  swing.  According  to  the  theory,  the  fixated 
light  should  appear  motionless  during  these  ideal  conditions, 
while  of  course  the  second  light  would  still  be  seen  in  motion 
during  this  period.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  experiment  gave 
the  expected  results ;  the  peripherally  perceived  light  was  seen 
to  move  an  appreciable  time  after  the  fixated  light  came  to  a 
full  stop ;  this  second  light  appeared  to  make  '  a  gratuitous 
whiplash  excursion '  of  its  own.  "We  have  already  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  end  of  every  pursuit  sweep  is  freer 
from  corrective  movements  than  its  beginning.  This  is  con- 
spicuously true  of  the  pursuit  sweeps  by  which  the  line  of 
regard  follows  a  swinging  pendulum.  Photographs  of  such 
sweeps  give  no  indication  of  corrective  movements  either 
negative  or  positive  within  the  last  quarter  of  the  swings 
studied."  He  further  says  that  the  conditions  of  the  experiment 
are  such  that  it  '  constitutes  a  faultless  experimental  test  of  our 
conclusions '  (p.  13). 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  whiplash 
phenomenon.  Mr.  Dodge  has  well  described  it.  Also,  is  it 
obvious  that  the  theory  will  satisfactorily  explain  the  illusion,  nor, 
so  far  as  I  know,  is  there  any  reason  for  questioning  the  state- 
ment that  ideal  conditions  obtain  during  this  part  of  the  swing. 

Mr.  Dodge  further  maintains  that  the  illusion  is  *  capable  of 
only  one  explanation/  t.  e.,  in  terms  of  his  theory.  If  this  be 
true,  it  would  logically  follow  that  the  phenomenon  is  proof 
positive  of  the  truth  of  his  theoretical  position.  The  only  escape 
from  the  inevitable  logic  of  the  situation  is  to  question  his 
proposition  that  no  other  explanatory  theory  is  possible.  In 
fact,  one  such  -possible  explanation  occurred  to  the  writer  upon 
reading  the  article  in  question. 


PEND  ULAR   WHIPLASH  ILL  US  ION .  1 7  J 

Let  us  assume  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  generally  accepted 
before  Dodge  advanced  his  extreme  proposition,  viz.,  that  eye 
movements  can  mediate  visual  motion,  but  only  for  the  greater 
magnitudes  and  velocities  ;  that  their  limen  of  perceptibility  is 
much  greater  than  that  of  the  factor  of  retinal  displacement. 
The  assumption  is  entirely  probable,  for  surfaces  differ  in  their 
sensitivity  to  movement.  A  stimulus  of  a  definite  magnitude 
and  rapidity  may  be  below  the  limen  of  perceptibility  on  one 
part  of  the  skin,  and  still  be  distinctly  perceived  as  movement  on 
another  area.  The  same  is  true  for  different  parts  of  the  retina. 
In  fact  this  is  the  generally  accepted  view,  which  Dodge  is  try- 
ing to  overthrow.  As  the  pendulum  approaches  the  end  of  its 
swing,  the  rate  of  movement  gradually  decreases  to  zero.  Con- 
sequently, for  some  definite  portion  of  the  end  of  its  swing,  its 
rate  would  be  below  the  eye  movement  limen,  but  still  above 
the  retinal  limen  of  perceptibility.  In  other  words,  the  retinally 
perceived  light  would  be  seen  moving  for  an  appreciable  time 
after  the  fixated  light  had  apparently  stopped.  Hence  the 
gratuitous  whiplash  excursion  is  evident.  Since  the  function 
of  eye  movement  in  the  perception  of  motion  is  the  point  at 
ssue,  one  has  as  much  right  to  make  a  ositive  assumption  as 
Dodge  has  to  assume  a  lack  of  function.  The  theory  further 
has  the  weight  of  historical  opinion  behind  it. 

A  third  -possible  theory  developed  during  a  repetition  of  the 
experiment.  The  fixated  light  when  successfully  followed  has 
(during  the  last  portion  of  its  swing)  no  positive  after-image.  The 
peripherally  perceived  light,  on  the  contrary,  does  leave  a  pro- 
nounced positive  after-image  streak.  The  eye  moves  in  a  direc- 
tion opposite  to  this  latter  light  and  consequently  the  rapidity  of 
its  retinal  displacement  equals  that  of  a  light,  perceived  by  a 
stationary  eye,  moving  at  a  rate  equal  to  the  combined  velocities 
of  the  two  lights  used  in  the  pendulum  test.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  length  of  the  after-image  streak  varies  directly  with 
the  rapidity  of  the  retinal  displacement.  Thus  a  very  pro- 
nounced length  of  the  positive  streak  results  in  the  test.  This 
light,  with  its  positive  after-image,  is  viewed  peripherally  and 
hence  is  seen  indistinctly  and  en  masse;  without  conscious  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  observer,  it  appears  as  an  elongated  light  with 


172  HARVEY  CARR. 

no  very  decided  contour,  nor  sharply  discriminated  parts ;  it 
appears  as  a  conscious  whole  or  unity.  As  the  pendulum 
reaches  the  end  of  its  swing,  this  elongated  mass  of  light  rapidly 
contracts  in  length  at  its  rear  end.  This  occurs  for  two  reasons  : 
(i)  the  velocity  of  the  pendulum  rapidly  decreases  toward  zero, 
and  the  length  of  the  positive  after-image  is  a  function  of  the 
rate  of  movement ;  (2)  the  light  on  its  return  swing  back-tracks, 
as  it  were,  and  meets  the  receding  end  of  the  fading  after-image, 
but  now  leaves  another  positive  streak  in  its  rear.  If  the  posi- 
tive streak  is  six  inches  long  when  the  pendulum  is  one  inch 
from  the  end  of  its  swing,  and  this  streak  has  time  to  disappear 
while  the  pendulum  is  moving  and  returning  over  this  final  inch 
of  its  arc,  it  is  evident  that  the  total  mass  of  light  will  have  con- 
tracted at  its  rear  end  from  six  inches  to  one  inch  in  length. 
These  values  are  of  course  merely  illustrative.  Movement, 
psychologically,  is  the  consciousness  of  spatial  changes,  and 
these  changes  occur  at  the  two  ends  of  the  elongated  light,  the 
shifting  boundaries  between  the  two  discriminable  visual  con- 
tents. One  of  these  cues  of  movement  becomes  abnormally  ex- 
aggerated as  the  pendulum  comes  to  a  full  stop,  and  still  con- 
continues  to  be  operative,  without  any  contrary  cue,  while  the 
pendulum  is  gathering  headway  on  its  return  swing.  Conse- 
quently, the  whole  mass  of  light  will  appear  to  be  moving  on, 
after  the  pendulum  has  really  stopped.  The  observed  extra 
movement  is  thus  a  purely  illusory  one.  Such  a  conception  in- 
volves no  new  doctrine,  for  the  influence  of  the  receding  posi- 
tive after-image  streak  in  mediating  the  perception  of  motion  is 
well  known.  At  the  very  least,  the  theory  possesses  an  a  friori 
possibility. 

We  shall  term  these  theories  A,  B>  and  C  in  the  order  of 
their  exposition.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  only  A  and  B  are  mutually 
exclusive.  The  phenomenon  may  be  due  to  the  causes  desig- 
nated in  A,  or  B,  or  C9  or  it  may  be  the  combined  result  of 
those  mentioned  in  A  and  C,  or  B  and  C.  We  propose  to  re- 
count some  additional  observations  and  tests  throwing  light 
upon  the  relative  efficiency  of  these  conceptions  as  explanatory 
principles. 

Hereafter  the  fixated  and  the  peripherally  perceived  lights 


PENDULAR    WHIPLASH  ILLUSION.  1 73 

will  be  termed  the  upper  and  the  lower  lights  respectively. 
Unless  otherwise  stated,  the  following  conditions  will  obtain  : 
The  length  of  the  upper  arm  of  the  pendulum  is  slightly  shorter 
than  that  of  the  lower  arm.  The  lower  arm  is  78  cm.  in  length, 
and  swings  through  an  arc  of  100  cm.  The  pendulum  moves 
at  a  velocity  of  two  seconds  for  a  complete  swing,  /.  £.,  for  a  for- 
ward and  a  return  movement.  The  observer  is  stationed  at  a 
distance  of  230  cm.,  and  the  eye  moves  through  an  angle  of  23 
degrees  in  following  the  upper  light.  The  angular  distance  of 
the  lower  light  from  the  fovea  is  approximately  30  degrees. 
Two  miniature  incandescent  lights  were  used  of  such  intensity 
that  no  other  objects  were  visible.  The  tests  were  conducted 
at  night  in  a  dark  room. 

II.  Mr.  Dodge  alleges  that  the  apparent  length  of  the  upper 
light's  movement  is  judged  to  be  much  shorter  than  that  of  the 
lower  one.  In  order  to  secure  an  equality  of  apparent  length 
of  movement,  he  found  it  necessary  to  make  the  upper  arc  of 
movement  three  times  the  length  of  the  lower.  He  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  similarity  between  this  ratio  and  that  obtained  by 
Exner,  Von  Fleischl,  et  <z/.,  between  the  apparent  rates  of 
movement  when  judged  with  stationary  eyes  on  the  one  hand, 
and  with  the  eyes  following  the  movement  on  the  other.  If  the 
experienced  velocity  and  duration  of  movement  of  the  lower 
light  are  greater  than  that  of  the  upper  light,  apparently  it 
should  seem  to  move  for  the  greater  distance. 

My  observers  did  not  confirm  these  results  as  to  the  apparent 
lengths  of  movement.  In  fact,  they  gave  judgments  of  equality 
of  movement  only  when  the  two  arcs  were  practically  equal  in 
length.1  Moreover,  the  argument  is  not  valid  that  the  apparent 
movement  of  the  lower  light  must  be  greater  than  that  of  the 
upper  light  because  it  has  the  greater  apparent  velocity  and 
duration.  In  certain  illusions,  as  the  Piirkinje  dizziness  phe- 

1  Probably  this  discrepancy  is  due  to  a  difference  in  the  method  of  judging, 
for  there  are  present  several  cues  upon  which  the  observer  may  base  his  judg- 
ments of  length.  It  is  practically  impossible  to  make  a  judgment  as  to  pure 
length,  uninfluenced  by  other  motives.  The  apparent  rate  of  movement  may 
have  a  determining  influence,  or  the  observer  may  mentally  superimpose  the 
two  lengths  to  be  compared.  My  observers  invariably  found  themselves  using 
the  latter  method. 


174  HARVEY  CARP. 

nomenon  and  especially  under  some  conditions  of  *  autokinetic 
sensations/  I  have  often  observed  that  the  customary  mathe- 
matical relation  between  rate  and  magnitude  of  motion  does 
not  obtain.  The  light  may  appear  to  be  moving  at  the  rate  of 
two  feet  a  second,  and  yet  after  some  time  one  would  not  judge 
the  distance  traversed  to  be  over  a  few  feet  in  length.  The 
illusion  is  so  striking  to  the  writer  under  some  circumstances, 
that  the  felt  discrepancy  between  rate  of  movement  and  dis- 
tance traversed  forces  itself  upon  the  attention.  The  light  ap- 
pears to  be  moving  rapidly ',  but  yet  does  not  appear  to  be  getting 
anywhere,  to  be  traversing  s face.  One  receives  to  some  extent 
the  anomalous  feeling  that  the  light  is  both  moving  and  not 
moving  at  the  same  time.  On  the  other  hand,  in  a  test  to  be 
described  later,  I  received  the  impression  occasionally  that  the 
amount  of  movement  was  too  great  for  the  velocity,  that  the 
object  got  to  positions  without  moving  there.  As  another  illus- 
tration of  the  truth  that  axioms  of  ideal  space  do  not  necessarily 
hold  true  for  experienced  space,  I  may  cite  the  fact  that  in  cuta- 
neous space  two  lengths  equal  to  a  third  length  do  not  always 
equal  each  other.  In  fact,  many  spatial  illusions  exist  simply 
because  the  spatial  relations  of  our  experiences  do  not  tally  with 
the  relationships  of  ideal  space. 

According  to  the  theory  A,  the  upper  light  appears  motion- 
less, when  the  pendulum  has  completed  three  fourths  of  its 
swing.  The  lower  light  is  still  perceived  to  be  moving  during 
the  last  quarter.  Consequently,  this  extra  movement  of  the 
lower  light  after  the  upper  one  has  ceased  moving  ought  to  be 
equal  in  length  to  one  fourth  of  the  arc ;  with  our  conditions 
this  would  be  25  cm.  Judgments  as  to  its  apparent  length  gave 
values  of  but  7-10  cm.  Such  judgments  are  of  course  un- 
reliable so  far  as  any  nice  accuracy  is  concerned,  but  the  dis- 
crepancy between  these  values  and  25  cm.  appears  too  great  to 
be  explained  in  this  manner. 

If  the  upper  light  appears  motionless  when  the  pendulum 
completes  but  three  fourths  of  its  swing,  and  a  screen  is  in- 
terposed so  as  to  intercept  the  subject's  vision  of  the  lower 
light  at  this  point,  i.  £.,  cut  off  from  view  'the  last  quarter 
(25  cm.)  of  its  movement,  it  follows  that  the  lower  light  should 


PENDULAR   WHIPLASH  ILLUSION.  1 75 

disappear  at  the  same  time  that  the  upper  light  ceases  mov- 
ing. This  test  was  made  as  follows :  The  position  of  the 
screen  was  adjustable  so  that  the  subject's  vision  of  the  lower 
light  was  intercepted  for  any  desired  portion  of  the  end  of  the 
swing.  The  amount  of  arc  intercepted  was  varied  in  an 
irregular  manner,  nor  was  it  known  to  the  observer.  The  sub- 
ject was  asked  to  judge  whether  the  lower  light  disappeared 
before,  after,  or  coincidently  with  the  cessation  of  movement  on 
the  part  of  the  upper  light.  As  many  trials  were  allowed  as 
the  subject  desired  before  giving  each  judgment.  For  judg- 
ments of  simultaneity,  two  observers  gave  an  average  result  of 
5  cm.,  with  an  average  variation  of  2  cm.  Within  these  limits 
(3-7  cm.),  hesitancy  of  judgment  was  the  rule.  For  the  greater 
values  of  10-25  cm.,  the  observers  were  never  in  doubt;  the 
upper  light  was  distinctly  perceived  in  motion  after  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  lower  light,  *'.  £.,  during  at  least  nine  tenths  of 
its  swing. 

This  experiment  was  varied  by  so  placing  the  screen  as  to 
wholly  intercept  the  sight  of  the  lower  light.  This  screen  con- 
tained a  small  opening,  2  cm.  square.  This  opening  could  be 
placed  at  any  position  along  the  arc  of  movement.  Conse- 
quently, the  lower  light  would  be  momentarily  visible  only  at  a 
certain  desired  time  during  its  swing.  The  observer  was  now 
asked  to  judge  whether  this  light  was  seen  before,  after  or 
coincidently  with  the  cessation  of  movement  on  the  part  of  the 
upper  light.  An  average  value  of  2  cm.  was  obtained  for  judg- 
ments of  simultaneity.  For  larger  values  there  was  no  hesi- 
tancy of  judgment.  For  all  points  above  5  cm.  from  the  end 
of  the  swing,  the  upper  light  was  perceived  in  distinct  motion 
after  the  lower  one  became  visible.  The  theory  demands  that 
the  upper  light  be  seen  moving  only  during  75  hundredths  of  its 
swing.  These  results  show  that  it  is  distinctly  -perceived  in 
motion  throughout  90  to  95  hundredths  of  its  arc. 

This  extra  duration  of  movement,  or  the  whiplash  excursion, 
can  be  seen  under  conditions  of  observation  other  than  those 
taken  into  account  by  theory  A.  It  can  be  seen  with  stationary 
eyes  where  both  movements  are  perceived  entirely  by  retinal 
criteria.  The  subject  fixates  the  point  in  space  where  the 


176  HARVEY  CARR. 

upper  light  comes  to  a  full  stop  and  observes  the  two  move- 
ments under  these  conditions.  When  the  the  two  arms  of  the 
pendulum  are  equal  in  length,  the  whiplash  effect  is  absent. 
However,  if  the  lower  arm  of  the  pendulum  is  much  the  longer, 
the  whiplash  phenomenon  is  again  in  evidence.  Obviously, 
this  result  can  not  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  theory  A. 

III.  The  results  of  the  above  test  can  be  explained  by  theory 
C.  This  conception  of  the  whiplash  effect  assumes  that  the 
lower  light  appears  to  move  for  a  greater  duration  of  time  but 
not  necessarily  through  a  greater  amount  of  space.  This 
apparent  greater  duration  of  movement  is  due  to  the  stimulation 
of  the  receding  end  of  the  positive  after-image  streak.  The 
duration  of  this  extra  movement  would  thus  depend  upon  the 
length  of  this  streak,  and  this  length  would  depend,  other  con- 
ditions being  similar,  upon  the  actual  velocity  of  the  light. 
When  the  two  lights  are  viewed  with  stationary  eyes,  positive 
streaks  follow  both  lights.  When  the  two  arms  of  the  pendu- 
lum are  equal  in  length,  the  linear  velocities  of  the  lights  and 
the  lengths  of  their  streaks  are  equal.  Both  lights  would  thus 
appear  to  move  after  the  pendulum  actually  stopped,  but  for  an 
equal  duration  of  time.  When  the  lower  arm  is  much  the 
longer,  the  lower  streak  is  also  the  longer.  Both  lights  would 
appear  to  move  after  the  pendulum  stopped,  but  for  unequal 
durations  of  time.  The  lower  light  would  appear  moving  after 
the  upper  one  came  to  a  full  stop.  In  other  words,  the  whip- 
lash effect  would  be  absent  in  the  first  case,  but  present  in  the 
second,  in  accordance  with  my  observations. 

In  the  above  judgments  of  simultaneity  where  the  lower 
light  disappeared  behind  the  screen  on  the  one  hand,  and  ap- 
peared through  the  opening  on  the  other,  a  larger  value  was 
obtained  in  the  first  case.  Granted  that  this  difference  of  value 
is  a  valid  result  under  the  two  conditions,  the  fact  can  be 
explained  by  theory  C.  In  the  first  case  the  positive  streak  is 
present,  but  is  absent  in  the  second  case  because  the  light  is  hid 
behind  the  screen.  Simultaneity  was  secured  at  5  and  2  cm. 
from  the  end  of  the  swing  respectively  for  the  two  conditions. 
When  the  positive  streak  is  present,  the  lower  light  will  be  visible, 
in  indirect  vision,  after  its  actual  disappearance  behind  the 


PEND  ULAR   WHIPLA  SH  ILL  US  ION'.  1 7  7 

screen.  In  order  to  make  its  apparent  disappearance  coinci- 
dent with  the  cessation  of  the  upper  light's  movement,  it  would 
need  to  be  intercepted  earlier  in  its  swing  by  an  amount  of  time 
equal  to  the  functional  persistence  of  the  positive  streak.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  when  the  positive  streak  was  present,  the  light 
was  intercepted  3  cm.  earlier  in  its  swing.  According  to  the 
conception,  the  time  taken  for  the  pendulum  to  move  these  3 
cm.  should  equal  the  functional  duration  of  the  positive  streak. 
Since  the  pendulum  moves  100  cm.  per  second,  this  time  would 
be  .03  second,  provided  that  the  rate  of  movement  were  uniform. 
Since  the  pendular  movement  decreases  in  velocity  at  the  end 
of  the  swing,  the  actual  time  must  be  greater  than  this  value, 
probably  at  least  .05  second. 

The  whiplash  illusion  is  conditioned  by  the  direction  of  the 
attention.  If  the  positive  streak  be  consciously  neglected  by 
focussing  the  peripheral  attention  upon  the  forward  part  of  the 
moving  light,  the  whiplash  effect  is  practically  eliminated.  By 
voluntarily  attending  to  the  streak,  i.  e.,  to  the  receding  end  of 
the  elongated  light,  the  illusion  of  extra  movement  at  once  be- 
comes evident.  It  was  this  observation  which  led  to  the  formu- 
lation of  the  after-image  theory.  A  second  observer  who  knew 
nothing  at  all  of  the  theories  involved,  voluntarily  offered  the 
same  explanation  after  some  observation  of  the  phenomenon. 

A  contrary  illusion  may  sometimes  be  obtained  by  sharply 
discriminating  the  light  from  its  positive  streak.  Instead  of 
perceiving  the  lower  light  moving  forward,  it  may  be  seen 
moving  backwards  a  couple  of  centimeters  on  its  return  swing 
while  the  upper  light  still  appears  motionless. 

Since  the  length  pf  the  positive  streak  varies  directly  with 
the  pendular  velocity,  it  would  follow,  according  to  theory  C, 
that  the  illusory  effect  will  vary  in  direct  proportion  to  the  pen- 
dular rate  of  movement.  By  a  system  of  weights,  the  velocity 
was  varied  without  any  other  alteration  of  conditions.  The 
rates  secured  were  5,3,  and  2  seconds  for  a  complete  swing. 
Judgments  of  the  illusory  movement  were  then  given  in  linear 
terms.  Values  of  i,  3,  and  6  cm.  respectively  were  obtained 
for  the  three  rates  in  the  order  given  above. 

A  sufficient  portion  of  the  end  of  the  swing  for  each  of  these 


178  HARVEY  CARR. 

rates  of  movement  was  intercepted  so  as  to  obtain  a  judgment 
of  equality  in  the  duration  of  movement  for  the  two  lights. 
According  to  the  theory  the  amount  of  arc  intercepted  should 
vary  in  proportion  to  the  three  rates.  The  values  of  15,  30  and 
45  mm.  respectively  were  secured.  These  results  correspond 
rather  closely  to  the  above  values  for  the  apparent  lengths  for 
this  extra  movement.  The  actual  numerical  values  are  in  them- 
selves unimportant ;  they  bring  out  the  fact,  however,  that  the 
apparent  extra  movement  does  vary  directly  with  the  velocity 
of  the  pendulum. 

A  weak  diffused  light,  10  x  15  cm.  in  dimensions,  was  so 
placed  that  the  lower  light  would  swing  past  and  just  emerge 
from  it  at  the  end  of  the  movement.  This  background  of  dif- 
fused light  was  so  varied  in  intensity  that  the  positive  streak 
could  not  be  differentiated  from  it  by  direct  observation.  The 
experiment  was  then  repeated  as  usual.  At  the  end  of  the 
swing,  the  lower  light  would  flash  out  sharply  against  its  black 
background,  while  the  positive  streak  could  not  be  seen.  The 
functional  efficiency  of  the  receding  after-image  was  thus  elimi- 
nated. Under  these  conditions  the  illusory  movement  was  not 
apparent,  while  the  lower  light  would  flash  out  into  distinct 
view  practically  at  the  same  time  that  the  upper  light  came  to  a 
full  stop. 

IV.  But  little  positive  evidence  can  be  given  in  favor  of  the- 
ory B.  The  contrary  illusion  can  be  interpreted  on  this  basis. 
The  velocity  of  the  pendulum  is  so  small  for  the  end  and  be- 
ginning of  each  swing  that  eye  movements  can  not  mediate 
a  sense  of  motion.  The  upper  light  is  thus  not  perceived  in 
motion  for  a  couple  of  centimeters  at  the  end  and  beginning  of 
its  movement.  Since  the  retina  is  more  sensitive  to  movement 
than  the  eyes,  the  lower  light  is  seen  moving  during  this  time ; 
it  not  only  moves  forward  a  centimeter  after  the  upper  light 
stops,  but  also  may  be  seen  moving  backward  on  its  return 
swing  before  the  upper  light  gathers  a  sufficient  velocity  to 
arouse  a  movement  consciousness.  The  phenomenon  might  be 
explained  legitimately  in  other  terms,  however. 

In  so  far  as  the  after-image  theory  does  not  entirely  account 
for  the  illusory  effect,  it  is  legitimate  to  assume  the  influence  of 


PENDULAR   WHIPLASH  ILLUSION.  1 79 

factor  B.  In  several  of  the  tests,  a  slight  illusory  effect  ap- 
peared to  be  present,  although  the  after-image  was  eliminated. 
When  the  light  appeared  through  the  opening  in  the  screen,  the 
after-image  was  not  present,  yet  the  upper  light  was  judged  to 
be  motionless  when  the  pendulum  lacked  two  centimeters  of 
completing  its  swing.  When  the  after-image  was  suppressed 
by  the  background  of  diffused  light,  a  slight  suggestion  of  the 
illusory  movement  was  occasionally  noticed.  These  cases  are 
explicable  in  terms  of  theory  B,  though,  of  course,  they  may 
be  explained  by  other  means.  No  conclusive  proof  of  this 
theory  can  be  offered. 

V.  On  the  whole  the  evidence  seems  sufficient,  to  the  writer, 
to  warrant  the  conclusions  that  the  phenomenon  is  not  to  be  ex- 
plained in  any  measure  by  theory  A ;  that  the  upper  light  is 
perceived  in  motion  during  the  major  part  of  the  last  quarter  of 
its  swing ;  that  the  phenomenon  is  due  mainly  to  the  receding 
positive  after-image ;   and  that  possibly  factor  B  may  have  a 
small  determining  influence. 

If  Dodge's  contention  be  true  that  ideal  conditions  obtain  dur- 
ing the  last  quarter  of  the  arc  of  movement,  and  if  our  tests 
prove  that  the  upper  light  is  seen  in  motion  during  the  major 
portion  of  this  time,  it  would  logically  follow  that  the  experi- 
ment is  proof  positive  against  Dodge's  theory  as  to  the  lack  of 
function  on  the  part  of  eye  movements ;  that  they,  on  the  con- 
trary, do  function  in  the  perception  of  movement.  However, 
the  writer  does  not  presume  to  advance  such  a  dogmatic  con- 
clusion on  the  basis  of  a  single  experiment,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  results  of  several  other  experiments  advanced  by  Dodge 
and  others  remain  to  be  controverted. 

VI.  A  rather  interesting  phenomenon  developed  during  a 
modification   of  the  pendular  experiment.      Both  lights  were 
attached  to  the  lower  arm,  but  at  different  distances  from  the 
axis  of  rotation.     If  the  upper  light  be  followed  by  the  eyes, 
the  same  results  are  obtained  as  formerly,  though  the  whiplash 
effect  is  not  so  pronounced.     The  motion  of  the  lower  light  is 
retinally  perceived,  because  the  eyes  do  not  move  to  the  same 
extent  as  does  this  light.    When  the  lower  light  is  followed,  the 
eyes  move  faster  than  does  the  upper  light,  and  consequently 


l8o  HARVEY  CARR. 

retinal  cues  of  movement  are  present.  Moreover,  the  upper 
light  is  now  preceded  by  a  positive  streak.  Since  the  pendular 
velocity  decreases  at  the  end  of  the  swing,  the  elongated  light 
must  now  contract  in  length  on  its  forward  end.  The  forward 
end  of  the  positive  streak  travels  backward  in  relation  to  the 
light.  Two  opposing  retinal  criteria  of  movement  are  now 
present.  The  receding  streak  tends  to  oppose,  or  neutralize, 
instead  of  emphasizing,  the  upper  light's  motion.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  one's  consciousness  of  this  motion  is  strikingly  peculiar 
and  difficult  of  description.  The  movement  seems  weak  and 
attenuated  in  character ;  it  lacks  body,  force  and  vitality.  It 
sometimes  appears  to  be  markedly  shorter  than  its  actual  length, 
while  at  other  times  it  appears  to  approximate  its  normal  length, 
but  in  this  case  its  length  seems  to  be  too  great  for  its  velocity ; 
it  strikes  one  at  times  as  being  in  certain  positions  without  hav- 
ing moved  there.  This  illusory  appearance  becomes  striking, 
if  the  observer  suddenly  stops  the  eyes  and  holds  them  station- 
ary ;  the  movement  at  once  flashes  out  in  vigor  and  vitality. 
Whatever  the  proper  explanation  may  be,  the  illusion  is  cer- 
tainly unique  and  seems  worthy  of  further  study.1 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  December  25,  '06.  —  ED. 


THOUGHT   AND   LANGUAGE.1 

BY  PROF.  J.  MARK  BALDWIN. 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

§  i.  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THOUGHT  IN  A  SYSTEM. 
The  description  of  logical  meaning  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  belief  embodied  in  the  various  forms  of  judgment,  leads 
naturally  on  to  the  inquiry  as  to  its  development.  We  have 
seen,  in  our  broad  survey  of  the  genesis  of  the  logical  mode, 
certain  motive  principles  at  work  for  the  establishing  of  logical 
content  or  subject  matter.  It  is,  of  course  the  continued  action 
of  these  motives  that  carries  on  the  movement,  in  the  logical 
mode  itself,  by  which  its  meanings  are  added  to  and  extended. 
We  may  therefore,  in  taking  up  the  problem  of  the  develop- 
ment that  logical  meanings  normally  undergo,  recall  to  mind 
the  essential  movements  already  recognized. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  pointed  out   that   logical 
meanings    constitute  a  context  of  thoughts.      The    prelogical 
meanings  of  all  sorts,  the  individuated  contents  established  by 
processes  earlier  than  explicit  judgment,  are  taken  up  in  the 
organized  system  of  experience  which  is  the  objective  thought- 
world  of  the  thinker.     It  is  first  of  all  the  thinker's  experience, 
controlled  in  the  inner  processes  of  judgment  and  acknowledg- 
ment, whatever  further  reference  or  confirmation  it  may  have 
as  being  true  to  or  cognizant  of  *  reality.' 

2.  In  the  second  place,  we  may  recall  the  outcome  of  the 
discussion  of  *  common  '  meanings  in  the  logical  mode,  to  the 
effect  that  all  judgments  and  hence  all  thought-contexts  are  com- 
mon in  the  sense  of  being  *  synnomic  '  or  «  appropriate  '  for  the 
acceptance  of  all  competent  judgment  everywhere.     The  belief 
of  the  individual  as  determined  in  an  act  of  judgment,  is  for 
him  the  expression  of  the  belief  of  the  larger  world  of  personal 
selves.     Apart  from  the  question  as  to  whether  other  individual 


the  material  of  chapter  VI.  of  the  writer's  work,   Thought  and 
Things  or  Genetic  Logic,  Vol.  II.,  '  Experimental  L,ogic.' 

181 


1 82  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

thinkers  do  or  do  not  at  the  time  agree  with  him,  still,  in  giving 
his  belief,  he  is  constituting  a  subject  matter  to  which,  by  the 
essential  movement  involved,  others  are  expected  to  give  their 
assent. 

3.  Furthermore  and  third,  this  common  character  and  mean- 
ing of  the  subject  matter  of  thought  was  found  to  rest  geneti- 
cally or  prelogically  upon  a  process  that  is  both  social  and 
experimental :  the  process  described  in  our  earlier  discussions 
under  the  term  *  secondary  conversion.'  We  found  that  the 
context  of  knowledge,  considered  as  a  confirmed  and  established 
body  of  data,  was  in  very  essential  ways  due  to  the  recognition 
and  use  of  the  contents  of  the  minds  of  one's  social  fellows. 
Before  it  is  judged,  knowledge,  as  so  far  common,  is  '  syn- 
doxic.'  All  but  the  original  substantive  parts  of  experience  — 
the  parts  found  directly  convertible  into  the  hard  coin  of  per- 
sisting and  recurring  fact —  was  actually  set  off  from  the  fugi- 
tive and  private  images  of  fancy,  through  such  secondary  and 
essentially  social  conversion  process.  It  was  in  the  further 
development  of  this  motive,  it  will  be  remembered  also,  that  the 
marks  of  knowledge  as  general,  universal,  and  even  singular 
were  derived.  The  conclusion  that  knowledge  —  in  any  mode 
that  is  not  subpersonal  and  so  subsocial l  —  is  a  *  social  out- 
come rather  than  a  private  possession,'  summed  up  our  results 
in  the  matter. 

We  should  expect,  as  has  been  said  above,  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  context  of  thinking  would  be  by  a  process  contin- 
uous with  that  of  its  origin ;  that  is,  that  accretions  to  the 
body  of  experience  would  be  effected  in  the  same  way  that 
earlier  acquisitions  were  made.  And  this  appears  necessary 
when  we  remember  that  no  material  is  available  at  all  except 
that  which  has  passed  through  these  simpler  modes.  The  new 
thoughts  are  always  also  sensations,  memories,  images  or  other 
such  meanings  that  are  found  available  in  the  development  of 
the  selective  motives  by  which  they  are  constituted  as  thoughts. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  extension  of  the  context  of  thought  ex- 

1  Even  the  low-grade  knowledge  of  the  perceptual  mode  is  shot  through 
with  the  quasi-social  meaning  that  we  have  called  '  commonness  of  common 
function. ' 


THO  UGHT  A  ND  LANG  UA  GE.  1 83 

cept  so  far  as  the  judgment  is  determined  upon  meanings  by  its 
one  characteristic  process.  This  process  is,  as  has  been  said, 
both  social  and  experimental. 

4.  Finally  we  may  point  out,  in  addition  to  the  foregoing, 
a  character  of  thought  which  has  not  as  yet  been  adverted  to ; 
one  that  fixes  genetically  both  the  social  motive  and  the  experi- 
mental motive  as  now  put  in  evidence.  It  is  the  linguistic 
character  of  thought.  Thought  is  a  system  of  predications 
or  assertions  that  may  be  embodied  in  a  more  or  less  ex- 
plicit system  of  symbols  for  purposes  of  inter-personal  com- 
munication. The  genetic  relation  of  speech  and  language  to 
judgment  will  be  found  to  give  striking  confirmation  of  the 
point  of  view  developed  in  the  consideration  of  logical  meaning, 
to  the  effect  that  judgment  is  in  all  cases  common  or  synnomic. 

§  2.     THE  LINGUISTIC  DETERMINATION  OF  THOUGHT. 

The  old  problem  put  in  the  question,  <  Is  thought  possible 
without  speech,'  has  no  real  significance  except  so  far  as  it  is 
set  genetically  or  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  comparative 
origin  and  development  of  these  two  great  functions.  But  from 
such  a  point  of  view  it  takes  on  great  significance  inasmuch  as 
even  a  superficial  examination  suggests  a  profound  correlation. 
The  current  theories  which  deal  with  the  topic  from  the  side  of 
language  make  out,  each  from  its  own  class  of  data,  certain 
plausible  positions ;  these  may  be  suggested  as  introductory  to 
our  own  treatment  of  the  problem. 

i.  The  Personal  or  Dynamic  Theory.  This  theory  is  based 
on  the  interpretation  of  *  expression.'  It  finds  some  sort  of 
symbolic  representation  necessary  as  soon  as  the  meaning  to  be 
expressed  becomes  general  or  abstract.  The  symbolism  of  ges- 
ture language,  pictographic  writing,  etc.,  precedes  that  of  vocal 
utterance  and  conventional  phonetic  written  signs.  It  would 
seem,  indeed,  that  if  expression  is  to  develop  from  a  purely 
ejaculatory,  demonstrative,  or  other  mainly  concrete  stage  to 
one  of  general  or  abstract  meaning  or  import — that  is,  if  it  is  to 
express  something  imported,  something  additional  to  the  bare 
concrete  common  content  of  present  experience  —  there  would 
have  to  be  a  vehicle  of  a  sort  intentionally  symbolizing  this  as- 


1 84  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

pect  of  meaning.  For  example,  a  savage  could  not  respond  to 
express  the  meaning  «  man,'  as  suggested  by  but  not  limited 
to  « this  man,'  except  as  a  sign  of  this  further  intent  attached 
to  his  response.  Theoretically,  of  course,  any  sort  of  conven- 
tionalized indication — act,  posture,  sound — might  have  been 
selected  for  this  function  in  the  processes  of  development ;  but 
we  find  the  function  in  which  it  has  been  embodied  to  be  speech. 
Speech  issues  in  a  system  of  articulate  vocal  symbols,  together 
with  that  special  development  of  the  same  symbolism  embodied 
in  writing.  So  much  may  be  said  on  the  personal  side ;  the 
side  of  personal  expression  as  such. 

For  the  purposes  of  linguistic  theory,  this  may  be  called 
the  *  personal '  or  *  dynamic  '  point  of  view.  It  recognizes  the 
fact  that  the  person  is  the  source  of  new  accretions  of  social 
meaning,  and  the  dynamic  movement  of  such  meaning  is  made 
possible  only  as  the  results  of  personal  thought  find  adequate 
and  appropriate  expression.  It  considers  language  as  a  live 
thing,  flexible  in  its  growth  with  the  development  of  thought, 
divergent  and  varying  in  its  comparative  systems  of  symbolism. 
It  gives  a  comparative  philology,  and  aims  at  the  genetic  solu- 
tion of  linguistic  problems  in  terms  of  psychological  meanings. 
Evidently,  therefore,  this  point  of  view  is  in  its  own  province 
most  important. 

But  the  further  question  as  to  the  conservation,  the  conven- 
tionalizing—  in  the  large  sense,  the  socializing  —  of  meanings, 
whereby  they  show  themselves  more  than  personal,  and  in  an 
important  sense  also  less  than  personal,  is  equally  urgent.  This 
question  may  be  put  sharply  thus :  how  can  a  system  of  sym- 
bols serving  as  expression  of  a  dynamic  movement  of  personal 
thought,  also  serve  as  the  embodiment  of  established  and  con- 
ventionalized social  meaning? 

This  inquiry  has  direct  enforcement  from  the  side  of  the 
psychology  of  what  is  called  *  intercourse.'  There  is  no  purely 
*  personal '  intercourse ;  all  intercourse  is  in  its  constitution  in- 
ter-personal. Its  intent  is  to  be  understood  as  well  as  to  be  ex- 
pressed. It  becomes  necessary  to  enlarge  the  theory  of  expres- 
sion to  make  its  unit  one  of  common  meaning.  The  lowest 
functional  term  of  expression  is  in  some  crude  sense  '  inter- 


THOUGHT  AND  LANGUAGE.  185 

course'  —  the  development  of  common  meaning.  Turning, 
therefore,  to  the  theories  of  language  reached  from  the  social 
side,  we  find  a  second  type. 

2.  The  Social  or  Static  Theory.  The  theory  of  common 
symbolic  meaning  would  seem  not  to  find  its  problem  in  the 
first  instance  in  personal  expression.  Its  problem  is  not  how 
personal  meaning  could  become  common  in  its  expression,  but 
how  a  conventionally  common  meaning  could  be  the  vehicle  of 
genuine  personal  experience.  Would  not  any  system  of  sym- 
bolic meanings  become,  just  by  the  rigidity  and  static  character 
that  its  social  fixity  would  impart,  unavailable  for  personal 
purposes? 

Indeed,  the  function  of  language,  we  are  told  by  the  static 
theorists,  does  not  extend  to  the  expression  of  what  is  personal 
as  such.  It  comes  to  reflect  personal  interest  only  by  being 
first  of  all  conventional  and  common.  The  demand  of  inter- 
course is  for  a  symbolism  to  express  meanings  already  under- 
stood and  accepted.  It  is  only  by  social  generalization  that  a 
meaning  can  become  eligible  for  linguistic  embodiment  at  all. 
Witness  the  fact  that  feeling  and  impulse,  so  far  as  they  are 
not  thrown  into  descriptive  form  as  knowledge,  cannot  be  given 
common  linguistic  rendering.  Music  may  be  cited  :  what  does 
music  really  express?  It  is  only  so  far  as  a  meaning  has  taken 
on  a  form  that  gives  it  currency  in  society  that  it  is  made  a 
matter  of  intelligible  speech. 

Upon  this  type  of  theory  a  view  is  based  which  makes  lan- 
guage a  static,  stereotyped  system  of  forms.  The  classics, 
being  no  longer  living  and  growing  but  dead,  offer  the  models 
of  literary  form.  Any  current  modes  of  speech  and  language 
that  do  not  fit  into  these  models,  so  far  fall  short  of  the  instru- 
mental adequacy  that  facile  social  intercourse  demands. 

While  stating  these  two  types  of  theory  in  this  extreme  con- 
trasted way,  I  do  not  mean  that  advocates  of  them  in  just  this 
form  are  to  be  found  ;  but  the  antithesis  presents  a  fair  contrast 
of  rtdtude  and  spirit.  Especially  does  it  appear  in  the  method 
of  research  that  the  schools  respectively  adopt.  The  men  who 
look  upon  language  statically  are  critical  rather  than  genetic  in 
their  method ;  they  study  types  rather  than  comparative  forms. 


1 86  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

Given  the  perfect  models  in  which  the  human  thought  move- 
ments have  once  embodied  themselves  —  say  in  Greek  —  and 
philology  becomes  the  criticism  and  application  of  these  models. 
Essential  variations  in  model,  reflecting  racial  and  temperamental 
character  and  essential  differences  in  intent  and  spirit  in  the 
actual  development  of  cultural  meaning  —  resulting  in  a  variety 
of  comparative  modes  maturing  in  common  —  all  this  they  find 
it  difficult  to  take  interest  in.  The  other  school,  on  the  con- 
trary, having  in  view  just  the  final  point  of  origin  and  departure 
of  all  social  meaning,  the  thoughts  of  the  individual,  make  the 
comparative  variations  all  important. 

The  line  of  solution  would  seem  to  lie  in  the  distinction 
already  made  in  the  remarks  on  expression :  the  distinction 
between  meaning  on  the  one  hand  that  is  singular  and  in  some 
sense  private,  and  meaning  on  the  other  hand  that  is  general 
and  universal.  Just  as  there  is  a  sphere  of  personal  experience 
that  is  ineligible  to  common  and  symbolic  expression,  so  there 
is  a  sphere  of  common  and  public  experience  that  is  ineligible 
to  strictly  personal  and  private  uses.  In  their  range,  in  short, 
personal  meanings  and  social  meanings  overlap  but  do  not 
coincide.  Consequently,  there  is  the  requirement  all  the  way 
along  that  the  symbols  of  conventional  expression  be  so  far  as 
possible  flexible  in  order  to  embody  the  accretions  to  personal 
experience;  and  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  be  fixed  enough 
to  embody  the  habitual  and  conventionalized  meanings  of  his- 
torical and  common  experience.  This  requirement  is  embodied 
in  the  view,  now  fast  gaining  ground,  that  language  is  a  grow- 
ing organic  thing,  relatively  satisfactory  for  the  epoch  and  the 
group ;  but  by  no  means  containing  or  requiring  a  system  of 
fixed  and  stereotyped  meanings. 

Moreover  the  development  of  the  appreciative  or  aesthetic 
consciousness  is,  all  the  while,  working  out  new  systems  of  sym- 
bolism for  the  more  recondite  meanings  of  personal  intent  and 
ideal  fulfilment.  The  arts  are  such  semi-socialized  and  in  turn 
socializing  systems  of  symbolic  meaning.  Their  role  is  seen,  in 
connection  with  the  more  conventional  symbolism  of  language, 
in  the  various  forms  of  conscious  literary  art.  These,  just  by 
being  acceptable  as  art^  become  more  adequate  as  embodiments 
of  individual  meaning. 


THOUGHT  AND  LANGUAGE.  187 

These  two  points  of  view  may  serve  to  guide  our  further 
thought.  On  the  one  hand,  we  must  find  the  process  whereby 
personal  experience  may  be  rendered  in  the  symbolism  of  com- 
mon intercourse ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the  process  whereby 
the  same  symbolism,  although  of  necessity  fed  by  the  progress 
of  personal  experience,  may  nevertheless  preserve  and  embody 
the  fruits  of  social  and  historical  tradition. 

If  we  assume,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the  requirements  of 
such  a  system  of  symbolic  meanings  are  normally  met  in  their 
linguistic  embodiment  we  have  then  to  analyze  further  the  situa- 
tion in  which  such  meanings  are  in  vital  and  effective  use ;  and 
the  modes  of  intercourse  that  embody  such  developing  mean- 
ings will  also  interest  us  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  genetic 
progress  of  thought. 

§  3.     THOUGHT  AS  LINGUISTIC    MODE. 

We  should  expect  to  find,  if  our  earlier  positions  are  well 
taken,  that  thought,  logical  meaning  of  whatever  grade,  would 
take  on  a  linguistic  or  other  social  form.  Both  of  the  great 
characters  of  logical  meaning  actually  require  it. 

One  of  them  has  already  been  seen  to  be  effective  in  the 
sketch  just  given  of  the  two  great  points  of  view  current  in  the 
theory  of  language — *',  e.9  that  while  speech  expresses  perso- 
nal meaning,  it  must  still  be  socially  organized.  This  hits  upon 
just  the  relation  of  the  personal  or  private  to  the  common  strain 
in  all  logical  meaning.  The  character  of  logical  meaning  as 
being  at  once  personally  judged  true,  and  also  acknowledged 
as  appropriate  for  common  acceptance  —  this  is  just  the  charac- 
ter we  have  found.  It  is  denominated  *  synnomic.'  The  tran- 
sition from  pre-judgmental  to  judgmental  meaning  is  just  that 
from  knowledge  that  has  social  confirmation  to  that  which  gets 
along  without  it.  The  meanings  utilized  for  judgment  are  those 
already  in  their  presuppositions  and  implications  developed 
through  the  confirmations  of  social  intercourse.  Thus  the  per- 
sonal judgment,  trained  in  the  methods  of  social  rendering,  and 
disciplined  by  the  interaction  of  its  social  world,  projects  its 
content  into  the  world  again.  In  other  words,  the  platform 
for  all  individual  movement  of  judgment  to  its  assertion  —  the 


1 88  J.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

level  from  which  it  utilizes  new  experience  —  is  already  and 
always  socialized;  and  it  is  just  this  moment  that  we  find  re- 
flected in  the  actual  result  as  the  sense  of  the  *  appropriateness ' 
or  the  *  synnomic'  character  of  the  meaning. 

This  requirement,  signalized  as  the  common  or  synnomic 
character  of  the  linguistic  embodiment  of  thought,  may  be  called 
the  *  habit'  aspect  —  the  funded,  conserving,  retrospective, 
general  side  of  meaning  in  the  logical  mode.  Evidently  it  is 
this  that  the  static  theorists  of  language  have  in  mind.  Lan- 
guage must  embody  meanings  that  are  established  and  common. 
They  are  personally  available  only  so  far  as  the  individual  can 
use  this  kind  of  meaning,  that  is  so  far  as  his  meaning  is  already 
synnomic.  If  our  theory,  however,  discovers  that  all  personal 
judgment  already  embodies  such  meanings ,  then  we  may  simply 
say  that  this  function,  language,  is  the  normal  and  appropriate 
embodiment  of  individual  judgment  no  less  than  of  social 
meaning. 

The  other  aspect,  however,  is  equally  real.  It  may  in  con- 
trast be  called  the  *  accommodation'  side  —  the  side  of  growth, 
accretion,  development  of  personal  meaning  through  the  re- 
sort to  language  as  instrument  and  means.  Of  course,  it  is 
evident  that  both  the  general  and  the  schematic,  the  retrospec- 
tive and  the  prospective,  the  belief  and  the  doubt,  the  assertion 
and  the  assumption,  must  be  capable  of  characteristic  linguistic 
embodiment. 

It  is  upon  this  requirement  that  we  find  the  dynamic  theories 
of  language  dwelling  in  turn.  They  recognize  the  fact  that 
thought  would  be  killed,  both  personally  and  also  as  represent- 
ing any  social  values,  if  its  vehicle  were  stereotyped  and  un- 
changing. The  symbolism  of  language  must  reflect  the  mode 
of  development  and  growth  peculiar  to  the  progress  of  thought. 

Now  the  development  of  thought,  as  we  are  to  see  in  great 
detail,1  is  by  a  method  of  trial  and  error,  of  essential  experimen- 
tation, through  the  use  of  meanings  as  worth  more  than  they 
are  as  yet  recognized  to  be  worth.  The  individual  must  use  his 
old  thoughts,  his  established  knowledges,  his  grounded  judg- 
ments, for  the  embodiment  of  his  new  inventive  constructions ; 

!In  later  chapters  of  the  volume  '  Experimental  Logic.' 


THOUGHT  AND  LANGUAGE.  19 

he  erects  his  thought  as  we  say  '  schematically '  —  in  logical 
terms,  problematically,  conditionally,  disjunctively  —  projecting 
into  society  an  opinion  still  personal  to  himself,  as  if  it  were  true. 
Thus  all  discovery  -proceeds.  But  this  is,  from  the  linguistic 
point  of  view,  still  to  use  the  current  language ;  still  to  work  by 
meanings  already  embodied  in  social  and  conventional  usage. 
And  the  result,  what  of  that  ? 

The  result  is  now  the  essential  thing.  By  this  experimenta- 
tion both  thought  and  language  are  together  advanced.  The 
new  meaning  is,  let  us  say,  not  confirmed  in  the  way  suggested  ; 
the  old  terms  do  not  fully  define  and  limit  the  connotation  that 
actual  trial  justifies.  Language  then  grows  to  fulfil  the  demand 
of  the  developing  thought.  It  is  accomplished,  it  is  plain,  by 
no  situation  that  compels  language  to  be  private  or  public  and 
not  both.  As  tentatively  suggested  the  meaning  is  rendered  as 
if  common^  in  common  speech  ;  the  new  form  it  takes  on,  while 
now  become  common  as  meaning,  is  still  the  individual's  per- 
sonal thought  as  well.  Language  grows,  therefore,  just  as 
thought  does,  by  never  losing  its  synnomic  or  dual  reference; 
its  meaning  is  both  personal  and  social  from  start  tojinisk. 

As  soon  as  we  recognize  these  two  essential  motives  in  the 
development  of  thought,  a  profound  interest  attaches  to  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  language  to  thought.  There  are 
certain  statements  whose  truth  now  appears,  and  which  bring 
direct  confirmation  from  the  side  of  language  of  our  view  of  the 
origin  and  nature  of  synnomic  or  judgmental  meanings. 

i.  It  would  appear  that  language  is  the  instrument  of  social 
habit,  in  the  sense  that  it  conserves  and  stores  up  as  a  social 
heritage  the  gains  of  common  meaning.  And  this  appears  not 
simply  as  a  fact,  but  by  reason  of  the  principle  that  only  in 
language  are  the  available  elements  of  personal  experience  and 
meaning  socially  stored  and  rendered  continuously  available. 
It  is  the  register  of  tradition,  the  record  of  racial  conquest,  the 
deposit  of  all  the  gains  made  by  the  genius  of  individuals.  The 
social  *  copy-system,'  thus  established,  reflects  the  judgmental 
processes  of  the  race ;  and  in  turn  becomes  the  training  school 
of  the  judgment  of  new  generations.  Not  indeed  would  I  say 
that  linguistic  models  and  linguistic  study  as  such  have  any 


190  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

such  pedagogical  importance ;  that  is  just  the  fallacy  of  our 
present-day  instruction,  that  makes  a  fetish  of  language  as 
such.  But  every  day  linguistic  intercourse,  language  perform- 
ing its  vital  role,  is  thus  important.  Linguistic  study  is  instru- 
mental, a  means  to  an  end ;  the  end  being  admission  to  the 
storehouse  of  meanings  and  models  of  racial  judgment,  which 
literature  in  all  its  forms  serves  to  mediate.  When  language  is 
made  an  end  —  except  of  course  in  that  department  of  research 
in  which  language  is  itself  the  content  —  it  becomes  a  form  that 
is  eviscerated  of  its  filling  and  meaning  ;  much  as  we  eviscerate 
thought  of  its  content  and  so  lose  its  meaning  also,  when  we 
leave  out  of  account  the  essential  movements  of  belief. 

2.  In  speech,  the  function  by  which  the  content  of  language 
is  actively  rendered  and  interpreted,  the  accommodation  side  of 
thinking  is  given  its  chance.  Most  of  the  training  of  the  self, 
whereby  the  vagaries  of  personal  reaction  to  fact  and  image  are 
reduced  to  the  funded  basis  of  sound  judgment,  comes  through 
the  use  of  speech.  When  the  child  speaks  he  lays  before  the 
world  his  suggestion  of  a  general  and  common  meaning ;  the 
reception  it  gets  confirms  or  refutes  him.  In  either  case  he  is 
instructed.  His  next  venture  is  now  from  a  platform  of  knowl- 
edge on  which  the  newer  item  is  more  nearly  that  which  is  con- 
vertible into  the  common  coin  of  effective  intercourse.  The 
point  to  notice  here  is  not  so  much  the  mechanism  of  the  ex- 
change—  the  sort  of  conversion  —  by  which  this  gain  is  made, 
as  the  training  in  judgment  that  the  constant  use  of  it  affords. 
In  each  case,  effective  judgment  is  the  common  judgment ;  and 
there  grows  up  the  ability  to  make  such  judgment  effective 
without  the  actual  appeal.  This  is  secured  by  the  development 
of  a  function  whose  rise  is  directly  ad  hoc  —  directly  for  the 
social  experimentation  by  which  growth  in  personal  competence 
is  advanced  —  the  function  of  speech.1 

1The  first  and  more  superficial  criticism  of  the  reader  is  here,  as  elsewhere 
in  these  genetic  discussions,  that  which  raises  the  question  as  to  whether  speech 
is  the  only  function  by  which  this  is  secured.  We  are  asked  whether  a  child 
who  is  deaf  and  dumb  does  not  become  a  competent  thinker.  Certainly  he  does, 
in  this  measure  or  that,  according  to  the  case,  which  is  only  to  say  that  the  role 
normally  played  by  speech  may  on  occasion  be  taken  up  in  a  less  effective  way 
by  some  other  function  having  a  content  capable  of  the  symbolic  reading  that 
usually  attaches  to  language. 


THO  UGHT  AND  LANG  UA  GE.  T  9 1 

In  language,  therefore,  to  sum  up  the  foregoing,  we  have 
the  tangible  —  the  actual  and  historical  —  instrument  of  the  de- 
velopment and  conservation  of  psychic  meaning.  It  is  the 
material  evidence  and  proof  of  the  concurrence  of  social  and 
personal  judgment.  In  it  synnomic  meaning,  judged  as  '  ap- 
propriate,' becomes  '  social '  meaning,  held  as  socially  general- 
ized and  acknowledged.  The  dictionary  is  the  register  of 
private  judgment  become  social.  Written  language,  literature, 
is  its  institutional  and  traditional  side ;  speech  is  the  schematic 
and  personal  rendering  of  its  intent,  its  accommodative  side.1 

§  4.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THOUGHT  THROUGH 
INTERCOURSE. 

The  view  of  thought  now  briefly  indicated  justifies  certain 
positions  regarding  the  form  in  which  the  import  of  an  item  of 
knowledge  may  be  expressed  when  embodied  in  such  a  vehicle 
as  language.  On  the  surface  it  appears  that  the  entire  import 
of  such  an  item  varies  with  the  setting  in  which  it  is  developing. 

1  There  is  here  a  confirmation  of  the  position  taken  in  my  work  Social  and 
Ethical  Interpretations,  in  which  the  method  of  social  organization  is  found  to 
be  imitation  ;  for  not  only  is  language  the  embodiment  of  generalized  cognitive 
content,  it  is  also,  as  functional  in  speech,  through  and  through  imitative  in  its 
method  of  learning  and  propagation. 

We  now  see  how  it  is  that  language  is  instrumental  to  the  development  of 
both  personal  and  social  meanings.  What  linguistic  theory  needs,  in  fact,  is 
better  psychology  :  a  psychology  that  shows  the  artificiality  of  the  dualism  of 
private  and  social  meaning,  that  the  opposed  theories  assume.  If  it  were  true 
that  there  were  no  concurrence  —  no  identity  —  between  the  movement  of  indi- 
vidual thought  and  that  of  conventional  language,  then  not  only  would  a  theory 
of  language  be  impossible  —  language  itself  would  be  impossible  as  well.  This 
is  one  of  the  topics,  therefore,  in  which  a  view  of  judgment  that  justifies  the 
essentially  common  character  of  its  meaning  renders  service  in  a  field  of  more 
remote  interest.  If  the  demonstration  of  the  social  genesis  of  the  individual's 
judgment  be  sound,  philology  will  have  for  the  first  time  a  solution  of  one  of 
its  great  problems. 

Another  fact  known  to  psychologists  and  philologists  alike  has  an  interest- 
ing value  in  the  light  of  our  discussion  :  the  fact  of  '  internal  speech.'  Recent 
investigation  shows  that  it  is  not  a  mere  by-phenomenon  —  our  having  words 
'  in  our  minds '  and  '  on  our  lips '  when  engaged  in  silent  thought,  reading,  etc. 
(see  my  Mental  Development,  chap.  XIV.).  It  is  rather  the  incipient  stirring 
up  of  those  social  and  symbolic  equivalents  of  thought,  that  vocal  rendering  em- 
ploys. Since  the  normal  development  of  thought  and  speech  goes  on  together, 
the  functional  processes  are  not  separable.  The  intended  psychic  meaning  can 
come  up  only  when  its  symbolic  vehicle  is  incipiently  stirred  up  with  it. 


192  J.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

The  interest  at  work  may  be  of  this  or  that  sort  according  as 
this  or  that  group  of  meanings  ordinarily  called  a  '  topic '  is  be- 
ing pursued.  This  in  turn  varies  with  all  the  dispositional  or 
other  tendencies  or  motives  coming  to  consciousness  in  the  indi- 
vidual. The  content  itself,  so  considered  as  a  subject-matter 
of  thought,  has  relations,  discovered  or  not  discovered,  in  a 
larger  whole  of  meaning.  For  example,  the  item  *  horse  '  may 
have  very  different  lines  of  import  developed  according  as  I  am 
conversing  with  a  horseman,  a  naturalist,  a  dealer,  or  a  veter- 
inary surgeon.  In  each  case  only  those  ramifications  of  mean- 
ing that  are  relevant  to  the  common  interest  of  the  parties  to  the 
situation  are  elucidated  and  further  advanced.  If  we  consider 
that  phase  of  the  situation  that  concerns  the  party  for  whom  a 
set  of  relationships  is  already  established  as  a  whole  of  subject 
matter,  then  the  form  of  linguistic  expression  he  employs  is 
motived  by  the  interest  of  what  we  may  call  «  elucidation.' 
You  *  elucidate '  to  me  the  fuller  import  of  what  you  understand. 
The  motive  to  intercourse  on  his  part  is  in  this  case  not  dis- 
covery, not  the  extension  of  his  system  of  meanings,  but  the  im- 
parting of  it  to  another  —  literally  its  elucidation  to  one  who 
has  not  yet,  it  may  be,  fully  thought  it  out  under  the  same  set 
of  relevant  interests. 

On  the  other  hand,  supposing  the  interests  to  remain  the 
same,  the  attitude  embodied  in  the  use  of  the  term,  sentence, 
or  other  linguistic  unit,  may  be  not  elucidation  but  *  discovery,' 
not  teaching  but  learning.  And,  of  course,  on  the  surface  this 
may  seem  to  require  no  active  resort  to  speech  at  all.  But  such 
a  statement,  as  being  in  any  sense  a  final  account  of  the  matter, 
would  be  very  superficial.  The  process  of  development  of  a 
system  of  logical  meanings  is  never  one  of  passive  reception  or 
even  of  relative  inactivity.  The  growth  of  logical  meaning  in 
the  hearer  is  by  a  series  of  judgments.  The  process  is  one  of 
individuation  of  more  or  less  familiar  meanings  in  a  new  con- 
struction or  context,  in  which  the  self  receives  a  new  impulse 
to  its  assertion  of  inner  control.  The  understanding  of  a  state- 
ment, or  a  series  of  statements,  in  detailed  discourse,  may  be 
seemingly  complete  for  each  step ;  but  the  elucidation  of  the 
speaker  may  vary  in  effectiveness  for  the  hearer  all  the  way 


THO UGHT  AND  LANG  UA  GE.  1 93 

from  a  mere  glamour  of  familiarity  or  formal  correctness, 
through  varied  stages  of  piece-meal,  fragmentary,  and  semi- 
detached judgmental  wholes,  to  that  complete  response  of  the 
hearer's  logical  interest  that  unifies  the  entire  set  of  relevant 
items.  How  the  more  superficial  sorts  of  comprehension  of  a 
subject  are  possible  might  be  made  subject  of  further  remark ; 
here  it  may  suffice  to  say  that  when  they  are  thus  of  the  super- 
ficial sort,  it  is  pseudo-thinking ;  it  gives  meanings  that  remain 
in  large  part  either  in  a  mode  not  yet  judgmental,  or  so  habitual 
as  to  be  under  mere  reality-feeling,  or  again  they  are  mere 
material  for  schematic  use  in  this  way  or  that  when  judgment 
upon  their  further  relevancies  is  actually  achieved. 

If  genuinely  receptive,  indeed,  the  attitude  of  the  hearer  is 
one  of  continuous  thinking.  His  selective  interests  are  not 
severely  taxed,  since  the  relevant  information  is  directly  supplied 
to  him.  But  the  meanings  suggested  to  him  are,  in  the  first 
instance,  merely  proposed,  assumptive,  experimental.  Each 
item  added  to  the  whole  requires  assimilation  by  some  process 
complementary  to  that  whereby,  in  the  contrasted  case,  he  tests 
in  the  social  environment  the  meanings  of  his  own  suggestion. 
There  must  be  a  means,  personal  to  the  hearer,  of  testing  the 
content  of  a  thought  proposed  to  him  as  valid,  just  as  there 
must  be  a  means,  social  in  its  nature,  of  testing  the  personal 
hypotheses  put  forth  by  the  individual.  Both  of  these  processes 
are  made  effective  through  the  medium  of  the  common  function, 
speech.  The  one  sort  of  testing  is  the  appeal  to  the  socially 
established  context  of  common  meanings,  as  represented  by 
authority ;  the  other  is  that  whereby  the  socially l  problematical 
or  assumptive  meaning  is  confirmed  by  appeal  to  individual 
judgment.  The  unit  in  which  such  items  of  meaning  are  cast 
for  either  of  these  modes  of  confirmation  or  for  both  is  now  to 
be  inquired  into ;  it  may  be  called  the  unit  of  linguistic  expres- 
sion. It  is  what  is  ordinarily  called  a  Predication ,  or  a  Predi- 
cative Meaning. 

1 '  Social '  in  the  sense  of  made  to  a  hearer  by  whom  it  is  to  be  ratified. 
Of  course  all  social  acceptance  is  constituted  by  an  aggregate  of  such  individual 
ratifications. 


194  J.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

§  5.  MODES  OF  PREDICATION:  ELUCIDATION  AND  PROPOSAL. 

As  soon  as  we  take  into  account  the  entire  situation  in  a  case 
of  intercourse  of  any  kind,  we  find  certain  points  of  view  from 
which  the  same  meaning  may  be  considered.  There  are  always 
at  least  two  persons  to  the  situation,  and  if  we  distinguish  these 
persons  as  '  speaker '  and  '  hearer,'  we  have  the  two  personal 
elements  marked  off.  Each  of  the  persons  is  either  already  in 
possession  of  the  judgmental  meaning  or  he  is  not.  If  he  is, 
then  he  is  in  role,  if  not  in  fact,  *  speaker ' ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
meaning  is  that  which  he  might  utter  in  place  of  the  actual 
speaker ;  and  whatever  term  we  apply  to  the  function  of  ex- 
pressing this  meaning,  it  may  be  put  down  as  applying  to  his  act 
of  -participation  in  the  situation.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
the  point  of  view  of  the  one  to  whom  the  intelligence  imparted 
by  the  meaning  is  in  some  sense  not  already  his  meaning,  but 
an  addition  to  it,  or  a  modification  of  it.  He  is  the  «  hearer  '- 
no  matter  how  many  of  him  there  may  be  !  The  shadings  of 
meaning  involved  may  be  distributed  under  this  two  fold  divi- 
sion—  the  speaker's  meaning  and  the  hearer's  meaning. 

The  next  thing  that  occurs  to  us  to  note  is  that  each  of  these 
persons,  speaker  and  hearer,  may  have  in  his  mind  either  a 
meaning  which  he  believes  or  a  meaning  which  he  questions : 
either  a  *  logical  or  a  '  schematic'  meaning;  a  *  presupposition' 
or  an  'assumption'  may  underlie  the  relational  subject-matter 
that  constitutes  the  predication.  And  there  must  also  be  sup- 
posed a  form  of  correlation  between  these  two  types  of  mean- 
ing, considered  as  being  in  a  situation  in  which  the  speaker  and 
hearer  get  the  same  subject-matter  at  the  same  time —  as  indeed 
they  must  lest  intercourse  lose  its  commonness  and  so  be  futile. 

This  analysis  when  pursued  exhaustively  gives  the  following 
cases : 

1.  Belief  in  the  subject-matter  on  the  part  of  the  speaker, 
and  predication  that  serves  to  elucidate  the  subject-matter :  this 
we  may  call  predication  as  elucidation.     If  this  is  accompanied 
by  belief  before  the  predication,  in  the  mind  of  any  actual  hearer, 
the  meaning  to  him  is  also  one  of  elucidation,  for  he  might  have 
been  the  speaker. 

2.  Question  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker  and  predication  that 


THOUGHT  AND  LANGUAGE.  195 

in  some  form  proposes  something ;  this  we  may  call  -predication 
as  -proposal.  If  it  be  met  by  belief  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer  — 
belief  already  formed  —  it  is  to  the  hearer  not  proposal  but  eluci- 
dation ;  and  he  in  turn  may  proceed  to  elucidate  the  proposal  of 
the  questioner.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  hearer  joins  the  speaker 
in  erecting  the  subject-matter  into  a  schema  of  problematical 
meaning,  his  meaning  is  then  also  one  of  proposal. 

There  are  therefore  four  possible  cases  :  (i)  Proposal — 
(with)  Proposal,  (2)  Proposal — Elucidation ,  (3)  Elucidation  — 
Elucidation ,  and  (4)  Elucidation  —  Proposal \  in  each  case  the 
meaning  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker  standing  first.  Suppose, 
for  example,  a  teacher  teaching  his  class.  The  pupil  says  '  A 
continent  is  really  an  island,  isn't  it?'  (proposal),  and  the 
teacher  replies  either  *  yes  '  (elucidation)  —  case  (2)  —  or  '  let 
us  look  in  the  dictionary  and  see  '  (proposal)  —  case  (i).  After 
looking  up  the  dictionary,  both  pupil  and  teacher  may  say,  *  it 
is  an  island,  as  we  thought '  (elucidation  with  elucidation)  — 
case  (3)  —  or  the  teacher  may  say,  '  I  still  question  what  you 
read  '  (elucidation  with  proposal)  —  case  (4).  It  must  not  be  sup- 
posed that  *  elucidation  —  proposal*  and  *  proposal  —  elucida- 
tion '  give  the  same  situation ;  they  do  not.  The  former  is  the 
situation  in  which  there  is  exposition  with  reference  to  which  the 
hearer  has  not  arrived  at  an  assenting  judgment ;  the  latter,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  the  case  of  a  question  met  by  an  elucidating 
response.  The  latter  is  the  more  fruitful  situation,  genetically, 
since  it  results  in  actual  development  of  meaning  in  the  mind 
of  the  questioner,  giving  a  third  term  of  elucidation ;  and  if  this 
be  also  stated,  the  progression  becomes  proposal  —  elucidation — 
elucidation.  The  other  case,  that  of  elucidation  —  proposal,  is 
not  of  this  fruitful  issue,  unless  it  be  followed  by  a  further  eluci- 
dation by  the  first  speaker,  and  then  an  elucidation  also  in  the 
mind  of  the  hearer ;  but  this  latter  pair  of  terms  brings  in  one  of 
the  other  situations  mentioned  above,  that  of  elucidation  — 
elucidation. 

Putting  it  in  general  terms,  we  may  say  first  that  a  statement 
may  be  met  by  acceptance  or  by  question,  and  second,  that  a 
statement  of  question  may  be  met  by  a  belief  or  by  a  joint  ques- 
tion. The  instrumental  utility,  and  with  it  the  genetic  justifica- 


196  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

tion,  of  these  four  cases  of  predicative  meaning  should  be 
examined.  In  each  of  them  we  find  that  all  predication,  and 
with  it  all  use  of  logical  meaning,  is  in  some  important  sense 
experimental r,  when  once  the  social  point  of  view  essential  to  its 
full  interpretation  is  taken  up. 

§  6.  PREDICATION  AS  EXPERIMENTAL  MEANING. 
It  would  appear  on  the  surface  that  if  logical  meaning  is  to 
be  common,  and  thus  socially  available  for  intercourse,  its  forms 
must  be  those  by  which  on  occasion  the  enlargement  of  the  range 
of  acceptance  could  be  secured.  The  forms  of  predication 
would  then  be  ipso  facto  instrumental  to  the  production  of  fur- 
ther judgment  and  belief.  But  certain  considerations  force 
themselves  upon  us  which  forbid  so  easy  an  instrumental  inter- 
pretation. We  have  seen  that  the  growth  of  knowledge  cannot 
be  entirely  personal  and  private ;  the  necessities  of  social  life, 
which  are  also  personal,  forbid.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  the 
securing  of  common  acceptance,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  body 
of  inter-personal  acknowledgments,  cannot  go  on  alone,  as  being 
the  entire  fulfilment  of  the  role  of  knowledge ;  for  the  individ- 
ual's judgment  is  all  the  while  the  norm  of  what  is  established 
as  knowledge,  and  without  individual  consent  there  is  no  social 
acceptance?  The  propagation  of  a  thought  in  a  social  set  can 
only  be  by  the  intrinsic  adoption  of  the  thought  by  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  set  one  by  one.  Any  other  process  would  make 
not  common  knowledge  but  common  hypothesis  or  proposal, 
with  no  relatively  final  solution  or  elucidation  in  knowledge. 
In  such  a  case  the  final  criterion  to  the  individual  thinker  would 
not  arise  in  his  own  processes  of  selective  thought,  but  would 
be  a  calculus  as  to  how  many  of  the  community  already  accepted 
it.  Catholicity  would  take  the  place  of  what  we  call  logical 
reasonableness  or  validity.1 

1  A  sort  of  social  pragmatism  might  be  constructed  along  this  line  by  rein- 
terpreting—  as  we  have  —  the  individual's  judgment  of  reasonableness  back 
into  the  field  of  social  acceptance  —  the  'hole  from  whence  it  was  digged.' 
But  this  is  just  what  current  pragmatism  is  unable  to  do,  since  its  entire  develop- 
ment is  on  the  basis  of  the  reconstruction  of  experience  in  the  individual,  for 
'control*  by  personal  action.  The  question  I  put  to  this  latter  theory  is  how,  if 
the  dualism  of  inner  and  outer  be  one  whose  value  is  its  instrumental  utility 
for  the  control  of  action  —  how  can  self  and  other  individuals  —  how  can 
society — have  any  common  meaning?  A  resort  to  a  social  discipline  of  in- 
dividual judgment  would  seem  to  be  shut  out  from  the  start. 


THO UGHT  A  ND  LANG UA  GE.  1 97 

There  is  in  short  the  attitude  toward  society  expressed  in  the 
sentence,  «  /  believe,  therefore  have  I  spoken '--the  attitude 
of  conviction,  ccelum  ruat — as  well  as  the  attitude,  '  I  would 
believe,  help  thou  mine  unbelief — the  attitude  of  social 
acquiescence.  And  we  should  expect  that  besides  the  evidently 
instrumental  character  of  the  appeal  to  society,  there  would  be 
a  corresponding  instrumental  appeal  of  society  to  the  rules  of 
individual  thought.  Put  in  terms  of  predication  this  would  read 
—  social  proposals  require  individual  elucidation,  and  individual 
proposals  require  social  elucidation.  The  very  development  of 
knowledge,  if  it  is  to  issue  in  a  system  of  what  we  may  call 
'  truths,'  requires  that  both  these  forms  of  confirmation  be  present 
all  the  while. 

Apart,  however,  from  further  theoretical  discussion,  we  may 
point  out  the  fact  that  as  expressive  of  attitudes  toward  mental 
objects,  meanings  reach  the  poise  and  equilibrium  of  knowledge 
only  through  a  two-fold  elucidation.  That  of  the  speaker  is 
still  to  invoke  that  of  the  hearer;  that  of  the  hearer  is  again 
submitted  to  the  judgment  of  a  second  hearer  when  the  former 
becomes  speaker.  The  judgment  of  the  individual  is  forever 
fed  by  the  return  wave  from  the  circulation  through  the  social 
tissue.  On  the  other  hand,  the  social  set  are  never  all  convinced, 
and  the  outriders  of  society  must  be  subdued  to  the  informing 
and  reasonable  elucidation  of  the  dominating  individuals. 

The  process  of  formation  of  what  we  call  <  truth '  is,  there- 
fore, a  continuous  and  dialectic  one.  Apart  from  the  definition 
of  the  term  truth,  and  the  justification  of  its  use  for  a  body  of 
subject-matter  constituted  as  logical  content,  we  may  say  that 
there  are  several  sorts  of  truth.  A  predication  which  a  thinker 
elucidates  is  true  so  far  as  it  is  not  ineligible  to  the  hearer's 
elucidation  and  belief ;  but  it  may  still  actually  be  mere  hypo- 
thesis or  proposal  to  the  hearer  to  whom  the  elucidation  is 
addressed.  Again,  a  matter  of  social  convention,  of  confident 
social  elucidation  and  advertisement  by  acclamation,  is  true  in 
so  far  as  it  is  not  ineligible,  not  mere  proposal,  to  any  indi- 
vidual thinker,  for  the  same  item  is  perpetually  subject  to  the 
sharp-shooting  of  the  more  expert  intellectual  marksmen  to 
whom  the  social  judgment  looks  for  its  reconstruction  and 


198  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

direction.  There  are  two  sides  to  the  dialectic,  two  poles  around 
which  the  web  of  truth  must  be  stretched ;  and  until  both  sides 
be  compassed  and  both  poles  surrounded,  truth  is  unfinished. 

From  the  instrumental  point  of  view  we  discover,  therefore, 
two  sorts  of  schematism  or  proposal ;  and  it  is  a  result  to  which 
our  discussions  now  directly  converge  that  both  are  never  finally 
banished  —  that  thought  —  and  'with  it  truth  —  remains  in  one 
sense  or  the  other  experimental  to  the  last. 

Proceeding  now  to  isolate  the  typical  cases  of  proposal  in- 
volved in  situations  of  intercourse  we  find  them  to  be  two. 
First,  there  is  the  attitude  or  intent  of  question  in  the  speaker, 
of  proposal  or  assumption  of  something  he  himself  does  not  yet 
believe  or  presuppose :  this  is  the  attitude  in  which  the  individual 
explicitly  appeals  to  social  conversion  in  order  that  his  sche- 
matic context  may  be  confirmed  for  his  own  acceptance  and  judg- 
ment. Second,  there  is  the  attitude  of  question  in  the  hearer, 
the  audience,  the  public,  in  presence  of  the  elucidations  of  the 
speaker :  this  is  the  attitude  in  which  the  social  set,  the  general 
intelligence,  waits  upon  the  judgment  and  predication  of  the 
individual  that  the  final  availability  of  its  meanings  may  be 
assured.  In  the  former  case,  there  is  the  question,  will  it  work 
in  the  whole  of  society  ?  —  will  it  bear  the  social  test  ?  In  the  lat- 
ter case,  there  is  the  question,  will  it  work  in  the  individual's 
system  of  established  beliefs  ?  —  will  it  bear  the  test  of  competent 
private  judgment?  —  is  it  reasonable? 

These  are  the  two  tests  always  present  in  the  determination 
of  new  matter  in  the  system  of  meanings  in  the  logical  mode  — 
the  two  tests  of  truth.  They  are  the  test  of  commonness  and  the 
test  of  reasonableness,  both  being  aspects  of  the  intrinsic  intent 
of  all  logical  predication.  They  are  the  poles  of  reference  of 
logical  meaning  in  its  growth,  as  first  '  syndoxic '  or  *  held1  in 
common,'  then  synnomic  or  *  judged  as  common,'  and  finally 
6  catholic  '  or  *  judged  in  common.'  The  *  reasonableness  '  of 
the  synnomic  is  just  the  *  appropriateness '  attaching  to  a  mean- 
ing whose  social  intent  faces  both  back-ward  and  forward. 

A  further  word  on  the  relation  of  these  two  tests  to  each 
other. 

1  That  is,  "assumed"  or  "presumed"  in  common  in  a  mode  short  of 
judgment. 


THOUGHT  AND  LANGUAGE.  199 

First,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  are  here  not  con- 
cerned, except  in  certain  secondary  ways,  with  the  commonness 
of  mere  catholicity  as  numerical  measure  of  acceptance ;  but 
with  that  more  profound  ingredient  in  knowledge  whereby,  in 
its  very  formation,  the  individual  judgment  intends  a  common 
meaning.  The  judgment  of  the  individual  once  formed  is  nec- 
essarily a  common  judgment  to  him  :  it  is  synnomic  in  the 
sense  of  our  earlier  discussion.  But  the  experimental  process 
—  the  growth  of  this  faculty  of  judgment  in  just  this  synnomic 
direction,  both  racially  and  in  each  individual  —  requires  a 
series  of  situations  in  which  the  proposed  or  schematic  mean- 
ings of  the  individual  have  first  the  syndoxic  character  "in 
common,"  and  so  pass  into  judgments.  The  simplest  case,  of 
course,  is  one  of  fact  in  which  the  individual  is  not  already 
possessed  of  the  requisite  information,  and  awaits  the  elucida- 
tion—  the  narrative  —  of  another.  He  then,  with  this  increase 
of  syndoxic  information,  forms  a  judgment  of  his  own  that  is 
synnomic.  Thus  arises  a  judgment  of  fact,  the  report  of  the 
other  taking  the  place,  by  the  operation  of  social  conversion,  of 
his  own  appeal  to  fact.  Before  such  an  appeal,  or  the  recep- 
tion of  the  equivalent  information,  his  opinion  would  have  been 
schematic  and  assumptive.  It  is  this  case,  in  which  the  accre- 
tion to  knowledge  is  a  matter  of  fact,  whether  reached  by  direct 
or  by  social  confirmation,  that  has  given  rise  to  the  description 
of  this  test  as  the  « test  of  fact.' 

In  the  more  recondite  operations  of  thought,  the  essential 
appeal  is  the  same.  It  is  for  that  informing  element  of  content 
or  meaning,  derived  through  the  common  context  of  socially 
established  fact,  that  brings  out  the  synthesis  of  judgment. 
The  individual  resorts  to  some  source  apart  from  his  own  ready- 
formed  context  of  meanings  used  by  him  hypothetically,  some 
word  of  fact  in  the  larger  sense,  through  which  his  assumption 
may  be  grounded  and  his  belief  justified.  The  essential  redis- 
tribution of  meanings  that  constitutes  the  process  of  assimi- 
lation of  the  proposed  data  to  the  body  of  experience,  now  takes 
place.  In  the  result  the  item  gets  its  assimilation,  and  the  con- 
text of  believed  and  grounded  items  is  so  far  enlarged. 

The  other  test  is  different  in  its  nature  ;  but  being  a  real  test, 


200  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

it  is  equally  instrumental  to  the  development  of  thought.  It  is 
that  of  items  proposed  for  social  acceptance  but  awaiting  the 
judgment  of  the  individual.  It  is  the  appeal  to  the  *  reasonable- 
ness '  in  which  the  competent  thinker  renders  his  synnomic 
meanings. 

We  have  said  above  that  this  resort  to  the  formed  judgment 
of  the  individual  is  necessary  to  social  acceptance  —  the  accept- 
ance of  grounded  social  judgment.  *  Commonness '  in  the 
simpler  senses  of  that  term  —  the  meanings  of  <  common  '  short 
of  the  syndoxic l —  such  commonness  may  exist  without  logical 
bearing  of  any  kind.  There  may  be  mere  social  aggregate- 
ness.  But  the  passage  from  what  we  may  call  social  proposal  — 
rumor,  contagion,  plastic  imitation,  etc. —  however  aggregate  it 
may  be,  and  however  socially  diffused,  into  the  status  of  logically 
common  meaning,  is  always  through  the  mediation  of  the  judg- 
ment of  individuals.  All  '  social  meaning  as  such/  and  all 
'  public '  meaning  resting  upon  it,  are  subject  to  the  test  of 
4  reasonableness  '  to  the  individual  thinker.  Social  commonness, 
in  short,  rests  upon  individual  acceptance  or  '  reasonableness  ' ; 
while  individual  acceptance  as  *  reasonable,'  has  its  roots  in 
social  commonness.  The  test  whereby  the  social  proposal,  the 
aggregate  or  relatively  catholic  meaning,  becomes  one  of  genu- 
ine logical  character,  we  therefore  call  the  *  test  of  reasonable- 
ness'2 as  contrasted  with  <  the  test  of  fact.'3 

1  See  the  descriptions  of  such  meanings  in  my  Genetic  Logic,  Vol.  I.,  chap. 
VII.,  \\  5  ff. 

2 1  take  the  term  '  reasonableness '  as  covering  the  general  mark  of  knowl- 
edge wherein  it  satisfies  and  fulfils  theoretical  or  logical  interest  from  C.  S. 
Peirce.  As  popularly  used  it  has  just  the  ambiguity  of  confusing  the  two  phases 
of  attitude  we  are  trying  so  strenuously  to  separate,  acceptance  and  assumption. 
We  ordinarily  say  we  believe  a  thing  because  it  is  '  reasonable '  and  also  that  we 
assume  a  thing  because  it  seems  '  reasonable.'  This  means  that  it  is  by  a  transi- 
tion of  attitude,  rather  than  by  a  change  of  content,  that  knowledge  and 
hypothesis  are  distinguished.  A  definite  set  of  implications  are  reasonable, 
grounded,  believed ;  a  set  of  assumptions  not  believed  but  only  proposed,  are 
also  reasonable  so  far  as  they  go  in  leading  up  to  belief.  It  is  to  the  former 
intent,  that  of  actual  acceptance,  that  I  shall  apply  the  term. 

'It  may  be  recalled  that  in  the  treatment  of  'Selective  Thinking'  in 
another  place  (Devel.  and  Evolution^  chap.  XVII.),  I  worked  out  certain  tests 
from  the  individual  point  of  view,  calling  them  respectively  '  test  of  fact '  and 
'  test  of  habit. '  The  test  of  habit  is  what  is  here,  from  the  psychic  point  of 
view,  recognized  as  schematic  assumption.  In  order  not  to  repeat  what  is  said 


THO  UGHT  AND  LANG  UA  GE.  2O I 

The  factors  involved  in  this  two-fold  dialectical  move- 
ment may  be  shown  by  the  following  diagram.  It  should  be 
remembered  that  it  is  the  progress,  or  determination,  of  mean- 
ing from  proposal  (assumption)  to  elucidation  (belief),  that  is 
in  question,  and  not  the  development  of  pure  implication  or 
elucidation  as  a  body  of  related  contents  already  fully  deter- 
mined. 

Personal  Proposal  --^^^  ^^^  Social  Proposal 

(Habit)  ^^^X^L=:^        (Convention) 


Personal  Judgment  ^  - >-:>>>  Social  Judgment 

(Reasonableness}  Fact\ 

Truth 

The  point  of  interest  just  here  does  not  reside  in  the  further 
explication  of  either  of  these  tests  ;  it  resides  rather  in  the  state- 
ment that  no  predicated  or  judged  knowledge  is  ever  free  from 
that  instrumental  and  problematic  reference  which  one  or  other 
of  these  tests  would  further  fulfil.  Either  that  which  is  reason- 
able is  still  to  be  elucidated  for  some  mode  of  acceptance,  or  that 
which  is  generally  accepted  is  still  to  be  proposed  for  individual 
confirmation  as  reasonable. 

The  process  of  intercourse,  therefore,  to  be  all  that  it  is  for 
thought,  requires  that  elucidation  should  perpetually  fulfil  the 
demand  set  by  the  correlative  function  of  proposal.  The  social 
reference  of  thought  is  all  the  way  along  prospective  as  well  as 
retrospective :  prospective,  in  that  it  presupposes  a  proposing 
society  for  which  further  elucidation  is  necessary  ;  retrospective, 
in  that  it  incorporates  in  its  own  competent  judgment,  just  that 
strain  of  commonness  which  only  an  earlier  prospective  refer- 
fully  there,  I  may  simply  call  attention  to  the  treatment  in  that  place  of  (i) 
the  '  platform  '  or  level  of  determination  or  systematic  meaning  from  which  all 
new  items  are  selected  as  assumptions,  and  (2)  the  resulting  theory  of  truth  as 
that  which  having  passed  the  '  gauntlet  of  habit '  or  assumption  then  has  to 
submit  to  the  test  of  fact.  Truth  in  the  realm  of  empirical  discovery,  then,  is 
what  is  in  this  twofold  way  selected.  What  is  now  added  is  the  point  that 
the  hearer,  society,  does  the  same  :  brings  back  its  '  assumption '  as  mere  social 
habit  to  the  test  of  individual  endorsement  as  'reasonable.' 

1  The  socially  established  meaning  may  always  be  classed  as  '  fact '  since 
it  has  no  further  role  save  as  established  control  or  test  of  the  individual's 
meanings. 


202  J.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

ence  in  its  own  case  could  have  produced.  Put  differently,  we 
may  say  that  if,  at  any  point,  truth  can  be  considered  finished 
and  absolute,  not  subject  to  further  growth,  but  only  capable  of 
repeated  elucidation,  then  at  an  earlier  stage  it  might,  for  the 
same  reason,  have  been  so  considered,  and  its  present  stage 
would  not  have  been  attained.  And  so  on  all  the  way  down 
the  line  of  racial  progress.  But,  on  the  contrary,  the  elucida- 
tions of  one  generation  only  bring  out  the  proposals  of  the  next ; 
the  elucidations  of  society,  the  proposals  of  the  man  of  genius. 
And  in  both  cases  the  extraordinary  thing  is  that  in  the  pro- 
posal that  requires  a  new  platform  of  elucidation,  the  table  is 
turned  upon  the  thinker  who  makes  his  knowledge  final.  The 
judgmental  content  must  be  *  set'  as  final,  seeing  that  it  is  com- 
mon, synnomic,  retrospective  and  in  so  far  also  legislative  for 
all  intelligences.  But  the  newer  gage  of  reasonableness,  on 
the  one  hand,  or  of  fact  on  the  other  hand,  once  thrown  down 
with  its  claim  to  a  new  finality,  the  process  of  vital  reorganiza- 
tion again  goes  forward.  The  older  truth  loses  its  presupposi- 
tions or  finds  them  restated  in  a  new  set  of  postulations. 

It  is  not  in  order  at  this  point  to  indicate  the  bearing  of  this 
result  in  a  theory  of  knowledge  considered  as  epistemology. 
We  are  later  on  to  consider  the  question  as  to  which  if  either  of 
these  points  of  view,  these  tests,  these  references  to  facts  and  to 
theoretic  satisfactions,  is  the  more  fundamental.  The  whole 
matter  is  here  one  of  genetic  adjustment  of  motive  factors  in  a 
whole  function.  If  one  care  to  select  one  aspect  of  the  whole 
and  say,  *  thought  being  experimental  and  instrumental  and 
prospective,  is  pragmatic  through  and  through ; '  very  well,  so 
it  is,  from  this  aspect  of  it  —  the  aspect  of  accommodation,  dis- 
covery, development.  But  if  another  select  the  other  aspect  and 
say  '  all  thought  is  retrospective,  a  platform,  an  organization,  a 
social  and  common  meaning,  having  its  relational  forms  and 
rules  of  predication,  a  matter  of  habit  and  theoretical  worth  '  - 
what  is  to  prevent  his  doing  so?  But  both  are  partial,  both 
abstractions.  Knowledge  is  a  specific  organization  within 
whose  subject-matter  characters  appear,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
fulfil  the  theoretical  interest  without  which  no  elucidation,  predi- 
cation, implication,  language^  would  be  possible  ;  and  again, 


THO  UGHT  AND  LANG  UA  GE.  203 

knowledge  is  an  adjustment,  motived  by  a  *  pragmatelic,'  end- 
embracing  interest,  without  which  no  theoretical  organization 
or  meaning  could  ever  have  been  developed.  No  good  social 
psychology?  and  no  epistemology  based  upon  such  a  psychology, 
will  be  long  content  with  either  of  these  partial  and  fragmentary 
interpretations.1 

The  conclusions  we  have  now  reached  are  these :  (i)  that 
all  elucidation,  all  predication  that  is  really  judgmental,  all 
inner  organization  of  thought  in  a  system  of  implications,  has 
been  developed  with  constant  reference  to  proposals  to  which  it 
is  the  reply  and  elucidation,  and  (2)  that  all  instrumental  refer- 
ence of  knowledge,  all  discovery,  all  postulation,  all  practical 
insight  through  truth,  are  possible  only  on  a  basis  of  established 
judgmental  content  whose  adequate  theoretical  elucidation  it 
presupposes.  And  the  reason  of  both  these  statements  may  be 
put  in  a  sentence — the  reason  is  that  knowledge  is  common  pro- 
perty not  an  individual  -possession,  that  individual  judgment 
presupposes  universal  acceptance,  and  that  truth  is  fitted  always 
not  only  to  satisfy  somebody's  theoretical  interest,  but  also  to 
stir  up  somebody 's  curiosity  and  practical  impulse. 2 

1  It  may  be  said  here,  and  has  been  said  to  me  by  a  thinker  who  calls  him- 
self a  '  pragmatist,'  that  we  are  still  in  the  entire  process  dealing  with  a  develop- 
ment for  which  the  movement  of  cognition  is  instrumental:  the  development  of 
psychic  activity  or  function  as  such.     To  this  I  do  not  object,  if  we  include 
objective  meaning  with  function  ;  although  when  I  come  to  think  it  through  I 
find  the  result  very  far  removed  from  what  is  usually  called  '  pragmatism. '    The 
whole  development  is,  on  the  basis  of  our  results,  a  social  development,  a  larger 
social  order,  and  with  its  postulation  goes  the  contrast  meaning,  postulated 
equally  in  the  logical  mode,  of  a  non-social  and  non-mental  order,  an  environ- 
ment.    A  dualism  thus  persists  and  will  not  down  —  a  dualism  whose  implica- 
tions forbid  a  return  to  any  sort  of  subjective  interpretation  of  reality,  as  reached 
by  thought,  which  confines  it  to  what  is  relatively  organized  in  the  individual's 
habit.     The  solution  is  to  be  found  only  in  some  sort  of  experience  that  is 
not  indeed  a-logical,  but  super-logical  and  immediate  in  its  mode. 

2  This  genetic  process  of  building  up  a  competent  individual  judgment,  as- 
serting its  individuality  as  over  against  the  social  body  which  is  its  very  fons 
et  origo,  is  seen  to  be  a  phase  of  the  *  dialectic  of  personal  and  social  growth ' 
developed  in  detail  in  my  work  Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations.   It  is  there 
shown  that  the  consciousness  of  the  personal  self  is  formed  and  becomes  rela- 
tively self -asserting,  as  over  against  society,  by  a  process  of  imitative  assimila- 
tion and  ejective  re-reading  of  social  material,  so  that  the  individual  is  'a  social 
outcome,  rather  then  a  social  unit.' 


204  /•  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

Language  embodies,  if  our  general  position  be  true,  that 
stretch  of  cognitive  meaning  that  is  both  individually  accepted 
and  socially  rendered.  It  shows  the  concurrence  of  the  two 
points  of  view  from  which  the  development  of  thought  may 
be  observed.  Moreover  so  far  as  the  individual's  psychic  life  is 
looked  upon  as  one  of  relative  isolation  from  his  fellows,  as  a 
center,  that  is,  of  personal  and  subjective  meanings,  the  stream 
of  his  personal  development  merges  concurrently  into  that  of 
the  social  whole  in  those  meanings  which  he  can  render  by 
speech.  His  other  meanings,  the  purely  selective  ones,  the 
appreciations  and  the  quasi-con ative  ones,  the  sorts  of  intent 
that  fulfil  his  personal  interests  and  purposes,  together  with  the 
purely  private  ones  of  the  fugitive  sort  that  never  acquire  social 
validity  —  all  these  lie  outside  the  sphere  of  intercourse  and  fail 
of  linguistic  embodiment.1  We  can,  indeed,  imagine  modes  of 
social  expression  —  we  have  them  possibly  in  the  crude  quasi- 
linguistic  symbolism,  of  some  of  the  higher  animals — in  which 
this  concurrent  rendering  of  meanings  personally  in  private 
judgment  and  also  socially  in  common  acceptance,  has  gone 
very  little  way.  A  society  with  only  gesture  language  would 
be  one  with  little  such  concurrent  development ;  and  one  with 
only  pictographic  signs  would  be  relatively  rude  in  respect  to 
that  aspect  of  development  represented  by  written  language. 

The  principal  and  striking  thing  about  language,  how- 
ever, as  thus  being  both  personal  and  social  vehicle  of  thought, 
is  its  testimony  to  the  falsity  of  any  individualistic  theory  of 
thought.  Thought  must  be  social  in  order  to  be  adequately 
personal,  as  we  have  seen  :  language  summarizes  and  demon- 
strates this  necessity.  The  gradual  development  of  language 
shows  the  impulse  and  necessity  for  intercourse  both  as  ped- 
agogical instrument  in  the  hands  of  society  and  also  as  vehicle 
of  the  individuals  informing  and  reforming  work  in  society. 

1  It  has  been  interestingly  shown,  however,  by  Prof.  Urban  that  there  is  a 
sort  of  '  appreciative  description  '  whereby  such  meanings  may  be  indirectly 
suggested  by  verbal  description  (Philosophical  Review,  Nov.,  1905).  It  would 
appear  quite  possible  to  arouse  in  another  an  appreciative  state  like  one's  own  by 
the  use  of  indirect  symbolism.  We  have  the  general  resort  of  taking  advantage 
of  what  is  called  above  (in  my  Vol.  I.)  the '  commonness  of  common  function  '  — 
of  exciting  a  common  function  by  '  analogous  feeling  stimuli,'  to  use  Darwin's 
classic  phrase. 


THE    NATURE    OF  THE    SOUL  AND   THE    POSSI- 
BILITY  OF  A  PSYCHO-MECHANIC. 

BY  THE  LATE  C.  L.  HERRICK.1 
I. 

One  may  accept,  with  all  the  assurance  that  ideas  in  this 
field  are  capable  of  exciting,  the  doctrine  that  energy  is  the 
real  and  that  its  «  standing  in  relation/  or  limitation,  is  the  basis 
of  substance,  while  one  perceives  no  less  clearly  than  the  dual- 
istic  philosopher  the  fundamental  contrast  between  self  and  the 
outside  world. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  minimize  this  contrast  or  to 
detract  from  the  respect  which  we  feel  for  the  spiritual  as  con- 
trasted to  the  phenomenal  world.  Here  our  analysis  must  be 
patient  and  close  and  each  step  must  be  carefully  scrutinized 
but  with  the  constant  recollection  that  everything  cannot  be  said 
at  once. 

Even  at  the  risk  of  using  terms  that  have  been  much  abused 
at  times  we  are  now  prepared  to  realize  the  difference  between 
phenomena  and  epiphenomena.  A  certain  form  of  energy,  ex- 
pressed in  alternating  modes  (a  resultant  of  limitation  or  inter- 
ference) impinges  on  equilibrated  energy  in  an  animal  organ- 
ism in  such  forms  as  to  modify  the  latter.  (We  are  well  aware 
that  torrents  of  energy  are  continually  passing  through  our 
bodies  and  even  our  brains  without  awakening  any  response, 
and  we  also  know  something  of  the  nature  of  the  correspond- 
ences by  which  interaction  is  rendered  possible  and  do  not 
doubt  that  even  these  unperceived  currents  might,  by  appropri- 
ate transformations  become  suited  for  *  food  for  thought') .  The 
equilibrated  organism  is  affected  (in  extreme  cases  the  equilib- 
rium is  destroyed)  and  the  equation  of  the  subsequent  life  of  the 
equilibrium  is  permanently  modified. 

But  the  first  result  is  a  state  (act)  of  consciousness.  From 
the  nature  of  the  equilibrium  it  follows  that  only  one  interfer- 

1  Unrevised  MS.  submitted,  as  the  author  left  it,  by  C.  J.  Herrick.  —  ED. 

205 


206  C.  L    HER  RICK. 

ence  can  occur  at  any  given  moment  of  time.  An  equilibrated 
system  may  be  constantly  varying  but  it  is  always  one  system. 

Note,  however,  that  the  unitary  nature  of  an  equilibrium 
does  not  prevent  all  sorts  of  fusions  in  the  external  stimuli  be- 
fore they  affect  consciousness.  Thus  an  instantaneous  view  of 
an  object  may  produce  a  synthesis  which  can  be  remembered 
in  terms  of  multiplicity.  But  the  analysis  by  judgment  of  a 
composite  of  various  impressions  does  not  prove  that  the  act  of 
perception  was  multiple  in  any  given  moment  of  time.  The 
perception  of  a  chord  in  music  is  a  single  act,  though  we  may 
subsequently  analyze  it  into  elementary  sense  stimuli. 

Experience  is,  therefore,  composed  of  a  series  of  impres- 
sions, a,  b,  £,  etc.,  and  these  are  projected  as  a  phenomenal 
series,  p,  q,  r,  etc.  But  this  is  not  all.  Together  with  the 
subjective  series  there  is  something  else  which  is  not  variable  — 
which  serves  to  make  a  series  of  the  isolated  facts  of  experi- 
ence—  which  binds  the  experience  series  into  a  whole.  This 
might  be  a  constant  from  the  organism,  thus :  ax,  bx,  ex,  etc., 
so  that  each  time  a,  b  or  c  is  experienced  it  is  accompanied  by 
a  feeling  tone  from  the  organism  and  from  this  we  derive  x  (a, 
b,  £,  etc.),  x  being  a  constant  furnished  by  the  organism  in  the 
act  of  experiencing. 

In  the  same  way  the  phenomenal  series  is  affected  by  a 
somewhat,  thus  :  -py,  qy,  ry,  etc.,  giving  rise  to  y  (p,  q,  r,  etc.), 
where  y  is  that  constant  which  produces  the  sense  of  an  external 
continuum  or  external  world. 

More  specifically,  what  is  ,*•?  It  may  be  suggested  that  the 
somatic  sensations  which,  from  their  diffuseness,  never  enter 
consciousness  in  analyzed  or  differentiated  form,  constitute  a 
background  of  consciousness  which  is  at  least  relatively  con- 
stant and  serves  as  an  x  to  be  affixed  to  every  a,  b,  and  c  of 
experience.  If  this  were  true  then  it  would  follow,  if  one  were 
cut  off  from  all  such  organic  sensations  by  being  paralyzed,  let 
us  say,  in  all  afferent  paths  of  somatic  nervous  discharge,  no  x 
would  be  supplied  and  one  would  have  no  *  self '  concept  or 
factor  with  which  to  affect  the  series  of  experiences,  and  it 
would  remain  a  simple  series  of  discrete  sensations  a-b-c. 
There  are  facts  of  pathological  experience  which  go  to  prove 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  207 

that  some  such  truncation  of  self  does  follow  from  the  shunting 
out  of  the  somatic  part  of  experience  and  we  have  every  reason 
to  know  that  the  background  of  somatic  or  organic  experience 
is  a  very  useful  means  of  synthesis  for  the  remainder  of  ex- 
perience and  also  a  very  prominent  element  in  the  *  self  tone 
which  goes  to  make  up  temperament  and  disposition. 

But  our  analysis  would  need  to  be  more  minute  than  this. 
It  is  supposable,  nay  probable,  that  the  very  existence  of  a  neural 
equilibrium  implies  such  activities  as  would  keep  up  a  tension  of 
experience  which,  during  a  state  of  relative  repose,  might  be 
undefined  and  unperceived,  would  be  constantly  varied  by  each 
break  in  the  reposeful  state,  as  when,  for  example,  an  external 
stimulus  is  received.  Thus  we  may  suppose,  the  material  for 
self-consciousness  would  be  preserved  to  some  extent  so  long  as 
the  ability  to  receive  stimuli  at  all  remained. 

X  then,  is  that  constant  of  effort  recognized  (implicitly)  at 
each  presentation  of  an  element  of  experience  #,  £,  c,  and  the 
recognition  of  this  constant  factor  in  the  variable  series  is  what 
gives  rise  to  the  notion  (which  is  of  the  nature  of  a  dim  feeling 
at  first  as  x  itself  is  a  feeling  of  tone)  of  a  continuous  self,  cotem- 
poraneous  with  and  existing  between  the  series  of  experience. 
It  seems  to  be  a  limitation  of  our  consciousness  that  we  do  not 
experience  unfilled  intervals.  In  the  experience  of  unlikes,  #, 
3,  £,  etc.,  there  is  presented  with  these  elements  or  between 
them,  the  recognition  of  change,  thus  :  a  (change),  b  (change), 
c,  etc.,  which  cuts  the  series  into  units  of  experience.  On  the 
other  hand  the  series  of  subjective  increments  #,  #,  #,  etc.,  has 
no  such  cleavage  phenomena  and  fuses  into  one  continuing  x 
.  .  .  etc.  An  absolutely  unvaried  experience,  being  incapable 
of  analysis,  has  no  succession  and  does  not  fall  into  the  category 
of  time.  So  we  have  the  curious  duplicity  of  experience  of  a 
broken  series  and  a  continuum  or  identity  side  by  side  with  the 
former.  This  we  express  thus  :  x  (a,  3,  c)  and  the  constant  is 
the  elementary  self  of  consciousness,  a  something  invariable  in 
the  midst  of  variety  and  permanent  in  the  midst  of  fluctuating 
experience.  To  this  constant  the  variables  are  referred. 

But  we  are  not  guilty  in  every  day  life  of  the  refinements 
that  have  been  discussed  above.  We  do  not  ordinarily  stop  to 


208  C.  L.  HERRICK. 

consider  the  objectivity  of  the  body  to  the  conscious  mechanism 
at  all.  Not  merely  the  organic  (and  as  such  unreferred)  sen- 
sations, but  the  relatively  constant  sensations  of  bodily  presence 
and  effort  are  readily  and  constantly  recognized  as  having  a 
greater  constancy  than  sensations  for  which  we  have  analytic 
sense  organs,  such  as  the  visual  and  tactual  sensations.  These 
bodily  sense  stimuli  are  reported'continually,  and,  just  in  so  far 
as  they  are  constant,  they  are  not  specially  perceived.  They 
pass  over  as  factors  of  the  mental  equilibrium  and  are  only  per- 
ceived at  such  times  as  some  change  occurs  or  attention  is 
directed  to  them  for  some  reason.  These  sensations  form  a 
vast  penumbra  about  the  x  of  self-consciousness  so  that  we  have 
(x,  xf ',  #",  etc.)  (#,  3,  £,  etc.)  and  are  able  to  recognize  some 
of  the  factors  of  the  subjective  (x)  series  objectively  and  x  " 
may,  for  example,  equal  c  on  occasion,  /".  e.,  the  same  sensory 
element  may  at  one  time  form  a  part  of  the  subjective  con- 
stant and  at  another  become  an  objective  variable.  At  any  rate 
the  entire  body  furnishes  us  '  self-material '  which  can  only  be 
separated  from  the  self-consciousness  by  a  process  of  mental 
analysis,  while  in  actual  experience  it  is  a  real  element  in  itself. 

It  has  been  suggested  by  M.  Rabier1  that  "  it  were  to  little 
purpose  if,  the  brain  having  been  indefinitely  enlarged,  we  could 
move  about  in  it  as  in  a  mill ;  or  having  become  transparent  like 
glass,  our  sight  might  traverse  it  from  part  to  part.  We 
would  see  there  no  more  psychological  phenomena  than  we  see 
in  a  mill  or  in  a  sphere  of  crystal/'  and  this  is  true  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  is  the  *  sight  traversing  it  from  part  to  part '  and 
the  '  moving  about '  and  the  *  seeing  '  that  would  be,  by  defini- 
tion, psychological.  If  we  could  imagine  the  mill  as  a  whole 
having  a  center  of  gravity  in  which  all  of  its  complex  strains 
were  referred  and  which  persisted,  ever  changing  but  never  de- 
stroyed, or  could  think  of  the  crystal  as  having  an  optical 
center  in  which  its  various  optical  axes  and  bisectrices  focused, 
and  could  imagine  these  centers  of  equilibrated  forces  being 
self-conscious,  then  the  illustration  might  have  some  relevancy. 

When  the  spiritualist  insists  that  the  psychological  is  some- 
thing sui  generis  and  distinct  from  the  physical,  we  agree,  if 

1  Lefonsde  Philosophic,  T.  I.,  p.  29. 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  209 

only  he  will  go  far  enough  and  recognize  why  this  diversity 
exists  and  how  complete  and  hopeless  a  separation  it  really  is. 
But  this  he  fails  to  do.  He  proceeds  at  once  to  set  these  two 
ways  of  looking  at  activity  as  two  commensurable  and  coexist- 
ing realities  in  the  world  and  gives  to  the  psychical  (which 
differs  from  the  physical  because  it  is  subjective  and,  so  far  as 
our  powers  of  discrimination  go,  only  for  this  reason)  a  separate 
objective  existence.  This  is  one  of  the  most  singular,  most 
persistent,  and  most  hopeless  of  logical  absurdities  in  current 
metaphysics. 

When  I,  as  a  psychologist,  examine  my  neighbor,  I  actually 
do  attempt  to  enter  his  brain  very  much  as  Rabier  describes. 
I  find  focussing  there  various  activities.  I  find  there  a  pro- 
digious mechanism  for  bringing  diverse  stimuli  together  in  one 
continuum  in  the  cortex.  So  far  from  a  device  for  projecting 
stimuli  upon  one  point,  as  imagined  by  Descartes  and  most 
speculative  philosophers,  the  stimuli  suffer  a  sort  of  dispersion 
in  their  path  toward  the  field  of  consciousness.  I  discover  that 
this  mechanism  is  in  a  terrific  state  of  activity.  Currents  of 
blood  and  lymph  supplying  highly  complicated  currents  of 
energy  are  passing  through  the  mechanism  continually  and 
doubtless  the  energy  actually  operating  in  the  brain,  if  convert- 
able  into  gross  forms  of  work,  would  lift  many  tons  literally 
miles  high  daily,  for  we  deal  here  with  what  the  physicist  would 
call  intra-molecular  types  of  forces  as  well  as  molecular  and 
molar  forces.  Now  all  this  vast  activity  reveals  itself  to  us  in 
scarcely  any  commensurate  return.  Just  as  the  spectator  look- 
ing at  the  solar  system  would  see  little  evidence  of  the  energy 
expressed  in  the  equilibrated  system  of  planets,  every  molecule  of 
which  is  brim-full  of  activity  in  balanced  condition,  so  looking 
at  the  brain  as  a  mechanism  for  mental  work,  we  find  it  set  on 
a  hair  trigger,  and  a  breath  on  an  eye-lash  is  adequate  stimulus 
to  liberate  vast  stores  of  readjusting  energy. 

All  the  various  discoveries  which  I  may  make,  as  a  neu- 
rologist viewing  my  neighbor's  brain,  and  all  the  observations  I 
make  as  a  psychologist  upon  the  reactions  to  stimuli  connected 
with  that  organism,  supplemented  by  the  study  of  the  defici- 
encies and  aberrations  resulting  from  extirpation  or  accidental 


210  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

removal  of  more  or  less  of  the  mechanism,  go  simply  to  show 
that,  beyond  question,  his  physiological  activities  closely  re- 
semble my  own  and  I  am  driven  to  conclude  that  he  has  feelings 
like  mine.  This  inference  is  substantiated  as  fully  as  any  mere 
inference  can  be  and  is  the  foundation  on  which  the  adjustment 
of  all  social  activities  is  made. 

A  music  director  expends  enormous  sums  to  import  from 
Europe  a  man  who  is  able  to  cause  thirty  or  forty  other  men  to 
move  horse-hair  bows  and  metallic  reeds  and  columns  of  air  in 
certain  prearranged  fashions,  and  invites  thousands  of  other 
people  to  pay  large  sums  to  attend  the  resulting  commotion  of 
air,  because  he  feels  sure  that  by  such  antics  as  these  the  spirit- 
ual ideas  of  the  profoundest  masters  of  human  emotions  may  be 
reproduced  in  the  souls  of  the  thousands  of  listening  individuals. 
And,  making  certain  necessary  allowances,  and  within  narrow 
limits,  he  is  correct.  If  there  is  anything  that  can  be  said  to  be 
known,  it  is  this :  when  a  cortical  complex  in  the  brain  of  one 
man  is  caused  to  react  in  a  certain  way,  the  consciousness  of 
that  individual  will  be  affected  in  a  way  closely  similar  to  that 
in  which  a  similiar  cortical  disturbance  in  another  man  will  re- 
act. To  say  that  the  brain  does  not  affect  the  mind  is  to  talk 
nonsense,  and  no  one  really  believes  such  a  statement,  or  else  it 
is  to  talk  the  most  recondite  metaphysics  and  the  statement  stands 
badly  in  need  of  interpretation. 

Yet  we  still  admit,  nay  assert,  that  the  psychical,  as  psychical 
is  sni generis,  entirely  other  from  and  non-commensurable  with 
any  physical  process.  Let  us  take  some  crude  illustrations  : 

Here  is  a  thing  .   .   .  yonder  is  the  picture  of  it. 

Here  is  a  man  at  work  .   .   .  yonder  is  the  time  book. 

Here  is  a  rifle  ball  moving  .   .   .  yonder  is  its  locus  formula. 

Here  is  an  act  of  perception  .   .   .  yonder  is  a  representation 

formed  by  it. 

Let  us  attempt  to  apply  the  idea.  A  sensation  is  produced,  then 
another  and  another.  These  leave  behind  them  altered  condi- 
tions of  equilibrium.  It  is  not  so  much  that  in  two  cells  or  com- 
plexes a  vestige,  in  terms  of  structural  alteration,  has  been  left, 
but  it  is  better  expressed  that  among  the  streams  of  interblend- 
ing  forces  in  this  equilibrium,  one  stream  or  line  of  communi- 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  21 1 

cation  has  been  reinforced.  After  a  frequent  repetition  of  this 
upsetting  of  the  equilibrium  there  results  a  permanent  distortion 
in  the  form,  so  that,  in  the  long  run,  as  a  result  of  experience, 
education,  etc.,  no  single  stimulus  can  gain  admission  to  the 
sensorium  without  reawakening  and  bringing  with  it  a  perfect 
rain  of  associated  activities,  or  perhaps  better,  the  curve  repre- 
senting the  trajectory  of  the  new  intruder  to  consciousness  is 
one  made  up  of  the  contribution  from  without  and  the  vastly 
greater  contribution  from  within. 

Thus  our  field  of  knowledge  of  the  external  world  gains  in 
complexity  and  there  is  presented  to  consciousness  with  every 
color,  sound,  or  feeling,  a  panorama  already  interpreted  and 
elaborated  in  which  the  new  presentation  is  placed  with  relations 
of  all  kinds  to  the  complex. 

This  fabric  of  the  imagination  is  the  external  world.  The 
new  presentation  may  be  a  line  in  the  spectrum  with  a  certain 
position  and  color.  The  observer  proceeds  to  imagine  a  new 
element  in  the  sun  with  certain  physical  properties  and,  later  on, 
it  may  be,  he  identifies  the  same  element  on  the  earth.  The 
educated  imagination  has  thus  vindicated  itself. 

Now  which  is  the  reality  in  my  subjective  furnishing?  But 
stay,  we  are  not  yet  ready  for  this  question.  It  is  conceivable 
that  one  might  by  sufficiently  delicate  processes  of  investigation 
detect  the  vestigial  *  structural '  or  dynamic  changes  in  the 
brain  or  in  the  force  complex  which  it  represents,  resulting  from 
experience,  and  thus  make  these  objective  to  me  in  the  case  of 
my  neighbor  and  by  transferring  the  results  to  self,  as  one 
would  be  abundantly  justified  in  doing,  conceive  of  identical 
residual  furnishing  in  his  own  mental  home.  But  even  so,  this 
is  something  different  from  the  experiencing  of  these  changes 
or  of  thinking  things  in  terms  of  the  phenomenal  world. 

Then  the  doing  or  the  thinking  is  the  thing,  and  the  phan- 
tasmagoria called  the  external  world  is  relative  or  unreal?  No, 
not  at  all.  To  attempt  to  discriminate  the  thinking  from  the 
thought,  the  doing  from  what  is  done  is  folly.  This  hair  ab- 
solutely refuses  to  be  split.  The  reality  consists  in  thinking  a 
thing  —  of  affirmation  of  attribute  —  of  union  of  subject  and 
object. 


212  C.  L.  HERRI  CK. 

We  as  souls  are  indissolubly  connected  with  the  rest  of  the 
universe  and  there  is  no  use  attempting  to  sever  what  God 
has  united.  Finally,  therefore,  we  perhaps  see  that  the  psychi- 
cal differs  from  the  physical  as  the  result  of  a  logical  analysis 
which  is  possible  by  reason  of  our  limitation.  So  long  as  indi- 
viduality shuts  us  up  to  one  point  in  consciousness,  and  so  long 
as  consciousness  seems  to  require  equilibrated  energy  as  a  con- 
dition of  its  unity,  so  long  this  distinction  of  subjective  (psychi- 
cal) from  objective  (physical)  will  remain  in  force  and  will  be 
to  us  the  most  vital  of  all  distinctions. 

This  is,  you  may  say,  a  point  of  view  simply.  To  this  we 
answer,  in  one  sense,  yes ;  but,  from  the  standpoint  of  pure 
philosophy,  it  is  the  discrimination  of  attribute  from  essence. 
So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  this  distinction  is  vital,  but  in  my 
consideration  of  other  men  it  has  no  significance  at  all.  But 
surely  other  men  have  cousciousness.  Yes,  and  they  doubtless 
discriminate  subjective  from  objective  (their  essence  from  attri- 
bute), but  men  cannot  be  at  the  same  time  subjective  and  objec- 
tive, and  that  they  are  other  men  makes  them  objective  to  me. 

What  then  of  the  souls  of  other  men?  We  escape  from 
psychology  when  we  ask  this  question  for,  by  the  prevailing 
definition,  other  men  can  have  no  souls.  It  is  a  curious  ab- 
surdity growing  out  of  the  restrictive  attitude  of  modern  sciences 
whose  hedges  have  grown  so  high  that  the  workers  can  see  only 
their  own  little  plot  of  ground,  forgetting  that  the  same  free  air 
of  heaven  blows  over  all  —  it  is  a  curious  absurdity  we  say, 
growing  out  of  the  restriction  of  psyche  to  consciousness  that 
there  can  be  a  psychology  only  of  my  individual  experience  and 
such  a  thing  as  a  general  science  of  psychology  is  impossible. 
The  result  is  that  what  is  now  called  psychology  is  a  composite 
of  neural  physiology  and  non-related  tags  and  scraps  from  indi- 
vidual consciousness. 

Relying  on  the  belief  in  the  underlying  unity  of  energy,  we 
may  attempt  to  explore  a  region  where,  apparently,  angels  have 
feared  to  tread  and  offer  suggestions  toward  a  -psycho-mechanic. 

II. 

Our  work  so  far  has  accomplished  one  result  (let  us  hope) 
which  should  lighten  the  task  of  construing  the  conscious  life 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  213 

in  connection  with  what  is  termed  ordinary  physical  manifesta- 
tions ;  it  has,  namely,  shown  that  the  physical  and  the  psychi- 
cal inhere  in  one  reality,  an  activity.  If  the  energist  be  correct 
in  viewing  the  phenomena  of  the  physical  universe  as  manifes- 
tations of  various  phases  of  one  universal,  indestructible  but 
convertible  energy,  and  if  psychology  be  correct  in  asserting 
that  all  mental  states  are  acts,  and,  furthermore,  if  we  are  not 
so  blinded  by  prejudice  as  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  overwhelming 
evidence  of  the  interaction  of  these  two  sorts  of  activities  (a  fact 
more  certain  than  any  other  whatever)  then  we  are  driven  to  con- 
clude that  body  and  mind  are  phases  of  one  reality  — that  con- 
sciousness is  not  unrelated  to  gravitation,  but  is  a  part  of  the 
same  universe  of  activity. 

This  as  an  abstract  statement  would  give  rise  to  few  diffi- 
culties, but  when  it  comes  to  the  fact  of  our  personal  conscious- 
ness, this  event  seems  unlike  any  other  which  we  picture  to  our- 
selves as  taking  place  in  the  world  at  large.  It  comes  home  to 
me  as  something  intimate  and  self-acting  —  as  myself,  an  ac- 
tivity sui  generis.  This  contrasted  condition  of  out-there-ness, 
which  we  feel  in  connection  with  an  objectivized  experience,  as 
against  the  I-here-ness  of  subjectivity,  is  a  necessary  result  of 
individuality. 

But  we  believe  that  every  other  individual  has  this  same 
kind  of  consciousness  and  yet  his  *  I-here-ness '  becomes  '  out- 
there-ness  '  to  me.  This  distinction  is,  therefore,  in  this  sense, 
a  point  of  view,  not  a  difference  in  form  of  activity. 

Here  arises  a  difficulty.  A  view-point  presupposes  a  view- 
ing subject.  How  are  we  to  form  any  concept  of  such  a  sub- 
ject? Is  it  not  simplest  to  follow  illustrious  example  and  say 
frankly  that  this  subject  is  a  soul,  of  which  we  know  nothing 
except  that  we  are  it  f  But,  inasmuch  as  it  is  possible  or  neces- 
sary for  us  to  abstract  from  it  any  quality  of  which  we  can  form 
an  objective  concept,  the  soul  represents  simply  the  residuum 
after  such  objectivization,  an  empty  capacity  for  being  —  some- 
thing back  of  all  that  we  ever  did  or  experienced,  our  own  suf- 
ficient reason. 

To  this  result  we  are  not,  as  dynamic  monists,  exactly 
driven,  though  we  agree  with  the  conventional  conclusion  that 


214  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

I  am  a  soul.  We  differ  in  being  unwilling  to  discard  all  the 
realities  of  existence  in  defining  the  soul.  If  we  were  obliged 
to  use  the  postulate  of  matter  our  quest  would  end  here  for  it 
has  appeared  evident  to  all  philosophic  minds  from  the  earliest 
times  that  the  soul  cannot  be  material. 

For  our  present  point  of  view  this  difficulty  is  removed  and 
only  one  prepossession  or  preliminary  concept  is  necessary,  viz., 
that  the  mechanism  of  consciousness  is  dynamic.  Only  on  this 
presumption  can  psychical  phenomena  be  linked  to  the  world 
of  experience.  Another  attribute  of  the  soul  is  at  once  recog- 
nized—  it  is  an  indivisible  continuum  and  is  simple.  We  need 
not  take  into  account  subconscious  *  psychical '  activities.  Non- 
psychical  psychical  activities  may  have  a  meaning  to  a  certain 
kind  of  mind,  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  inducement  could  be 
offered  such  a  mind  to  study  psychology. 

Consciousness  is  unitary  yet  it  is  wonderfully  complex.  It 
is  conceivable  that  the  whole  magnificent  panorama  of  nature 
might  be  reflected  upon  it  if  our  sensory  apparatus  were  com- 
plete enough  and  yet  the  resultant  at  any  given  time  would  be 
a  unit  of  consciousness.  This  is  not  a  fact  of  introspection 
merely.  Its  philosophical  necessity  is  bound  up  in  the  concept 
of  individuality. 

One  may  picture  to  himself  a  mechanism  of  cortical  cells  at 
the  end  of  a  series  of  *  projection  systems '  as  complex  as  pos- 
sible, and  imagine  every  cortical  cell  in  ceaseless  activity. 
These  subconscious  phenomena  might  be  as  complex  as 
possible  but  consciousness  is  always  one.  On  the  material 
hypothesis  the  one-ness  of  consciousness  led  anatomists  and 
physiologists  to  postulate  some  center  —  some  pineal  gland  — 
where  all  the  various  activities  should  impinge  on  some  one  ele- 
ment. As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  concept  serves  but  to  increase 
the  difficulties.  What  is  the  use  of  all  the  complicated  mechan- 
ism if  all  the  changes  have  to  be  transmitted  to  one  cell  or  cell- 
group?  Either  that  cell  group  is  marvelously  complex  and 
mirrors  the  complexities  of  the  brain  at  large,  or  else  there  is 
some  unity,  not  material,  which  can  receive  all  these  various 
influences  and  convert  them  into  a  unitary  state  of  conscious- 
ness. Why  one  organ  should  be  necessary  in  order  to  bring 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  215 

the  complexity  to  bear  on  the  simple  nature  of  the  immaterial 
soul,  no  one  can  say. 

On  the  dynamic  view,  however,  we  readily  see  that  one 
condition  alone  corresponds  to  the  requirements  of  the  given 
phenomena  and  that  is  a  condition  of  equilibrium.  Diverse  proc- 
esses experience  a  unification  only  if  brought  into  equilibrium.1 
Such  a  condition  we  have  postulated. 

Before  attempting  to  apply  this  idea  let  us  examine  other 
dynamic  elements  in  the  hope  of  securing  illustrations  in  a  less 
complex  sphere.  In  a  uniform  medium,  as  has  abundantly 
been  shown,  the  only  condition  of  individuality  is  that  of  vector 
activity.  Vortex  rings  serve  as  illustrations.  The  discussion 
of  vortex  atoms  has  brought  out  this  peculiarity.  Two  forms  of 
activity  appeal  to  our  senses,  first,  progressive  or  translational 
or  molar,  second,  self-centered  or  vector  activities.  In  the  first 
case  the  point  is  conceived  as  moving  in  a  right  line  or  some 
other  progressive  manner  so  that  the  motion  is  indeterminate,  in 
the  second  case  the  motion  is  cyclical  and  the  center  of  refer- 
ence is  stable.  In  ordinary  parlance,  when  a  body  falls,  the 
motion  is  of  the  first  sort  but  when  brought  to  rest  the  motion  is 
transformed  into  the  second  state.  The  body  is  in  a  state  of 
rest  and  with  reference  to  adjacent  bodies  is  in  equilibrium. 

Vector  motions  have  a  remarkable  stabilizing  power,  as 
witness,  for  example,  the  gyroscope.  The  two  classes  of 
motion  have  been  called  molar  and  molecular  respectively  but 
this  perhaps  involves  too  large  a  hypothetical  step.  The  crude 
illustrations  used  may  serve  to  show  at  least  that  the  same  force 
may  have  a  conservative  power  in  one  phase  and  a  dispersive 
power  in  another.  But  let  one  take  the  still  simpler  illustration 
of  a  solenoid.  A  current  of  electricity  passing  through  a 
straight  wire  produces,  it  is  true,  an  induction  effect  on  the 
neighboring  metals  but  when  the  same  current  is  forced  to  pass 
through  a  spiral  path  the  complex  acquires  an  individuality  — 
it  is  polarized  as  a  whole  and  acts  as  a  magnet.  Similar 
solenoids  react  against  it  and  a  system  could  be  formed  from 
innumerable  solenoids  in  equilibrium  which  would  vary  with 
the  currents  sent  through  the  several  elements,  while  the  entire 

Baldwin's  Dictionary  of  Philosophy,  art.     'Brain,'  Functions,  I.,  p.  135. 


2l6  c.  L.  HERRICK. 

system  would  be  in  equilibrium  at  all  times.  While  it  is  not 
suggested  that  the  brain  cells  are  solenoids  or  anything  of  so 
crude  a  nature  as  that,  yet  it  is  believed  that  the  afferent  cur- 
rents passing  into  the  cortex  produce  in  more  or  fewer  of  the 
brain  cells  a  system  of  intrinsic  activities  which  react,  each 
with  each,  in  the  total  cortical  equilibrium  which  for  each  in- 
stant is  the  dynamic  aspect  of  a  state  of  consciousness  —  an  act 
of  mind.  The  whole  involved  activity,  now  more,  now  less,  at 
any  given  moment,  is  equilibrated  and  forms  a  self-centered 
process  of  unitary  nature.  The  structural  mechanism  of  the 
brain  is  an  uninterrupted  flux  of  activity  of  a  vital  character. 
Vital  activities  are  all  analogous,  rotational  or  vector,  we  might 
say  (for  illustration  solely),  as  contrasted  to  translational  or 
indeterminate  or  progressive  activities.  To  be  more  general, 
what  we  call  structure  is  evidence  of  statically  condensed  energy 
(energy  in  vector  states)  and  this  is  competent  to  enter  into  re- 
action with  afferent  impulses  and  convert  them  into  vector 
activities.  The  sum  of  the  equilibrated  activities  in  the  body 
forms  its  vital  continuum.  One  phase  of  the  equilibrated  con- 
tinuum is  the  activity  of  consciousness.  So  far  as  we  know, 
the  conscious  continuum  is  associated  with  the  total  vital  com- 
plex. It  is  not  proven  that  any  other  form  of  equilibrated  vector 
forces  is  capable  of  assimilating  the  afferent  stimuli  and  con- 
verting them  into  similar  terms  and  so  converting  them  into  a 
conscious  activity,  though  it  may  be  said  that  we  know  of 
nothing  to  the  contrary. 

To  return  to  our  problem,  what  then  is  the  highest  reality 
in  my  being?  To  me  it  is  doubtless  the  '  stream  of  conscious- 
ness '  which  constitutes  myself  as  known  to  myself.  But  even 
here  common  experience,  as  well  as  our  most  searching  analysis, 
shows  that  only  a  small  part  of  this  stream  is  resolvable  into 
elements  of  consciousness  which  are  capable  of  being  recog- 
nized as  such  in  present  experience. 

The  great  mass  of  dream  experience,  for  example,  fails  to 
affect  a  nexus  with  the  memory  complex  at  all,  and  what  we 
forget  of  each  day's  experience  is  vastly  more  than  what  we 
remember.  But  all  is  not  lost  that  has  disappeared.  The 
wood  has  disappeared  in  the  grate,  but  the  genial  warmth  per- 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  217 

vades  the  room,  invades  our  blood,  quickens  our  pulse,  awakens 
vital  action,  and  finally  is  wrought  into  the  history  of  our  lives. 
So  each  element  of  experience  is  wrought  into  the  sum  of  our 
life. 

The  precise  nature  of  my  conscious  reaction  upon  today's 
experience  depends  not  on  what  I  can  formally  recollect  of  past 
experience,  but  on  the  form  of  equilibrated  unity  which  is  the 
result  of  past  experience  in  its  progressive  reaction  upon  my 
nature. 

If  we  follow  the  prevailing  custom  and  accept  current  defi- 
nitions, the  soul  is  identical  with  the  stream  of  consciousness, 
i.  e.,  is  the  sum  of  conscious  activities.  We  shall  not  quarrel 
with  this  definition.  Psychology  is  the  science  of  conscious- 
ness. The  psyche  is  the  object  of  this  science  —  it  is  thought 
or  consciousness.  Very  well ;  gastrology  is,  let  us  say,  the  sci- 
ence of  stomachs  and  the  object  of  this  science  is  the  organ  or 
act  of  digestion.  The  suggestion  is  obvious.  Because  we,  in 
our  thinking,  can  analyze  human  activities  into  various  depart- 
ments and  think  of  them  separately  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
realities  back  of  these  departments  are  separate  or  independent. 

Because  thinking  is  a  very  important  part  of  human  activity 
and  can  be  made  the  subject  of  special  inquiry  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  there  is  a  thinking  agent  which  does  nothing  but  think. 
Do  we  come  perilously  near  the  idea  of  a  brain  that  secretes 
thought  as  a  liver  secretes  bile?  I  think  not,  but  our  peril  is 
lest  we  should  allow  perjudice  to  steer  us  away  from  the  nar- 
row course  marked  out  on  the  chart  of  truth. 

The  sanest  thinkers  have  always  included  in  the  idea  of  a 
soul  a  great  deal  more  than  thought  or  even  a  thinking  thing. 
Our  strict  modern  scientific  analysis  sees  the  necessity  for  draw- 
ing the  boundaries  between  the  adjacent  territories  of  thought 
very  closely,  but  very  frequently  forgets  that  in  nature  there  are 
no  such  boundaries. 

The  soul  is  a  metaphysical  concept  the  moment  it  becomes 
more  than  the  totality  of  the  stream  of  consciousness.  Lotze 
said  :  '  Sensations,  feelings,  and  acts  of  will  constitute  the  group 
of  familiar  facts  which  we  are  accustomed  to  designate,  though 
with  a  reservation  in  view  of  future  discoveries,  as  the  life  of 


2l8  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

the  soul.1  Here  was  a  careful  and  very  conservative  statement 
from  one  who  was  as  fully  aware  as  any  recent  psychologist  of  the 
intricacy  of  the  interrelations  between  psychology  and  meta- 
physics. But  the  definition  is  a  metaphysical  one.  *  A  pecu- 
liar being,  the  soul,  the  life  of  which  consisted  in  the  manifes- 
tations which  are  the  facts  of  psychology  —  such  was  the  con- 
ception. But  does  this  peculiar  being  do  nothing  else?  True, 
whatever  else  it  may  do  may  not  be  subject  matter  for  psychol- 
ogy, but  we  are  walking  with  seven-leagued  boots  and  care  noth- 
ing for  fences. 

If  our  work  so  far  has  been  valid,  we  cannot  fail  to  feel  that 
forcible  isolation  of  parts  which  belong  together  is  not  logical 
bad  faith  alone  but  subversive  to  reality.  '  Standing  in  relation  ' 
is  an  essental  thing  in  reality.  But  we  cannot  hope  to  form  a 
science  out  of  materials  which  are  isolated  from  all  others  by 
their  nature.  If  the  direct  and  disconnected  testimony  of  our 
subjectivity  is  to  be  the  basis  of  our  psychology  we  must  at  once 
give  up  the  undertaking.  In  other  words  the  content  of  sense 
must  be  objectivized  before  a  science  is  possible.  This  content, 
after  being  construed  in  apperceptive  relations,  is  our  material. 
The  acts  of  thought,  as  such,  are  not  available  material  for  sci- 
ence, but  only  what  we  think  of  them,  the  predicaments  of  our 
thinking,  or  the  affirmation  of  attribute  applied  to  these  elements. 

This  seems  a  curious  and  contradictory  result.  After  labo- 
riously reaching  the  apparent  conclusion  that  the  act  of  thinking 
is  the  psychological  verity,  to  deny  that  these  acts  can  be  used, 
as  such,  in  our  science.  But  it  is,  when  we  rightly  consider  the 
matter,  only  what  we  might  have  expected,  for  all  science  is 
objective  and  is  organized  knowledge.  We  must  be  content  to 
view  all  psychological  processes  from  the  outside.  The  moment 
we  attempt  to  compare  two  processes  or  acts  of  consciousness, 
they  become  objective.  In  this  sense  the  subjective  is  always 
epiphenomenal  to  science,  which  must  rest  content  with  her 
equilibriums  and  her  algebraic  expressions  therefor.  If  any 
dynamic  view  be  accepted  and  admitting  the  best  known  fact  of 
all,  /.  £.,  the  effect  of  mind  on  body  and  body  on  mind,  we 
recognize  that  the  unity  of  soul  and  body  is  an  organic  one. 
This  is  LIFE.  Lotze  spoke  of  the  life  of  the  soul.  Plain,  every 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  219 

day  common  sense  recognizes  life  as  including  every  phase  of 
activity  from  core  to  periphery  in  human  activity  and  we  should 
beware  of  laches  of  common  sense. 

*  Life '  shares  with  '  soul '  the  role  of  mystery  in  science. 
We  saw  that  in  the  construction  of  equilibrium  rendered  neces- 
sary by  the  unity  of  consciousness  it  was  necessary  to  make  the 
psychical  equilibrium  part  and  parcel  of  a  more  general  vital 
equilibrium.  A  center  of  vector  energy  in  a  world  of  energy 
cannot  fail  to  wrap  itself  up  in  parts  of  the  extraneous  energy, 
for  this  is  of  the  very  nature  of  resistance,  just  as  a  revolving 
wheel  attaches  to  itself  more  or  less  of  the  mud  through  which 
it  passes,  causing  currents  therein  and  counter  revolutions 
whereby  balls  of  revolving  mud  fly  in  all  directions  as  parts  of 
a  system  of  which  the  hub  is  the  center.  One  moves  a  lever 
upon  a  friction  clutch  and  tooth  engages  wheel  and  band  moves 
upon  pulley,  till  the  whir  of  a  thousand  wheels  follows.  Could 
we  think  of  the  friction  pulley  as  gradually  creating  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  mill  out  of  existing  energy  in  resisting  phases,  as 
the  wheel  created  the  mud  cycles,  we  would  have  a  rough  im- 
age of  the  vital  organism. 

But  do  you  mean  that  my  foot  is  part  of  my  soul?  Yes,  I 
mean  that  the  vital  activities  in  my  foot  form  part  of  my  vital 
equilibrium  and,  in  so  far  as  these  contain  conscious  partici- 
pants in  the  stream  of  consciousness,  they  form  part  of  the  soul. 
But  if  I  amputate  a  foot  do  I  mutilate  a  soul  ?  Certainly,  though 
it  may  be  better  to  enter  into  life  maimed  than  to  retain  a  foot 
and  go  elsewhere.  By  cutting  off  a  finger  a  child's  soul  may 
be  maimed  of  musical  faculty.  There  are  organs,  the  amputa- 
tion of  which  affects  the  entire  character  for  life,  and  one  does 
not  willingly  dispense  with  the  frontal  lobes  even  if  he  does  not 
know  precisely  what  purpose  they  serve. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  to  add  to  the  sphere  of  the 
vital  activities,  as  when  I  place  spectacles  upon  my  nose  or 
apply  my  hand  to  the  throttle  of  a  locomotive.  Where  then  is 
the  limit  of  self?  It  is  not  for  me  to  draw  it.  I  will  not  cut  the 
narrow  isthmus  of  flesh  which  connects  me  with  my  twin  —  the 
universe.  The  ancients  believed  that  the  eye  shot  out  rays  to 
grasp  the  objects  of  the  visual  world.  What  tentacula  has  not 


220  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

modern  science  produced  extending  from  all  our  organs  to  the 
phenomenal  world? 

But  if  we  may  not  define  the  outer  limits  of  the  individual 
life,  do  we  not  destroy  individuality?  Only  seemingly,  for  we 
need  not  despair  of  locating  its  center  because  the  periphery  of 
its  sphere  of  activity  is  indeterminate.  The  leaven  of  life  may 
be  small,  but,  given  time  and  appropriate  conditions,  it  will 
leaven  the  whole  lump. 

Our  analogy  of  the  vector  motions  carried  out  would  lead  to 
the  conclusion  that  wherever  such  a  center  originated  it  would 
tend  to  assimilate  to  itself  all  such  activities  as  are  capable  of 
offering  resistance  to  it  and  would,  by  virtue  of  the  form  or 
mode  of  its  activity,  cause  allied  activities  to  accumulate  in  har- 
monious adjustment  about  it,  enlarging,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
intensifying  the  energy  in  the  original  equilibrium. 

Disturbances  of  this  equilibrium  there  will  be,  but  it  will  be 
one  of  the  hardest  things  to  exterminate  we  can  imagine,  for  it 
is  intrenched  in  one  of  the  most  recondite  energic  conditions  of 
the  universe.  Seed  may  be  dried  for  years  in  the  tombs  but  it 
will  still  germinate.  No  persecution  ever  succeeded  in  stamp- 
ing out  a  vital  truth.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  humanity 
has  enduring  faith  in  a  life  eternal,  but  this  is  not  the  life  of  the 
soul,  if  by  the  soul  we  mean  the  *  stream  of  consciousness.'  In 
so  far  as  our  life,  as  a  whole,  fits  into  the  complicated  sphere 
of  the  universal  life  it  will  be  imperishable.  Maimed  and 
crippled,  it  may  be,  we  crawl  over  the  threshold  of  one  world 
into  the  fresh  glory  of  another,  but  if  the  life  be  really  there,  it 
will  have  no  difficulty  in  assimilating  to  itself  a  body  fit  for  its 
use,  as  the  acorn  finds  its  own  body  in  the  crevices  of  the  rock 
and  builds  it  forth  in  strict  accordance  with  the  pattern  set  in 
the  peculiarities  of  its  own  vital  equilibrium. 

We  need  not  look  for  pangens,  biophores,  gemmules,  micel- 
lae and  the  like  in  our  study  of  heredity,  or  if  we  find  them,  we 
shall  regard  them  as  visible  manifestations  in  some  temporary 
form  of  types  of  equilibrated  energy,  vortices  of  specialized 
activity,  specific  in  its  form.  The  newt  will  grow  a  new  leg. 
It  is  possible  that  the  leg  might  grow  a  new  newt  if  we  were 
able  to  keep  the  conditions  favorable,  just  as  a  branch  may 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  221 

grow  a  new  tree.  There  is  nothing  so  violently  incongruous 
as  might  appear  in  the  childish  planting  of  nail  parings  in  the 
hope  of  raising  a  crop  of  men. 

Our  point  is  that  the  type. of  equilibrium  is  impressed  on  the 
part  as  the  energy  of  the  part  is  reflected  upon  the  whole.  Ger- 
minative  elements,  or  seeds,  are  special  adaptations  to  this  end 
but  every  vital  part  may  share  to  some  extent  in  this  property.1 

III. 

Historical  Notes.  —  It  is  not  worth  while  to  attempt  a  resume 
of  the  history  of  opinion  as  to  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  it  will 
serve  our  purpose  to  review  very  briefly  the  more  recent  utter- 
ances in  this  matter.  Among  these  recent  utterances  are  those 
which  from  anthropological  data  undertake  to  voice  the  earliest 
ideas  of  dualism  between  soul  and  body,  ascribing  this  concep- 
tion first  to  the  phenomena  of  dreams  and  memory  (Spencer) 
and,  second,  to  the  sense  of  voluntary  originative  or  initiative 
power  within  ourselves  (Schurman,  etc.). 

The  polyanimism  of  primitive  peoples  was  not  so  very  dif- 

1  On  the  day  following  the  writing  of  this  paragraph  the  following  memo- 
randum, published  by  Professor  W.  E.  Ritter  in  the  American  Naturalist  under 
date  of  November,  1903,  reached  the  writer  :  "At  the  May  meeting,  this  year, 
of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Science  Miss  Sarah  P.  Monks  read  a  note  on 
'  The  Regeneration  of  the  Body  of  a  Starfish  '  .  .  .  I  quote  from  this  report ;  '  In 
studying  regeneration  on  Phatria  (Linckia]  fascialis  she  had  cut  arms  at  differ- 
ent distances  from  the  disc,  and  a  number  of  the  single  rays  produced  new 
bodies.  The  free  ray  produced  a  new  body  and  the  rest  of  the  starfish  produced 
a  new  ray  ..."  Miss  Monks  is  to  be  congratulated  on  having  at  last  produced 
the  experimental  evidence  demanded  by  the  skepticism  of  recent  writers  on  the 
soundness  of  Haeckel's  conclusion  reached  long  ago  that  *  jeder  abgeloster  Arm 
reproducirt  die  ganzen  Scheibe  nebst  den  iibrige  Armen,'  Zeitschr.  wiss.  Zool., 
Bd.  30. 

In  a  paper  on  '  Physiological  Corollaries  of  the  Equilibrium  Theory  of  Ner- 
vous Action  and  Control '  published  in  the  Journal  of  Comparative  Neurology, 
Vol.  VIII.,  No.  i,  1898,  many  of  the  ideas  expressed  in  this  paper  were  hinted 
at,  e.  g.,  pp.  26-27  :  "  From  the  above  it  may  be  gathered  that  the  ground  of 
mutual  reaction  (between  protoplasmic  and  nervous  forces)  may  be  sought  in 
the  fundamental  similarity  of  the  two  processes,  or  rather  in  the  close  relation 
between  the  processes  of  waste  and  repair  lying  at  the  foundation  of  both.  It 
is  necessary  to  suppose,  accordingly,  that  the  central  nervous  system  is  contin- 
uously affected  by  the  vital  phenomena  at  large  as  truly  as  that  the  vascular 
system  is  under  the  control  of  the  nervous  system."  Other  passages  of  like 
tenor  will  indicate  the  bearing  of  the  present  theory  for  the  neurologist. 


222  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

ferent,  in  result,  from  the  highly  philosophical  concept  of  a  soul 
in  all  things ;  in  the  inanimate  world  as  a  principle  or  ground  of 
phenomena,  in  form  or  attribute ;  while,  in  the  animate  objects 
it  became  the  principle  of  life,  of  sensibility,  and  of  motion. 

It  is  perhaps  correct  to  say  that  we  have  never  risen  higher 
than  some  early  expressions  of  this  idea  and  have  often  sunk 
immeasurably  below  it.  With  the  early  church  fathers,  Turtul- 
lian,  St.  Irseneus,  and  St.  Justin,  the  soul  was  a  thinner  kind  of 
body.  Plato  and  St.  Augustine,  to"  be  sure,  recognized  the  soul 
as  immaterial,  but  were  led  to  a  dualism  which  set  up  a  conflict 
between  body  and  soul  as  unfortunate  as  it  was  immoral. 

To  Descartes  we  owe  the  limitation  of  the  soul  to  immaterial, 
invisible  thought,  reducing  its  content  to  thought  alone  and 
assigning  its  activity  solely  to  the  intellectual  world  of  ideas. 
This  distinction,  once  made,  has  taken  firm  hold  on  psychology 
to  this  day,  although  the  phenomena  of  sensibility  have  been 
restored  to  the  soul. 

There  has  been  a  tendency  of  late  to  renew  the  concept  that 
the  soul  includes  the  functions  of  animal  life  and  even  the  phy- 
siological functions  of  the  human  body.  This  is  animism  as 
opposed  to  vitalism  and  the  view  presented  here  must  not  be 
confused  with  an  animism  which  does  not  recognize  the  dis- 
tinction between  consciousness  and  all  other  phenomena,  nor 
yet  with  a  vitalism  which  manufactures  a  vital  principle  distinct 
from  but  somehow  coordinated  with  the  soul.  Dynamic  monism 
recognizes  both  manifestations  in  a  synthesis  of  equilibrated 
energy  which  is  capable  of  expressing  itself  in  vital  attractions 
and  repulsions  as  well  as  in  apperceptive  coordinations. 

A  conservative  position  taken  by  perhaps  a  majority  of 
recent  writers  of  psychologies  is  well  expressed  by  Compayre, 
as  follows :  "The  great  number  of  contradictory  conceptions 
of  the  soul,  considered  by  some  as  the  principle  of  thought 
alone,  by  others  as  a  principle  that  feels,  thinks  and  wills,  and 
by  still  others  as  the  sole  cause  of  life  and  thought,  suffice  to 
show  how  very  necessary  it  is  to  postpone,  if  not  entirely  to 
waive,  the  obscure  and  controverted  question  of  the  nature  of 
the  soul." 

That  the  statement  of  the  limitation  of  the  sphere  of  psy- 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  223 

chology  by  recent  writers  to  the  stream  of  consciousness  is  not 
misleading  may  be  gathered  from  such  a  passage  as  the  follow- 
ing from  Titchener's  Outline  of  Psychology :  "The  psycholo- 
gist can  accept  this  definition  (of  psychology  as  the  science  of 
mind)  ...  if  *  mind '  is  understood  to  mean  simply  the  sum 
total  of  mental  processes  experienced  by  the  individual  in  his 
lifetime."  "  The  question  :  Is  there  anything  behind  the  men- 
tal process,  any  permanent  mind?  and,  if  there  is,  what  is  its 
nature? — -is  a  question  which  is  well  worth  while  to  answer 
but  it  is  not  a  question  that  can  be  raised  by  psychology.  Psy- 
chology sees  in  mind  nothing  more  than  the  whole  sum  of 
mental  processes  experienced  in  a  single  lifetime." 

How  artificial  this  distinction  is  cannot  fail  to  be  apparent. 
It  is  like  erecting  a  science  of  shadows  in  which  it  is  forbidden 
to  refer  any  shadow  to  the  object  that  cast  it.  Yet  there  is  a 
science  of  shadows  and  this  science,  if  correctly  builded,  will 
be  found  to  correspond,  part  for  part,  variation  for  variation, 
with  the  objects  casting  the  shadows.  But  there  is  a  real  fallacy 
here.  It  seems  to  be  assumed,  by  Titchener,  and  probably  by 
the  rest  of  us  when  trying  to  talk  this  language,  that  since  con- 
sciousness is  something  sui generis  by  reason  of  its  subjectivity, 
we  must  not  disturb  that  attribute  nor  admit  into  our  psychology 
any  other  element.  But  this  shadow  refuses  to  be  caught. 
As  subjective,  we  can't  create  the  facts  of  experience  into  a 
science.  The  data  of  science  are  necessarily  objective.  A 
science  of  pure  consciousness  is  forever  impossible.  Somebody 
else's  consciousness  is  not  subjective  and  we  cannot  use  our 
own  data  of  consciousness  in  science  till  they  are  objectivized. 
More  specifically,  neither  in  the  case  of  another  or  of  myself, 
when  I  begin  to  follow  the  natural  course  of  mental  synthesis, 
do  I  revive  the  actual  states  of  consciousness,  nor  do  the  ele- 
ments of  the  synthesis  I  conceive  of  actually  exist  in  conscious- 
ness. My  best  efforts  produce  only  an  algebra  of  conscious- 
ness purely  objective. 

The  monist  contends,  says  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  "that,  alike 
on  its  biological  and  in  its  physiological  aspect,  the  organism  is  a 
product  of  evolution ;  that  mind  is  not  extranatural  nor  supra- 
natural,  but  one  of  the  aspects  of  natural  existence."  "What 


224  C.  L.  HER  RICK. 

is  practically  given  is  the  man ;  and  the  man  is  one  and  indi- 
visible, though  he  may  be  polarized  in  analysis  into  a  bodily 
aspect  and  a  conscious  aspect."  "  Body  and  mind  are  distin- 
guishable but  not  separable." 

Opposed  to  this  view  of  monism  are  two  extremes  —  mate- 
rialism on  the  one  hand,  according  to  which  the  body  is  the 
real  substance  and  the  mind  one  of  its  properties,  and  spiritual- 
ism, on  the  other,  which  states  with  Charles  Kingsley  that 
'your  soul  makes  your  body  as  a  snail  makes  its  shell.' 
Dynamic  monism  reconciles  these  extremes  by  showing  that 
body  and  mind  are  expressions  of  one  life. 

Compare  the  above  with  such  statements  as  the  following  : 
"  What  mind  is  in  itself  is  a  question  that  lies  outside  of  psy- 
chology and  belongs  to  philosophy.  ...  It  may,  however,  be 
said  that  some  idea  of  mind  as  a  unity,  which  holds  together 
and  combines  the  several  states  of  what  we  call  psychical 
phenomena,  is  a  necessary  assumption  or  presumption  in  psy- 
chology." "We  must  always  think  of  mind  as  attended  by, 
and  in  some  inexplicable  way,  related  to,  the  living  organism, 
and  more  particularly,  the  nervous  system  and  its  actions."  .  .  . 
"The  perception  of  difference  at  all  is  something  distinctly 
mental,  not  to  be  explained,  therefore,  by  any  reference  to 
nervous  changes.  No  sound  psychology  is  possible  which  does 
not  keep  in  view  this  fundamental  disparity  of  the  physical  and 
psychical.  .  .  ."  (Sully.) 

Consciousness  is  "the  common  and  necessary  form  of  all 
mental  states  ...  it  is  the  point  of  division  between  mind  and 
not-mind."  (Baldwin.} 

"  For  all  psychological  purposes  this  (the  relation  between 
mind  and  body)  must  be  regarded  as  a  relation  of  interaction. 
.  .  .  Now  when  we  come  to  the  direct  connection  between  a 
nervous  process  and  a  correlated  conscious  process,  we  find  a 
complete  solution  of  continuity.  The  two  processes  have  no 
common  factor.  Their  connection  lies  entirely  outside  our 
total  knowledge  of  physical  nature  on  one  hand  and  of  con- 
scious processes  on  the  other.  .  .  .  No  reason  in  the  world  can 
be  assigned  why  the  change  produced  in  the  gray  pulpy  sub- 
stance of  the  cortex  by  light  of  a  certain  wave-length  should  be 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  225 

accompanied  by  the  sensation  red.  .  .  .  It  is  equally  unintelli- 
gible that  a  state  (sic)  of  volition  should  be  followed  by  a 
change  in  the  substance  of  the  cortex  and  so  immediately  by 
the  contraction  of  a  muscle."  (Stout.) 

Such  confusion  of  ideas  as  the  above  ramifies  the  whole  of 
modern  psychological  literature  and  produces  a  feeling  of  hope- 
lessness. When  conscious  processes  are  set  over  against  phys- 
ical processes  and  the  two  are  stated  to  be  incommensurable 
and  incapable  of  reaction  in  the  next  breath  after  a  statement 
that  '  for  all  psychological  purposes  the  relation  of  mind  and 
body  must  be  regarded  as  one  of  interaction  '  it  seems  hopeless 
to  expect  clear  analysis  in  any  department  of  psychology. 

This  is  much  as  though  one  would  say  "  The  concept  of 
greenness,  which  I  at  present  have,  is  not  capable  of  being  re- 
fracted by  a  prism  and  therefore  is  an  entirely  different  process 
from  a  wave  of  red  light."  Or  "  The  degree  of  curvature  of  an 
ellipse  is  not  a  commensurable  process  with  the  velocity  of  the 
planet  describing  that  orbit." 

If  dynamic  monism  is  correct,  the  acting  in  a  certain  way  is 
a  condition  of  thought,  just  as  acting  in  another  way  is  a  con- 
dition of  muscular  contraction.  The  series  of  acts  is  continuous 
and  what  we  can  deduce  by  abstract  thinking  as  to  the  peculi- 
arities or  properties  of  these  several  forms  of  activities  is  not  to 
be  placed  in  the  same  genetic  chain  as  the  things  we  think  about 
them.  We  are  (that  is  our  life  is  made  up  of)  the  sum  of  what 
we  do.  It  is  possible  to  think  the  experiences  of  doing  apart 
from  the  doing  of  them  because  the  doing  of  each  act,  a  simple 
perception  for  example,  leaves  the  equilibrium  complex  perman- 
ently altered  —  produces  back  eddies  beside  the  *  wave  of  con- 
sciousness.' These  changes  express  themselves  in  *  psycho- 
logical or  interpretative  '  rather  than  '  psychic '  or  realizable 
terms  and  we  should  not  attempt  to  interpolate  from  the  formal 
into  the  real  series  nor  vice  versa.  See  Baldwin's  discussion 
of  genetic  modes  in  his  Development  and  Evolution,  Chap.  XIX. 
The  two  things  are  not  things  in  the  same  sense  and  it  should 
not  surprise  us  that  they  do  not  fit  in  a  causal  nexus  nor  should 
we  seek  such  nexus.  It  is  absurd  as  it  would  be  if  in  a  machine 
we  should  attempt  in  one  place  to  fit  a  shadow  instead  of  the  cog 
required.  Yet  a  shadow  is  a  real  thing. 


226  C.  L.  HERRICK. 

Professor  Stout's  regret  that  '  no  reason  in  the  world  can  be 
given '  for  redness  in  consciousness  may  be  tempered  by  the 
fact  that  no  reason  in  the  world  can  be  given  for  any  physical 
ultimate  or  simple  fact.  It  is  curious  metaphysics  that  expects 
it.  An  occurrence  is  its  own  reason  and  there  can  be  no  other. 
Science  finds  uniformities  which  it  classifies  but  it  finds  no 
*  reason  '  for  its  '  laws.' 

Nevertheles  Stout  very  nearly  reaches  the  point  of  view  re- 
quired, for  in  criticising  materialism,  he  says:  "  Whatever 
plausability  it  (materialism)  possesses  arises  from  the  use,  or 
rather  misuse  of  the  word  function.  Digestion  is  the  function 
of  the  alimentary  canal.  .  .  .  The  objection  is  that  we  do  not 
make  the  two  things  the  same  by  applying  the  same  word  to 
them,  when  in  their  own  nature  they  are  radically  and  essentially 
different.  When  we  say  that  digestion  is  a  function  of  the 
stomach  we  mean  that  digestion  is  the  stomach  engaged  in  diges- 
tion .  .  .  but  if  we  describe  the  brain  at  work  there  is  no  need 
to  mention  consciousness  at  all,  and  in  naming  and  describing 
the  conscious  processes  there  is  no  need  to  mention  the  brain. 
The  function  of  the  brain  as  a  physiological  organ  is  to  move 
the  body ;  the  contraction  of  muscles  is  the  result  of  neural  im- 
pulses and  in  describing  it  we  have  to  mention  the  nervous  sys- 
tem, including  the  cortex  as  engaged  in  it.  But  the  processes 
of  consciousness  cannot  be  analyzed  or  resolved  into  such  proc- 
esses as  chemical  and  physical  changes  in  nerve  cells.  If 
consciousness  be  supposed  to  be  produced  by  the  nervous  proc- 
esses, the  production  is  simply  a  creation  out  of  nothing." 

It  were  easy  to  reply  that  all  this  is  pure  assumption.  We 
do  not  know  (as  it  is  agreed  by  a  certain  class  of  unscientific 
psychologists  to  claim)  that  all  the  energy  entering  the  brain  as 
afferent  currents  leaves  it  in  efferent  nervous  energy ;  in  fact, 
we  know  that  this  is  certainly  not  true.  We  do  not  find  phy- 
siological functions  for  all  parts  of  the  organs  and  have  no  right 
to  assert  that  nervous  energy  is  not  used  in  performing  all  sorts 
of  recondite  processes  which  somehow  serve  as  a  basis  for  psy- 
chical phenomena.  But  we  need  not  disturb  ourselves  about 
this  matter,  it  is  beside  the  point. 

The  fallacy  begins  in  talking  of  conscious  processes  as  con- 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL.  227 

trasted  to  other  processes  and  then  using  consciousness  as  an 
abstraction  aside  from  the  activity  and  discovering  that  it  is  then 
not  of  one  class  with  the  other  activities.  Our  author  says  that 
it  is  the  function  of  the  brain  to  move  the  body.  Very  well ;  we 
move  our  arms  in  a  complicated  set  of  *  wig-wag '  signals  which 
the  mind  of  the  observer  construes  into  a  message  of  certain  im- 
port. Is  this  result  of  the  movements  of  the  body  for  this  reason 
physiological  ?  In  the  brain  certain  other  movements  (of  energy) 
are  construed  in  apperceptive  terms  and  resulting  relations  con- 
stitute the  objective  content  of  psychology  (we  have  already  seen 
that  the  pure  experiences,  as  such,  can  form  no  part  of  science) 
and  we  call  this  resulting  system,  psychological.  If  the  body 
caused  the  wig-wagging  and  its  informing  symbolism  then,  in 
exactly  like  manner,  if  not  so  openly  and  rudely,  the  body 
caused  the  thought.  Both  are  manifestations  of  energy  from 
which  it  is  possible  to  abstract  certain  modes,  etc. 

We  claim  that  mind  or  consciousness  cannot  react  on  the 
body  because  the  two  are  incommensurable.  (Here  again  the 
difference  between  experience  which  is  psychic,  and  the  activi- 
ties concerned  are  objectively  considered.)  The  living  energy 
back  of  both  is  continuous  through  both,  but  the  appearance 
in  present  experience  called  consciousness  and  the  data  of  bodily 
action  also  converted  into  terms  of  experience  in  the  mind  form 
a  series  of  commensurables  because  like  in  kind. 

The  doctrine  of  psychophysical  parallelism,  so  commonly 
held  to-day,  might  doubtless  be  expressed  to  conform  to  the 
dynamic  hypothesis,  but,  in  fact,  it  is  not  usually  so  understood. 
Stout  says  truly  :  "  The  reason  of  the  connection  between  con- 
scious processes  and  the  correlated  nervous  processes  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  nervous  and  conscious  processes  themselves.  Both 
must  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  a  more  comprehensive  system 
of  conditions  and  it  is  within  the  system  as  a  whole  that  the 
reason  of  their  connection  is  to  be  sought.  .  .  .  We  must  further 
assume  that  the  material  system  in  its  totality  is  related  to  the 
material  world  in  its  totality  as  the  individual  consciousness  is 
related  to  nervous  processes  taking  place  in  the  cortex  of  the 
brctin.  .  .  .  The  explanation  of  psychophysical  parallelism  is 
ultimately  based  on  an  idealistic  view  of  material  phenomena. 


228  C.  L.  HERRICK. 

...  In  general  all  that  makes  matter  material  presupposes 
some  consciousness  which  takes  cognizance  of  it."  "  The  world 
of  material  phenomena  presupposes  a  system  of  immaterial 
agency.  In  this  immaterial  system  the  individual  conscious- 
ness originates."  (Manual  of  Psychology.} 

Hoeff ding's  criticism  of  Lotze  is  quite  to  the  point  here  and 
we  may  quote  the  former  author  in  support  of  the  dynamic  view  : 
"  We  have  no  right  to  take  mind  and  body  for  two  things  or 
substances  in  reciprocal  interaction.  We  are,  on  the  contrary, 
impelled  to  conceive  the  material  interaction  between  the  ele- 
ments composing  the  brain  and  nervous  system  as  an  outer 
form  of  the  inner  ideal  unity  of  consciousness.  What  we,  in 
our  inner  experience  become  conscious  of  as  thought,  feeling, 
and  resolution,  is  thus  represented  in  the  material  world  by  cer- 
tain material  processes  in  the  brain,  which  as  such  are  subjected 
to  the  law  of  the  persistence  of  energy,  although  this  law  can- 
not be  applied  to  the  relation  between  cerebral  and  conscious 
processes.  It  is  as  though  the  same  thing  were  said  in  two 
languages."  (Outlines  of  Psychology ,  p.  65.) 

SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTE. 

Of  the  strong  swing  of  the  pendulum  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated in  these  papers  during  the  last  few  years  evidence  is  fur- 
nished by  the  genetic  series  recently  issued  by  Professor  J. 
Mark  Baldwin  and  the  writings  of  the  so-called  Chicago  school. 
See  also  the  recent  writings  of  Royce  and  James. 

Moore  says  :  "  *  Life  '-experience  is  one  inclusive  activity  of 
which  consciousness  and  habit  —  the  psychical  and  the  physi- 
cal—  are  to  the  analysis,  constituent  functions."  This  is  inter- 
estingly akin  the  statement  we  made  above. 

Professor  Bawden,  has,  however,  made  this  view  more  ex- 
plicit than  any  recent  writer.  See  his  article,  'The  Functional 
Theory  of  Parallelism,'  Philos.  Review,  Vol.  XII.,  3.  "  Mind 
is  not  an  entity  behind  the  process  of  consciousness  in  an  organ- 
ism, it  is  that  process  itself.  Mind  is  just  as  truly  a  growth  as 
any  other  living  thing."  (Loc.  czl.9  p.  308.)  This  view  finds 
its  physiological  expression  in  the  equilibrium  theory  of  con- 
sciousness. (See  Baldwin's  Diet.  Philos.  and  Psych.,  Vol.  I., 
P-  I35-) 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  5.  July,  1907 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


STUDIES  FROM  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  LABORA- 
TORY OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO. 

COMMUNICATED  BY  PROFKSSOR  JAMBS  ROWLAND  ANGELA. 

THE   ROLE   OF   THE   TYMPANIC   MECHANISM   IN    AuoixiON.1 

BY  W.  V.  D.  BINGHAM. 

This  paper  reports  a  case  of  a  person  who  enjoys  good 
hearing  in  spite  of  the  destruction  of  the  *  sound-conducting ' 
mechanism  of  both  ears.  When  she  first  came  under  our 
observation,  in  the  summer  of  1906,  her  auditory  acuity  was 
such  that  a  group  of  acquaintances  who  had  been  her  constant 
associates  for  several  weeks  had  not  suspected  any  auditory 
impairment;  and  at  the  present  time,  although  the  condition  of 
her  hearing  is  not  as  good  as  it  was  then,  it  is  still  acute  enough 
to  enable  her  to  carry  efficiently  forward  her  work  as  a  teacher. 

The  statement  that  efficient  hearing  is  still  possible  after 
both  drum  membranes  have  been  destroyed  and  the  larger 
ossicles  removed  comes  as  a  surprise  to  those  whose  attention 
has  not  been  previously  directed  to  the  pathology  of  the  ear. 
It  means  that  the  account  which  Helmholtz  gave  of  the  mechan- 
ism of  sound-conduction  is  untenable,  at  least  as  regards  his 
theory  of  the  sound-intensifying  function  of  the  tympanic  mem- 
brane. Dissatisfaction  with  this  theory  has  been  rife  in  oto- 
logical  circles  for  some  years,  owing  to  its  inadequacy  when 
confronted  by  the  facts  of  aural  pathology.  Beckmann2  in 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  April  8,  1907. 

2'Zur  Theorie  des  Horens,'  Verhandl.  der  deutsche  otoL  Ges.,  1898.  See 
Treitel,  'Recent  Theories  of  Sound-conduction,'  Archives  of  Otology,  1903,  p. 
385.  Treitel  gives  an  admirable  summary  of  the  literature  up  to  1902,  and  con- 
cludes that  the  problem  of  the  middle  ear  has  not  yet  been  solved. 

229 


230  W.    V.  D.  BINGHAM. 

1898  went  the  length  of  maintaining  that  the  tympanic  appa- 
ratus is  not  a  sound-conducting  device,  but  is  merely  a  damping 
mechanism.  Zimmermann1  also  substitutes  a  damping  for  a 
transmitting  function,  but  holds,  contrary  to  Beckmann,  that 
the  damping  operates  only  with  sounds  of  unusual  intensity. 
He  assumes  that  the  sound  waves  are  transmitted  by  air  con- 
duction across  the  tympanic  cavity  to  the  promontory  wall,  and 
thence  through  bone  to  the  basilar  membrane  fibers.  It  is  the 
function  of  the  round  window  to  make  possible  the  most  subtle 
reaction  of  these  fibers.  The  ossicles  and  the  stapedius  muscle 
serve  to  regulate  the  intra-labyrinthine  pressure.  Secchi2  finds 
in  the  round  window  the  sole  pathway  for  sound  through  the 
tympanum  to  the  labyrinth.  The  tympanic  membrane  and 
ossicles  together  with  the  intrinsic  muscles  protect  the  inner 
organs  against  detonations  and  also  serve  to  regulate  the  intra- 
tympanic  pressure  during  attentive  hearing.  Of  the  defenders 
of  modified  forms  of  the  Helmholtz  theory,  Bezold  and  Lucae 
are  the  most  able  and  active.  They  are  agreed  that  for  high 
tones  conduction  through  the  larger  ossicles  is  of  little  impor- 
tance. Lucae  3  insists  that  the  round  window  as  well  as  the 
plate  of  the  stapes  is  capable  of  receiving  sound-waves.  Both 
movements  could  exist  together,  a  compensatory  opening  for 
minimal  pressures  produced  by  the  inward  movement  of  the 
stapes  being  found  in  the  aquaeductus  vestibulas,  and  for  the 
fenestral  membrane  in  the  aquaeductus  cochleae.  Bezold4  does 
not  hold  to  the  Helmholtz  account  of  the  sound-intensifying 
action  of  the  drum  membrane,  but  he  contends  vigorously  for 
the  theory  of  conduction  through  the  ossicular  chain.  When 
the  skull  is  set  in  vibration  by  direct  contact  with  a  sounding 
fork,  the  labyrinth  as  well  as  the  chain  is  actuated,  yet  only 
those  waves  are  effective  which,  on  their  way  to  the  labyrinth 
have  actuated  the  chain  to  transverse  vibration.  The  function 

1  In  addition  to  the  articles  summarized  by  Treitel,  cf.  'Der  physiologische 
Werth  der  Labyrinthfenster,'  1904,  Arch.f.  Physiol.,  Suppl.  Bd.,  S.  193.  Also 
S.  409  and  S.  488. 

2 Arch.f.  Ohrenheilk.,  LV.,  Heft.  3-4.    Cf.  Treitel,  /.  c. 

3  Arch.f.  Physiol.,  1904,  Suppl.  Bd.,  S.  490. 

4"Weitere  Untersuchungen  uber  '  Knochenleitung '  und  Schallleitungs- 
apparat  im  Ohr.,"  Zeits.f.  Ohrenheilk.,  XI, VIII.,  107. 


THE    TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  231 

of  the  tympanic  mechanism  is  the  conversion  of  longitudinal 
sound-waves  into  transverse  vibrations,  which  alone  are  capable 
of  setting  into  sympathetic  vibration  the  receiving  apparatus  of 
the  cochlea.  Bezold  is  reported  as  saying  "  that  there  is  no 
hearing  for  the  lower  half  of  the  tone  scale  without  a  tympanic 
membrane  and  an  ossicular  chain,  and  that  in  the  case  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  scale  the  sound-waves  are  transmitted  to  the 
labyrinth  by  vibrations  of  the  stapedial  foot-plate."2  The 
earlier  part  of  this  conclusion  is  controverted  by  the  existence 
of  such  cases  of  audition  as  the  one  here  described. 

Thirty-six  years  ago,  when  Miss  Evans,  as  she  may  be 
named,  was  five  years  of  age,  a  siege  of  scarlet  fever  left  her 
with  a  middle-ear  discharge  (suppurative  otitis  media)  which 
ruptured  both  ear  drums.  In  the  right  ear  this  chronic  dis- 
charge has  never  healed :  and  in  the  left,  except  for  two  brief 
periods  of  temporary  cessation,  it  continued  until  the  fall  of 
1906.  During  girlhood  the  only  method  of  treatment  which 
was  tried,  that  of  syringing,  proved  very  painful  and  was  little 
used.  The  earliest  aurist's  record  available  was  furnished  by 
Dr.  Clarence  J.  Blake,  otologist  of  the  Harvard  Medical  School, 
who  treated  the  case  in  1888-90.  His  records  show  partial  de- 
struction of  both  drum  membranes  at  that  time.  "  Hearing  was 
effected  by  direct  transmission  of  the  sound  waves  to  the  base 
plate  of  the  stapes.  There  was  no  evidence  of  cochlear  involve- 
ment." An  accumulation  of  cicatricial  adhesion  hindered  the 
free  vibration  of  the  stapes,  so  that  hearing  was  considerably 
below  normal.  (Note  that  the  decreased  acuity  is  not  explained 
by  reference  to  the  condition  of  the  tympanic  membrane  or  the 
'  sound-conducting '  mechanism.  Dr.  Blake  says:  "In  the 
great  majority  of  suppurative  cases  the  decreased  mobility  of  the 
stapes  either  from  altered  position  of  the  ossicular  chain  or  from 
tissue  changes  within  the  fenestral  niche  is  the  essential  thing.") 

In  1898,  Dr.  M.  D.  Jones,  of  St.  Louis,  operated  upon  the 
right  ear,  removing  the  remnant  of  the  tympanic  membrane, 
the  accumulations  of  cicatricial  adhesions  and  the  two  larger 
ossicles  which  had  become  much  necrosed.  No  operation  has 
been  performed  upon  the  left  ear,  but  the  incus  has  been  lost 

2Hartmann,  in  report  of  German  otological  society  in  Wiesbaden,  May  29 
and  30,  1903.  Archives  of  Otology,  XXXII.,  286. 


232  W.    V.  D.  B ING HAM. 

and  the  drum  membrane  is  almost  totally  destroyed.  In  each 
ear  the  stapes  is  imbedded  in  an  accumulation  of  scar  tissue, 
and  in  the  right,  poorer,  ear  is  completely  hidden  from  view. 
The  Eustachian  tubes  are  completely  closed  at  times,  prevent- 
ing the  draining  of  the  mucous  of  the  middle  ear  into  the  throat, 
and  causing  an  accumulation  which  interferes  with  hearing. 
Miss  Evans  states  that  her  hearing  varies  with  her  general  nerv- 
ous condition. 

In  August,  1906,  at  the  time  of  making  the  first  of  the  audi- 
tory tests  here  reported,  the  ears  were  discharging  very  slightly 
and  were  therefore  probably  at  their  best  as  to  function.  Dr. 
J.  B.  Shapleigh,  of  St.  Louis,  who  has  had  the  case  under  ob- 
servation for  the  past  two  years,  informs  me  that  usually  "  im- 
provement in  the  local  inflammatory  conditions  in  these  cases 
brings  better  hearing,  but  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  that  when 
all  secretion  ceases  and  the  ear  becomes  dry,  the  hearing  be- 
comes less.  This  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  dry  tissues  being 
more  rigid  and  stiff  than  when  moist  since  with  a  recurrence  of 
slight  discharge  an  increase  in  hearing  is  noticed."  These  vari- 
ations in  hearing  doubtless  have  their  cause  in  "the  varying 
mobility  of  the  stapes  and  the  membrane  of  the  round  window, 
but  especially  of  the  former.  In  many  cases  of  exhausted 
middle  ear  suppuration  with  large  loss  of  the  drum  membrane 
and  with  absence  of  the  incus  —  the  conducting  chain  being  thus 
broken — very  fair  hearing  may  exist,  provided  the  stapes  is 
freely  movable  and  not  hampered  by  adhesions  or  thickened 
tissue  in  the  niche  of  the  oval  window."  A  considerable  dimi- 
nution in  Miss  Evans'  hearing  ability  has  taken  place  since  she 
was  tested  in  the  summer  of  1906.  This  is  due,  however,  to  a 
recurrence  of  the  old  inflammation  of  the  membranes  brought  on 
by  a  severe  cold,  and  is  not  traceable  to  a  complete  cessation  of 
the  discharge  with  consequent  lack  of  the  moisture  which  seems 
to  be  essential  for  maximum  flexibility  of  the  annular  ring  of 
the  stapes  and  the  membrane  of  the  round  window.  No  use  is 
made  of  *  artificial  drums '  or  other  mechanical  aids  to  hearing.1 

1  The  best  '  artificial  drums  '  so  called  are  mere  pledgets  of  cotton,  deftly 
adjusted  to  increase  the  pressure  upon  the  stapes  to  precisely  the  right  amount. 
Sometimes,  when  the  drum  membrane  is  lacking,  a  bit  of  vaseline  placed  upon 
the  head  of  the  stapes  serves  to  weight  it  properly  and  considerably  augment 
hearing. 


THE    TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  233 

In  the  laboratory  Miss  Evans  was  first  tested  in  auditory 
acuity,  tonal  limits,  pitch  discrimination,  localization  of  sound 
and  analysis  of  clangs.  It  is  regretted  that,  owing  to  the  brief 
period  which  elapsed  between  the  discovery  of  the  case  and  the 
necessary  departure  of  Miss  Evans  from  the  city,  some  of  the 
tests  had  to  be  rather  fragmentary.  Six  months  later  it  was 
possible  to  make  a  few  supplementary  tests  which  were  directed 
in  part  to  determining  whether  the  subject's  general  sensitivity 
is  supernormal.  Some  additional  data  were  also  gathered  on 
the  hearing  of  difference-tones. 

In  this  connection  it  ought  to  be  remarked  that  cases  of  audi- 
tion somewhat  resembling  this  one  are  not  of  extremely  rare 
occurrence  in  the  records  of  otological  clinics.  The  additional 
features  which  give  to  this  case  an  especial  value  for  purposes 
of  experimental  observation  are  to  be  found  in  the  high  intel- 
ligence, the  more  than  ordinary  powers  of  concentration,  and 
the  facility  in  introspection  which  the  observer  brought  to  her 
tasks. 

The  Rinne  test  was  negative  :  that  is,  a  sounding  fork  which 
had  become  so  faint  as  to  be  no  longer  audible  by  air  conduc- 
tion could  be  heard  again  if  placed  against  the  mastoid  process 
of  the  temporal  bone.  The  Weber  phenomenon  was  prominent ; 
when  a  vibrating  fork  was  pressed  against  the  top  of  the  head, 
the  sound  was  localized  in  the  right,  poorer,  ear,  even  when  the 
fork  was  placed  much  nearer  to  the  better  ear.  Such  results 
indicate  that  the  hearing  defect  is  due  to  trouble  in  the  mechan- 
ism of  the  middle  ear  and  not  in  the  sound-receiving  apparatus 
of  the  cochlea. 

In  testing  auditory  acuity,  the  Seashore  audiometer  was  used, 
and  also  the  whispered-word  test.  The  audiometer  gives  a 
simple  noise  of  fairly  constant  quality  and  of  an  intensity  varying 
from  o  to  40  units  of  an  arbitrary  scale.  The  normal  threshold 
lies  somewhat  below  the  middle  of  this  scale.  Eight  students 
with  apparently  normal  hearing  were  tested  at  the  same  time 
with  Miss  Evans,  and  their  thresholds  of  acuity  were  found  to 
range  between  15  and  25. l  At  the  first  day's  trial  Miss  Evans' 

1  On  the  standard  instrument  of  the  C.  H.  Stoelting  Co.,  an  acute  ear  can  hear 
intensity  13.  A  comparison  of  our  instrument  with  this  standard,  after  the  tests 


234  W.   V.  D.  B ING HAM. 

threshold  was  determined  as  26  for  the  left  ear  and  28  for  the 
right.  Later  this  was  reduced  to  25  and  27. 

Since  it  sometimes  occurs  that  good  hearing  for  conversational 
speech  is  accompanied  by  poor  hearing  for  certain  simple  noises, 
and  vice  versa,  the  audiometer  test  was  supplemented  by  the 
whispered-word  test.  For  determining  comparative  auditory 
efficiency  in  this  way,  Andrews l  has  prepared  ten  lists  of  ten 
numerals  each,  which  contain  the  different  varieties  of  conso- 
nant and  vowel  speech  elements  in  much  the  same  proportion  in 
which  they  are  found  in  spoken  language.  The  use  of  numer- 
als presents  the  advantage  of  uniform  apperceptive  value  for  all 
observers  and  for  all  the  words.  This  is  so  well  recognized 
among  aurists  that  whispered  or  spoken  numerals  are  almost 
universally  'employed  in  diagnosis.  The  traditional  method  of 
using  this  test  is  to  determine  the  maximum  distance  at  which  the 
observer  can  hear  the  numerals.  Auditory  acuity  is  expressed 
by  a  fraction  of  which  this  distance  is  the  numerator  and  the 
normal  distance  is  the  denominator.  For  purposes  of  accurate 
determination,  Andrews  criticises  this  method  on  the  ground 
that  its  validity  rests  on  two  assumptions  which  his  experiments 
have  led  him  to  question ;  first,  that  intensity  of  the  sounds  of 
speech  decreases  with  approximate  regularity  as  the  distance 
from  the  speaker  increases ;  second,  that  the  sounds  used  as 
test  words  undergo  with  change  of  distance  merely  a  quantita- 
tive and  not  a  qualitative  alteration.  As  an  improvement  upon 
this  *  method  of  extreme  ranges,'  Andrews  recommends  the 
*  method  of  degree  of  accuracy/  in  which  auditory  acuity  is 
determined  by  comparing  an  observer's  percentage  of  accuracy 
at  a  given  distance  with  the  normal  percentage  at  the  same  dis- 
tance under  identical  acoustical  conditions. 

Andrews'  lists  of  numerals  were  pronounced  to  Miss  Evans 
and  six  control  observers  at  the  same  time.  They  were  seated 
with  the  left  ear  toward  the  speaker,  Miss  Evans  being  given 

had  been  made,  showed  that  the  magnet  of  the  telephone  receiver  had  lost  some 
of  its  strength,  and  that  in  consequence  the  click  was  not  quite  as  loud  as  it 
should  be.     This  point  should  be  borne  in  mind  if  comparisons  are  made  be- 
tween the  figures  given  above  and  readings  taken  with  other  audiometers. 
1  Am.  Jour.  Psy.,  1904,  XV.,  36. 


THE   TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  235 

the  central  position.  Each  was  provided  with  paper  on  which 
the  numbers  were  recorded  as  heard.  If  the  observers  had  been 
tested  separately  it  would  have  been  possible  to  have  them  hear 
the  words  from  identically  the  same  place  in  the  room  ;  but  that 
plan  would  have  sacrificed  something  of  uniformity  in  enunci- 
ation. Even  when  the  usual  precautions,  of  using  the  residual 
breath  after  exhalation,  etc.,  are  taken,  some  differences  in 
intensity  must  still  remain.  In  the  method  here  used,  these 
inequalities  were  minimized.  Accidental  distractions,  such  as 
outside  noises,  were  also  the  same  for  all  the  observers. 

At  a  distance  of  three  feet  Miss  Evans'  degree  of  accuracy 
was  97.5  per  cent.  That  of  the  others  varied  from  98.5  per 
cent,  to  100  per  cent.,  only  one  observer  hearing  every  syllable 
correctly.  At  fifteen  feet  Miss  Evans  heard  70  per  cent,  cor- 
rectly, while  the  record  of  the  others  varied  from  88  per  cent, 
to  99.5  per  cent.,  the  average  being  slightly  less  than  95  per 
cent.  These  figures  show  clearly  by  how  much  Miss  Evans' 
hearing  is  less  than  normal.  It  would  be  entirely  incorrect  to 
characterize  her  as  '  hard-of-hearing.' 

The  question  may  arise  whether  in  Miss  Evans*  case  the 
auditory  nerve  may  not  be  more  sensitive  than  that  of  the  aver- 
age person.  Tests  made  in  several  different  sense  realms 
failed  to  disclose  any  general  hypersensitivity.  Both  eyes  are 
very  slightly  astigmatic  and  far  sighted.  Bright  illumination 
is  often  painful.  Tests  with  an  oculist's  chart  showed  that  the 
visual  acuity  of  the  left  eye  was  normal  and  that  of  the  right 
eye  a  very  little  less  than  normal.  Sensitivity  to  differences  of 
brightness  was  tested  by  means  of  a  Masson  disc  rotated  in  an 
illumination  of  diffused  daylight.  Miss  Evans  pointed  out  a 
gray  ring  which  differed  from  the  background  in  brightness  by 
1/150  and  was  uncertain  as  to  the  next  ring  which  differed  from 
the  background  by  1/214.  The  four  other  observers  tested  at 
the  same  time  pointed  out  both  of  these  rings  correctly,  and  one 
saw  a  ring  which  was  even  fainter.  Miss  Evans'  sensitivity  to 
differences  of  brightness  is  then  certainly  not  supernormal. 
Tests  in  matching  Holmgren  worsteds  disclosed  an  unusually 
well  cultivated  color  discrimination.  ^Esthesiometer  tests  on 
the  forearms  revealed  nothing  unusual  in  her  tactile  discrimina- 


236  W.   V.  D.  BINGHAM. 

tion  of  two  points ;  and  tests  with  small  lifted  weights  indicated 
no  peculiar  muscular  sensitivity.  The  only  tests  which  point 
to  a  sensitivity  above  the  average  were  with  the  Cattell  algom- 
eter.  The  transition  from  the  sensation  of  *  pressure '  to  that 
of  '  pressure-plus-pain'  was  unambiguous.  The  threshold  on 
the  nail  of  each  index  finger  was  i  kg.  (average  of  six  tests  at 
different  times  ;  average  deviationt  .1  kg.).  On  the  right  thumb 
nail  the  threshold  was  1.5  kg. ;  on  the  left,  1.2  kg. ;  on  the  right 
and  left  temples,  each  i  kg.  While  these  results  do  not  fall 
within  the  range  of  hyperaesthesia,  they  are  belowthe  average 
for  women. 

Although  Miss  Evans  manifests  no  general  hypersensitivity, 
it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  her  auditory  sensitivity  has  been 
developed  to  a  high  degree  during  the  many  years  of  middle- 
ear  difficulty  when  it  was  necessary  to  exercise  more  than  ordi- 
nary efforts  of  auditory  attention. 

In  testing  for  the  upper  tonal  limit,  an  Edelmann-Galton 
whistle  was  used.  If  Edelmann's  calibrations  on  this  particular 
pipe  hold  good  for  the  light  bulb-pressure  used,  and  for  the  pre- 
vailing barometric  pressures  and  temperatures  of  Chicago,  a 
majority  of  observers  can  hear  tones  of  from  44,000  to  49,000 
vibrations  per  second  (the  pipe-length  being  from  0.32  mm.  to 
0.16  mm.  and  the  width  of  lip  0.62  mm.).  These  are,  roughly, 
the  pitches^"8  and  g"8.  Miss  Evans  heard  on  the  first  day  tested 
22,000  vibrations  (2.17  mm.  with  same  width  of  lip)  with  the 
right  ear,  and  24,000  vibrations  (1.87  mm.)  with  the  left.  These 
tones  are  not  far  fromy7  and  g1.  A  few  days  later  Miss  Evans 
could  hear  32,000  vibrations  (i.oi  mm.)  with  the  left  ear. 
While  this  is  half  an  octave  below  normal,  it  is  well  within  the 
range  where  perfectly  healthy  ears  of  middle-aged  persons  often 
reach  their  higher  limit. 

The  lower  limit  for  the  left  ear  was  below  32  vibrations  or 
within  an  octave  of  normal.  With  the  right  ear  no  tone  could 
be  heard  from  any  of  the  Appunn  forks,  the  smallest  of  which 
gives  64  vibrations.  At  the  organ,  it  was  possible  to  hear  a 
pipe  of  64  vibrations  with  this  ear,  if  the  swell  box  was  open  but 
not  otherwise.  When  three  pipes  were  sounding  pedal  Cof  the 
contra-octave,  32  vibrations,  the  observer  could  detect  a  sound 


THE    TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  237 

with  the  better  ear  closed,  but  it  is  probable  that  what  she  heard 
was  a  clang  of  upper  partials.  One  of  these  same  low  pipes 
sounding  singly  could  barely  be  heard  with  the  better  ear  at  a 
distance  of  25  feet,  while  two  other  observers  could  hear  it  at 
70  feet.  In  these  tests  it  required  an  appreciable  length  of  time 
for  Miss  Evans  to  decide  whether  a  pipe  were  sounding  or  not. 
With  pitches  and  intensities  near  her  lower  limit  of  hearing,  her 
discrimination  time  was  often  as  long  as  a  second  and  a  half. 

A  test  for  the  integrity  of  the  scale  between  32  and  32,000 
vibrations  revealed  no  discontinuities  or  tonal  islands.  A  series 
of  tests  to  discover  the  fundamental  tones  of  the  tympanic  cavi- 
ties which  the  absence  of  an  accommodatory  apparatus  would 
make  prominent  was  not  completed. 

Miss  Evans  has  not  a  '  musical  ear,*  and  had  had  no  prac- 
tice in  pitch  discrimination.  When  first  tested  she  made  errors 
in  gross  musical  intervals ;  but  with  a  little  practice  she  devel- 
oped considerable  accuracy  in  telling  which  of  two  tones  was 
the  higher.  On  the  third  day  she  was  able  to  discriminate  cor- 
rectly differences  of  one  vibration  per  second  (1/32  tone)  from 
cl  of  256  vibrations.  In  these  tests  heavy  Koenig  forks  mounted 
on  resonators  were  used.  It  is  much  easier  to  approximate  uni- 
formity of  intensity  with  these  than  with  the  unmounted  forks 
sometimes  employed.1 

In  the  tests  on  clang  analysis,  the  chief  interest  centered 
about  the  hearing  of  difference-tones.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
a  tone  arising  from  the  simultaneous  sounding  of  two  tones  from 
independent  sources  does  not  actuate  a  resonator  tuned  to  its 
vibration  rate ;  consequently  it  must  have  its  origin  within  the 
ear.  To  account  for  these  so-called  subjective  difference-tones, 
Helmholtz  advanced  the  theory  that  the  asymmetrical  form  of 
the  tympanic  membrane  necessitates  that  when  it  is  set  in  vibra- 
tion by  two  different  sounds  it  must  vibrate  also  at  a  rate  equal 
to  the  difference  between  the  rates  of  the  two  primaries,  and 

1  Such  instances  as  this  one,  where  excellent  discrimination  of  small  pitch 
differences  accompanies  a  total  lack  of  natural  musical  ability  and  interest,  call 
attention  to  a  fallacy  involved  in  Seashore's  suggestion  of  using  rough  tests  of 
pitch  discrimination  in  determining  whether  a  public-school  pupil  has  a  suffi- 
ciently '  musical  ear  '  to  make  it  worth  while  for  him  to  be  given  any  musical 
education.  (Univ.  of  Iowa  Studies,  II.,  55,  and  Educ.  Rev.,  XXII.,  75.) 


238  W.   V.  D.  BINGHAM. 

thus  generate  the  difference-tone.  A  secondary  hypothesis 
based  upon  the  looseness  of  articulation  between  malleus  and 
incus  was  held  to  be  applicable  when  the  primaries  are  very 
loud.  Later  workers  in  this  field,  notably  Stumpf ,  Ebbinghaus, 
ter  Kuile,  Max  Meyer,  Hurst  and  Ewald,  have  developed 
theories  of  audition  which  seek  to  explain  the  facts  of  differ- 
ence-tones by  a  mode  of  functioning  of  the  structures  within  the 
inner  ear,  but  no  one  of  these  theories  has  succeeded  up  to  the 
present  time  in  commanding  general  assent  by  meeting  all  of 
the  facts. 

Recently  K.  S.  Schaefer1  has  shown  that  a  telephone  dia- 
phragm will  generate  difference-tones  which  set  in  vibration 
properly  attuned  resonators ;  and  the  suggestion  has  been  made 
that  Schaefer's  experiments  point  toward  a  rehabilitation  of 
the  Helmholz  theory  that  subjective  difference-tones  take  their 
origin  in  the  tympanic  membrane. 

An  instance  of  good  audition  in  which  the  tympanic  mem- 
branes and  larger  ossicles  are  lacking  presented  the  opportunity 
for  a  crucial  experiment.  The  results  were  unequivocal :  Miss 
Evans  hears  the  so-called  subjective  difference-tones.2 

For  preliminary  practice  use  was  made  of  small  Quincke 
tubes  and  high-pitched  organ  pipes.  The  observer  was  soon 
able  to  distinguish  the  first  and  second  difference-tones.  Then 
she  was  set  the  task  of  tuning  a  Stern  tone-variator  to  unison 
with  the  lower  difference-tone  arising  from  two  organ  pipes 
actuated  from  independent  sources  of  wind  supply.  On  the 
first  trial  she  succeeded.  The  second  trial  was  a  failure,  the 
variator  being  tuned  not  to  the  pitch  of  the  difference-tone,  but 
to  a  pitch  closely  consonant  with  it.  The  observer  was  much 
fatigued  by  the  taxing  strain  of  these  experiments,  and  her  error 
is  not  surprising,  especially  when  one  considers  the  dissimilarity 

1 '  Ueber  die  Erzeugung  physikalischer  Kombinationstone  mittelst  des 
Stentortelephons,'  Annalen  der  Physik,  1905,  XVII.,  572. 

2  Dennett,  in  reporting  his  experiments  with  interruption-tones  ( '  Akustisch- 
physiologische  Untersuchungen, '  Arch.f.  Ohrenheilk.,  1887,  XXIV.,  173),  says  : 
"  Ich  habe  nun  Patienten  ohne  Trommelfell,  auch  solche  ohne  Trommelfell, 
Hammer  und  Amboss,  mit  nur  erholtenem  Steigsbagel,  auf  dieses  Verhalten 
hin  gepriift  und  gefunden,  dass  sie  ebenfalls  Combinationstone  horen.' '  Unfor- 
tunately he  gives  no  further  information  regarding  the  hearing  of  his  patients 
or  the  manner  in  which  the  tests  were  made. 


THE    TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  239 

of  timbre  between  the  difference-tone  and  the  objective  tone  of 
the  variator. 

On  the  following  day  the  procedure  was  varied  in  two  par- 
ticulars. Heavy  Koenig  forks  mounted  on  resonance-boxes 
were  used  to  produce  the  primary  tones,  and  the  observer, 
who  never  sings,  was  asked  to  choose  on  a  harmonium  the 
tones  corresponding  to  the  first  and  second  difference-tones. 
She  would  begin  with  the  lowest  note  on  the  harmonium  and 
try  each  one  in  turn  until  she  found  the  desired  pitch.  While 
the  observer  was  searching  for  the  correct  pitch  the  experi- 
menter was  careful  to  stand  out  of  her  field  of  view,  to  exclude 
the  possibility  of  an  unconscious  choice  on  the  basis  of  some 
involuntary  movement  on  his  part.  At  another  time  the  ob- 
server was  told  that  among  the  thirty  odd  forks  before  her  were 
two  which  had  the  same  pitch  as  the  difference-tones,  and  she 
was  asked  to  find  them.  In  all  of  these  tests  she  was  uniformly 
successful. 

The  pitch-numbers  of  most  of  the  forks  used  were  in  simple 
ratios,  so  that  the  difference-tones  were  in  close  harmonic  rela- 
tion to  the  primaries.  Lest  it  should  be  objected  that  the 
observer,  knowing  in  a  vague  way  what  was  expected,  had 
sought  among  the  available  tones  until  she  found  the  ones  that 
fused  most  perfectly  with  the  primaries,  two  forks  were  selected 
whose  vibration  rates  were  as  5  to  7.  The  lower  difference-tone 
would  then  be  2,  and  the  higher  3.  If  the  observer  were 
selecting  her  tones  on  the  basis  of  fusion  she  would  have  chosen 
the  lower  octaves  of  the  primaries  :  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  she 
tried  these  when  she  came  to  them  and  rejected  them  as 
promptly  as  any  of  the  others. 

The  successful  issue  of  these  experiments  shows]  that  sub- 
jective difference- tones  may  be  generated  without  the  aid  of  the 
tympanic  membrane  or  any  mechanism  of  the  middle  ear.  This 
in  no  way  reflects  upon  Helmholtz's  mathematical  proof  that 
asymmetrical  membranes  must  vibrate  under  the  influence  of 
two  sound-waves  of  sufficient  amplitude  in  such  a  manner  that 
one,  two  or  more  additional  pendular  vibrations  are  generated. 
But  it  does  prove  that  such  an  explanation  is  not  an  adequate 
account  of  the  phenomenon  of  subjective  difference-tones. 


240  W.   V.  D.  BINGHAM. 

The  question  at  once  arises  whether  the  tympanic  mechanism, 
while  not  essential  to  the  hearing  of  difference-tones,  may  not 
augment  them.  It  is  conceivable  that  combination-tones  may 
have  a  physical  origin  within  the  labyrinth,  as  Schaefer  urges,1 
and  also  in  the  tympanic  mechanism,  as  Helmholtz  held.  It  is 
possible  that  wherever  two  sonorous  vibrations  of  sufficient 
amplitude  simultaneously  actuate  the  same  body,  they  may 
generate  a  pendular  vibration  of  a  rate  equal  to  the  difference 
between  their  rates.  Lord  Rayleigh  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  practically  all  bodies  manifest  the  required  asymmetry 
even  in  the  case  of  aerial  vibrations.  He  says,  "  Whether  we 
are  considering  progressive  waves  advancing  from  a  source,  or 
the  stationary  vibrations  of  a  resonator,  there  is  an  essential 
want  of  symmetry  between  the  condensation  and  rarefaction, 
and  the  formation  in  some  degree  of  octaves  and  combination- 
tones  is  a  mathematical  necessity."  2 

It  was  thus  desirable  to  establish  whether,  in  comparison  with 
observers  who  possess  tympanic  membranes,  Miss  Evans  is  able 
to  hear  difference-tones  relatively  as  well  as  she  hears  the 
primaries. 

An  attempt  to  determine  this  point  was  made  when,  in 
February  1907,  an  opportunity  occurred  to  perform  some  addi- 
tional tests.  As  has  been  already  indicated,  Miss  Evans'  hearing 
had  considerably  diminished  since  the  first  experiments  were 
made.  The  audiometer  showed  an  acuity  of  31  and  4O(?) 
instead  of  25  and  27.  Whispered  words  were  heard  with  diffi- 
culty at  three  feet  which  had  been  heard  at  fifteen  feet.  The 
upper  tonal  limit  was  reduced  to  3.45  mm.  and  4.46  mm. 
(17,000  and  14,000  vibrations).  The  lower  limit  for  the  better 
ear  had  risen  to  48  vibrations.  Bone  conduction  for  tones  of 
64  and  128  vibrations  was  as  good  as  before,  if  not  better;  but 
the  negative  Rinne  was  greater  in  each  case. 

The  procedure  adopted  was  as  follows :  two  mounted  forks 
were  selected  whose  vibration  numbers  were  768  and  896,  a 
ratio  of  6  to  7.  Miss  Evans  correctly  located  the  pitch  of  the 

1 '  Eine  neue  Erklarung  der  subject! ven  Combinationstone,'  Arch.f.  d.  ges. 
PhysioL,  LXXVIIL,  505. 

2  The  Theory  of  Sound,  second  edition,  1896,  Vol.  II.,  459. 


THE    TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  241 

lower,  louder  difference-tone.  By  means  of  two  auscultation 
tubes  leading  from  a  common  stem,  Miss  Evans  and  a  control 
observer  well  trained  in  auditory  discrimination  listened  to  the 
sound  of  the  same  fork.  The  experimenter,  by  moving  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  tube  to  and  from  the  resonating  box  of  the 
fork  could  make  the  sound  appear  and  disappear  irregularly. 
The  observers,  who  were  seated  back  to  back,  indicated  by  a 
movement  of  the  finger  when  they  heard  the  sound  and  when 
they  did  not.  This  made  it  possible  for  the  experimenter  to 
determine,  with  the  aid  of  a  stop-watch,  the  difference  in  the 
ringing-off  time  for  the  two  observers.  Lest  there  might  be  an 
inequality  in  the  carrying-power  of  the  two  auscultation  tubes, 
their  use  was  alternated  between  the  observers. 

In  eight  trials  with  the  lower  fork,  the  control  observer  could 
hear  it  for  an  average  of  13.5  seconds  longer  than  Miss  Evans  ; 
average  deviation  i  second.  The  higher  fork  died  away  more 
rapidly,  and  here  the  difference  in  ringing-off  times  for  the  two  ob- 
servers averaged  7  seconds,  average  deviation  less  than  i  second. 
Lastly  the  two  forks  were  sounded  together,  and  the  length  of 
time  that  the  difference-tone  could  be  distinguished  was  re- 
corded, together  with  the  time  between  the  disappearance  of  the 
difference-tone  and  the  disappearance  of  the  primaries  for  each 
observer.  The  experimenter  had  no  check  on  the  introspec- 
tions of  the  observer  as  to  the  length  of  time  the  difference-tone 
was  audible,  as  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  vary  its  intensity 
without  modifying  the  primaries.  Under  such  circumstances 
the  imagination  is  certain  to  be  a  dangerous  factor,  and  the 
difference-tone  will  sometimes  continue  to  be  reported  as  heard 
after  it  has  passed  below  the  limit  of  audibility.  The  higher  of 
the  two  forks  always  died  away  before  the  lower,  and  if  it  were 
actuated  lightly  again,  immediately  after  the  difference-tone  was 
reported  as  lost,  the  difference-tone  did  not  always  reappear, 
although  if  this  primary  were  made  as  loud  as  the  other,  the 
difference-tone  was  once  more  reported  as  audible.  Now  for 
Miss  Evans,  the  difference  between  the  ringing-off  times  of  the 
separate  forks,  6.5  seconds,  was  only  one  second  shorter  than 
the  average  time  between  the  disappearance  of  the  difference- 
tone  and  the  vanishing  of  the  louder,  lower  primary.  Appar- 


242  W.   V.  D.  B  ING  HAM. 

ently  the  difference-tone  could  be  heard  nearly  as  long  as  both 
primaries  continued  to  be  audible.  This  was  not  the  case  with 
the  control  observer,  who  lost  the  difference-tone  six  seconds 
before  he  ceased  to  hear  the  weaker  primary.  One  is  forced 
to  suspect  that  Miss  Evans  continued  to  hear  the  difference-tone 
in  imagination  after  it  had  passed  below  her  limit  of  audibility. 
She  herself  remarked  upon  her  uncertainty  in  distinguishing 
between  vanishing  sensation  and  vivid  image.  How  difficult 
this  discrimination  is,  those  who  have  practiced  clang  analysis 
well  know.  Because  this  undetermined  factor  was  present,  the 
quantitative  results  are  unreliable,  and  one  cannot  assert  with 
confidence  the  conclusion  which  the  experiments  strongly  sug- 
gested, that  Miss  Evans'  hearing  for  difference-tones  is  rela- 
tively better  than  that  of  a  normal  observer  with  intact  tympanic 
membranes.1 

A  few  tests  in  auditory  localization  in  the  horizontal  plane 
were  made  in  August,  1906.  Use  was  made  of  the  relatively 
pure  tone  of  a  tuning  fork,  the  clangs  of  a  stopped  pipe  and  a 
reed: pipe  and  the  noise  of  a  metallic  click.  The  ease  and  accu- 
racy of  localization  was  in  proportion  to  the  complexity  of  the 
sound  rather  than  to  its  intensity.  Of  the  errors  made  with 
sounds  not  in  the  median  plane,  somewhat  more  than  half  were 
on  the  right  side.  At  the  present  time,  Bard2  is  championing 
the  theory  that  the  middle  ear  contains  a  mechanism  which 
accommodates  to  distance  and  direction.  The  nature  of  the 
rhythmic  movements  of  the  chain  of  ossicles  is  in  part  deter- 
mined by  the  angle  of  incidence  of  the  sound-wave  upon  the 
membrane,  and  the  perpendicular  and  tangential  components  of 
this  motion  supply  elements  to  the  inner  ear  which  are  significant 
for  orientation  of  the  origin  of  the  sound.  The  tensor  tympani 
adapts  the  tension  of  the  drum-membrane  to  weak  or  loud  sounds. 

1  Since  the  above  was  placed  in  type  the  writer  has  learned  that  K.  S. 
Schaefer  has  found  in  Berlin  several  cases  of  patients  who  hear  without  drum 
membranes,  and  some  who  lack  the  larger  ossicles ;  and  all  are  able  to  hear  dif- 
ference-tones.   A  full  description  of  these  interesting  cases  with  a  discussion  of 
their  bearing  upon  theories  of  difference-tones  may  be  expected  soon  from  Dr. 
Schaefer's  pen. 

2  'Des  diverses  modalites  des  mouvements  de  la  chaine  des  osselets, '  Jour. 
Physiol.  Pathol.,  1905,  VII.,  665. 


THE   TYMPANIC  MECHANISM  IN  AUDITION.  243 

The  stapedius  however,  according  to  Bard,  is  autonomous  and 
not  antagonistic.  It  draws  backward  the  head  of  the  stapes, 
and  with  it  the  whole  chain  and  the  handle  of  the  malleus, 
making  tense  the  anterior  portion  of  the  drum-membrane,  relax- 
ing the  posterior  portion,  and  adapting  for  the  distance  of  the 
sound.  The  significance  for  such  a  theory  of  data  obtained 
from  an  observer  who  lacks  this  accommodatory  mechanism  is 
obvious,  and  it  is  regretted  that  it  was  not  possible  to  carry 
through  an  extended  series  of  localization  tests. 

Summary.  —  A  person  who  through  disease  and  operation 
lost  the  tympanic  membrane  and  most  of  the  ossicular  chain  of 
both  ears  is  not  '  hard-of-hearing '  but  possesses  very  efficient 
auditory  acuity.  The  foot-plate  of  the  stapes  in  each  ear  is 
covered  by  scar  tissue,  and  it  is  possible  that  if  the  vibrations  of 
the  stapes  were  not  thus  hindered,  auditory  acuity  would  be  fully 
normal.  Sensitivity  in  other  sense  realms  is  not  supernormal. 
Absence  of  the  tympanic  membranes  does  not  prevent  genera- 
tion of  *  subjective '  difference-tones. 

As  to  the  significance  of  the  tympanic  mechanism  in  au  ii- 
tion,  such  a  case  as  this  one  suggests  that  the  physical  sound- 
conducting  functions  have  been  quite  generally  over-emphasized  ; 
while  the  physiological,  protective  functions  have  been  treated 
with  neglect.  What  the  eye-lid  does  for  the  eye,  the  drum 
membrane  does  for  the  ear.  It  protects  delicate  structures 
against  irritation  and  injury,  and  permits  the  inner  membranes 
to  be  kept  moist  and  in  a  condition  of  maximum  efficiency.1 

1  The  writer  desires  to  express  his  gratitude  to  Professor  B.  B.  Breese  for  his 
kindness  in  granting,  for  the  second  set  of  tests,  the  privileges  of  the  psycho- 
logical laboratory  of  the  University  of  Cincinnati. 


ON  THE  METHOD  OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE 
DIFFERENCES.1 

BY  F.  M.  URBAN. 

If  a  subject  is  required  to  compare  two  stimuli  Sl  and  S2 
many  times  the  judgments  vary  without  any  apparent  order,  so 
that  one  is  unable  to  tell  what  the  judgment  will  be  in  a  given 
experiment,  but  in  a  great  number  of  experiments  each  judg- 
ment tends  to  occur  in  a  certain  percentage  of  all  the  cases. 
This  is  the  formal  character  of  random  events  and  we  introduce 
the  notion  of  a  probability  of  a  judgment  of  a  certain  type,  as- 
suming that  there  exists  a  definite  probability  in  every  experi- 
ment that  the  experiment  will  result  in  a  judgment  of  a  certain 
type.  Let  us  denote  by  the  letter^  the  probability  that  S2  will 
be  judged  greater  than  S}9  and  by  q  the  probability  that  a  judg- 
ment will  be  given  which  is  not  a  '  greater '  judgment.  The 
latter  group  contains  all  those  cases  in  which  S2  is  judged 
smaller  than  St  and  those  cases  in  which  the  stimuli  seem  to 
be  equal. 

In  applying  the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences  one 
starts  from  two  stimuli  which  seem  to  be  equal,  increasing  one 
stimulus  until  a  difference  is  perceived ;  this  difference  is  re- 
corded as  a  determination  of  the  just  perceptible  positive  dif- 
ference. Then  starting  from  inequality  of  the  stimuli  one 
diminishes  the  stimulus  of  greater  intensity  until  the  two  stimuli 
seem  to  be  equal ;  this  difference  is  put  down  as  a  determina- 
tion of  the  just  imperceptible  positive  difference.  Both  these 
results  are  combined  into  a  mean,  which  is  called  the  limen  or 
threshold  of  difference  in  the  direction  of  increase.  By  a  sim- 
ilar series  of  experiments  one  determines  the  just  perceptible 
negative  difference  and  the  just  imperceptible  negative  differ- 

1  Delivered  at  the  meeting  of  experimental  psychologists  at  Philadelphia, 
April  17  and  18,  1907.  This  paper  is  an  abstract  of  a  chapter  of  a  monograph 
on  psychophysical  methods,  which  is  to  appear  in  the  monograph  series  of  the 
Psychological  Laboratory  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

244 


METHOD   OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  DIFFERENCES.       245 

ence,  the  average  of  which  is  the  threshold  in  the  direction  of 
decrease.  A  considerable  number  of  such  determinations  for 
each  standard  stimulus  is  required,  because  a  single  determi- 
nation is  not  very  reliable.  The  discrepancies  between  the  re- 
sults are  eliminated  by  means  of  an  algorithm  which  is  nothing 
else  but  an  application  of  the  method  of  least  squares. 

The  method  of  just  perceptible  differences  requires  that  the 
subject  compares  pairs  of  stimuli  which  have  one  stimulus,  the 
standard  stimulus,  in  common  and  that  these  pairs  are  ordered 
according  to  the  magnitude  of  the  comparison  stimuli  so  that 

r,  <  r,  <  -  -  .  <rn. 

There  exists  for  every  pair  a  certain  probability  that  the  judg- 
ment '  greater  '  will  be  given  and  we  call  these  probabilities 

A.  A.  ---A 

where  pk  is  the  probability  that  in  the  comparison  of  the  stim- 
ulus rk  with  the  standard  the  judgment  <  greater'  will  be  given. 
The  probabilities  that  a  judgment  will  be  given  which  is  not  a 
'  greater  '  judgment  are  correspondingly 

1  ~  A  =  ?i 
1  -  A  =  4* 


Presenting  this  series  of  stimuli  to  the  subject  the  first  pair  on 
which  the  judgment  'greater'  is  given,  all  the  previous  pairs 
being  judged  *  smaller  '  or  «  equal,'  is  a  result  for  the  method  of 
just  perceptible  differences.  The  probability  that  a  stimulus 
will  be  noted  as  a  result  of  the  method  of  just  perceptible  dif- 
ferences is,  therefore,  identical  with  the  compound  probability 
that  this  stimulus  is  judged  greater,  and  that  on  all  the  smaller 
stimuli  judgments  are  given  which  are  not  «  greater  '  judgments 
Denoting  these  probabilities  by  Plt  Pz,  ••  -  Pn  we  find 


246  F.  M.  URBAN. 

In  a  considerable  number  of  determinations  each  pair  will  be 
obtained  as  an  observation  of  the  just  perceptible  difference  in 
a  number  of  times  which  is  proportional  to  this  probability,  and 
the  results  of  N  series  of  experiments,  after  being  brought  in 
proper  order,  will  have  the  following  form : 

The  stimulus  rl  occurred  JVPl  times,  which  gives  for  the  final 
determination  r^N. 

The  stimulus  r2  occurred  JVP2  times,  which  gives  for  the  final 
determination  rJP2N. 

The  stimulus  ^occurred  NPn times,  which  gives  for  the  final 
determination  rnPnN. 

The  method  of  just  perceptible  differences  requires  that  the 
average  of  all  the  values;-  ^TVbe  taken  as  a  final  determina- 
tion of  the  threshold,  which  is 

M-  jf( 

The  technical  name  of  this  expression  is  the  mathematical  ex- 
pectation for  the  result  of  this  series. 

A  number  of  interesting  conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  this 
analysis  of  the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences,  but  its 
immediate  psychological  importance  becomes  clearer  by  the  fol- 
lowing considerations.  Taking  the  average  of  a  series  of  observa- 
tions has  the  signification  of  determining  the  most  probable  value 
of  the  quantity  observed.  This  interpretation,  however,  can  be 
given  to  the  arithmetical  mean  only  if  the  distribution  is  sym- 
metrical. It  is  obvious  that  such  a  supposition  is  not  justifiable 
for  any  particular  series  of  comparison  stimuli.  The  distribu- 
tion of  the  P's  depends  entirely  on  the  values  of  the  ^'s,  which 
in  turn  depend  on  our  choice  of  the  comparison  stimuli.  It  may 
be  that  the  distribution  is  symmetrical  in  a  particular  case,  but 
generally  it  will  not  be.  The  average  of  our  observations, 
therefore,  will  not  have  the  character  of  the  most  probable 
value,  if  we  use  only  one  series  of  pairs  of  comparison  stimuli. 
For  the  further  interpretation  of  the  method  one  circumstance 
which  is  of  the  greatest  importance,  has  been  observed  in  almost 
all  serious  investigations  without  its  importance  being  recog- 


METHOD    OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  DIFFERENCES.       247 

nized.  As  a  rule  one  does  not  work  with  one  series  only,  but 
different  comparison  stimuli  are  used  and  the  results  of  all  these 
determinations  are  combined.  For  such  a  combination  of  inde- 
pendent distributions  the  theorem  holds  which  Bruns  calls  the 
conservation  of  the  0(r)-type,  and  which  may  be  formulated  in 
this  way :  The  mixture  of  independent  distributions  tends 
towards  the  0(r)-tyPe»  If  we  are  careful  to  use  several  dif- 
ferent series  of  comparison  stimuli  the  average  of  all  the  results 
will  have  the  signification  of  the  most  probable  value.  The 
most  probable  value  is  the  one  for  which  Pk  is  a  maximum. 
One  can  show  without  difficulty  that  Pk  is  a  maximum  inde- 
pendent of  our  choice  of  the  following  stimuli  if  p  =  |.  We 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  average  of  all  the  observations 
is  that  amount  of  difference  for  which  there  exists  the  probability 
one  half  that  the  judgment  '  greater'  will  be  given.  By  a  series 
of  similar  considerations  one  finds  that  the  quantity  which  we 
determine  by  the  algorithm  of  the  method  of  just  perceptible 
differences  as  the  just  imperceptible  positive  difference  is  that 
amount  of  difference  for  which  there  exists  the  probability  one 
half  that  the  judgment  *  greater'  will  not  be  given.  The  com- 
bination of  the  just  perceptible  and  the  just  imperceptible  differ- 
ence, i.  e.,  the  arithmetical  mean,  gives  a  more  refined  determina- 
tion of  the  same  quantity. 

These  considerations  have  some  bearing  on  the  practical 
application  of  the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences.  The 
first  is  that  one  must  record  all  the  judgments  given  in  order  to 
get  the  most  out  of  one's  results.  In  this  way  one  obtains  a  set 
of  results  in  the  working  out  of  which  one  may  step  over  from 
the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences  to  the  method  of  right 
and  wrong  cases  at  any  moment.  If  one  records  only  the  first 
pair  of  the  series  on  which  the  judgment  greater  was  given,  one 
will  obtain  good  results,  but  the  little  saving  of  clerical  work  is 
more  than  compensated  by  the  loss  in  the  lucidity  of  the  results. 
The  second  important  point  is  to  vary  the  steps  *  by  which  one 
approaches  the  threshold/  because  otherwise  one  can  not  make 
the  supposition  of  a  symmetrical  distribution.  The  third  point 
is  that  the  value  of  the  JP's  is  not  changed  by  the  order  in  which 
the  pairs  are  presented.  It  is,  therefore,  not  essential  to  let  the 


248  F.  M.   URBAN. 

pairs  follow  in  the  order  of  the  magnitude  of  the  comparison 
stimuli.  One  may  give  the  stimuli  rl9  r^  ...  rn  in  any  order 
whatsoever.  All  the  judgments  are  recorded  and  from  the 
records  one  finds  the  smallest  stimulus  on  which  the  judgment 
'  greater'  was  given,  and  combining  the  results  of  several  such 
experiments  one  obtains  a  result  which  is  identical  with  that  of 
the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences.  The  method  of  giving 
the  pairs  in  irregular  order  has  the  advantage  of  eliminating  the 
influence  of  expectation  on  the  part  of  the  observer  and  there 
is  no  difficulty  in  working  out  the  results  since  our  discussion 
has  shown  that  the  order  in  which  the  stimuli  are  presented  is 
not  essential  for  the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences. 

This  method  was  frequently  the  object  of  severe  criticism 
and  it  is  perhaps  not  void  of  interest  to  make  some  remarks  on 
how  its  accuracy  compares  with  that  of  the  method  of  right  and 
wrong  cases.  The  empirical  data  of  both  methods  are  the  same, 
namely  empirical  determinations  of  probabilities.  The  accuracy 
of  such  determinations  depends  on  the  so-called  coefficient  of 
precision  in  Bernoulli's  theorem.  This  quantity  depends  on  the 
probability  which  is  to  be  determined  in  this  sense,  that  it  is 
smallest  for  the  value  one  half  and  it  increases  when  the  prob- 
ability which  is  to  be  determined  approaches  zero  or  the  unit. 
In  the  formulae  given  above  the  P's  are  products  of  them's,  and 
Pk  is  always  smaller  than  fk  except  for  k  =  i  where  Pl  =f^ 
The  precision  in  the  determination  of  the  P's  is,  therefore, 
greater  than  in  that  of  them's.  The  method  of  just  perceptible 
differences  makes  use  of  the  P's  and,  with  the  same  number  of 
experiments,  its  accuracy  will  be  greater  than  that  of  the  method 
of  right  and  wrong  cases  which  starts  from  the  p's. 

We  will  illustrate  these  theoretical  considerations  by  some 
results  of  a  series  of  experiments  on  lifted  weights.  The 
standard  stimulus  of  100  gr.  was  compared  with  weights  of  84, 
88,  92,  96,  100,  104,  and  108  gr.  The  standard  was  always 
the  first  to  be  lifted  and  the  judgments  were  given  on  the  second 
stimulus.  In  the  experiments  a  terminology  was  used  similar 
to  that  suggested  by  Martin  and  Miiller,  but  for  the  present 
purpose  the  results  are  classed  as*  heavier '  judgments  and 
judgments  which  were  not  «  heavier'  judgments.  Table  I. 


METHOD    OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  DIFFERENCES.       249 

TABLE  I. 
PROBABILITIES  OF  A  '  HEAVIER  '  JUDGMENT. 


rk 

h 

not-h 

»H 

h 

not-h 

84 

88 

92 
96 

0.0222 
0.0244 
O.IIII 
0.2933 

0.9778 
0.9756 
0.8889 
0.7067 

100 
104 

108 

0.5289 
0.8156 
0.9044 

0.47II 
0.1844 
0.0956 

TABLE  II. 

VALUES  OF  Pk  FOR  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE 
POSITIVE  DIFFERENCE. 


84 

O.O222 

88 

0.0238 

92 

o.i  060 

96 

0.2487 

100 

0.3169 

104 

0.2302 

108 

0.0471 

2 

0.9949 

RI 

O.OO5O 

shows  the  observed  relative  frequencies  of  '  heavier '  judgments 
in  the  column  marked  *  h '  and  in  the  column  *  not-/z '  the  differ- 
ences of  these  numbers  from  the  unit  for  one  of  seven  subjects. 
These  numbers  of  relative  frequency  are  empirical  determina- 
tions of  the  underlying  probabilities  of  a  '  heavier '  judgment  and 
one  may  compute  oft  this  basis  the  value  of  P  for  every  com- 
parison weight.  The  results  of  this  computation  are  given  in 
Table  II.  This  table  shows  that  the  P's  increase  at  first  and 
then  approach  zero  very  rapidly  after  having  attained  a  certain 
maximum.  Multiplying  these  numbers  with  the  intensity  of  the 
corresponding  comparison  stimuli  and  adding  these  products 
gives  what  we  have  to  call  the  just  perceptible  difference,  if  the 
distribution  is  symmetrical.  This  result  is  given  in  Table  III. 
We  must  get  the  same  result  within  the  limits  of  accuracy  of  an 
empirical  determination,  if  we  count  how  many  times  it  occurred 
that  each  weight  was  the  lightest  weight  of  the  entire  series  to 
be  judged  *  heavier/  This  means  that  the  judgment  *  smaller  ' 
or  <  equal '  is  given  on  all  the  preceding  weights  and  that  this 


250 


F.  M.   URBAN. 


VALUES  OF 


TABLE  III. 

FOR  THE   DETERMINATION  OF  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE 
POSITIVE  DIFFERENCE. 


84 

1.8648 

88 

2.0944 

92 

9.7520 

96 

23.8752 

100 

31.6910 

104 

23.9408 

108 

5.0868 

I, 

98.3050 

weight  is  judged  *  heavier.*  The  results  of  this  observation  are 
given  in  Table  IV.,  where  under  the  heading  rk  the  intensities 
of  the  comparison  stimuli  are  given  and  under  the  heading  JVk 
the  number  of  times  each  stimulus  was  the  smallest  on  which 
the  judgment  *  heavier '  was  given.  These  results  are  given  for 
four  different  series  each  one  comprising  100  experiments  with 
each  pair  of  comparison  stimuli.  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  some 
of  the  columns  the  sum  of  all  these  numbers  is  somewhat 
smaller  than  100.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  those  series  in 
which  no  'heavier'  judgment  is  given  do  not  yield  a  result  by 
the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences,  which  is  also  expressed 
by  the  fact  that  the  Pk  do  not  add  up  exactly  to  one  as  shown 
in  Table  II.  The  combined  result  of  all  the  four  series  together 
is  given  in  Table  V.  The  difference  between  the  computed 
value  and  the  observed  values  is  very  small. 

TABLE  IV. 

RESULTS  OF  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  POSITIVE  DIFFER- 
ENCE IN  FOUR  SERIES  (IVA.,  I.,  III.  AND  IV.)  OF  100  EXPERIMENTS  EACH. 


IVA. 

I. 

in. 

IV. 

rk 

"* 

1^1 

** 

'& 

»* 

'*** 

xk 

'*** 

84 

4 

336 

2 

168 

i 

84 

I 

84 

88 

3 

264 

4 

352 

3 

264 

92 

8 

736 

18 

1,656 

7 

644 

12 

1,104 

96 

IOO 

25 
30 

2,400 
3,000 

26 
23 

2,496 
2,300 

11 

2,592 

2,800 

23 

37 

2,208 
3,7oo 

104 

24 

2,496 

19 

1,976 

3i 

3,224 

21 

2,184 

108 

8 

864 

6 

648 

2 

216 

2 

216 

2 

99 

9,832 

97 

9,5o8 

IOO 

9,912 

99 

9,760 

Average 

9947 

98.02 

99.12 

98.59 

METHOD    OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  DIFFERENCES.       251 

TABLE  V. 
RESULT  OF  THE  COMBINED  SERIES. 


r* 

Nk 

84 

8 

672 

88 

10 

880 

92 

45 

4,140 

96 

101 

9,696 

IOO 

118 

11,800 

104 
108 

?58 

9,88o 
'i,944 

2 

395 

39,012 

Observed  result 

98.714 

Computed  result 
Difference 

98-305 
0.409 

In  a  similar  way  one  may  find  the  just  perceptible  negative 
difference  from  the  same  series  of  experiments.  For  this  pur- 
pose one  first  has  to  find  the  numbers  of  relative  frequency  for  the 
'  lighter '  judgments  and  the  relative  frequencies  of  judgments 
which  are  not  *  lighter '  judgments.  From  these  numbers  which 
are  given  in  Table  VI.  one  may  find  the  probabilities  .Pthat  a 

TABLE  VI. 

PROBABILITIES  OF  '  LIGHTER  '  JUDGMENTS. 


r 

/ 

not-l 

rk 

l 

not-l 

84 

88 
92 
96 

0.8622 
0.7000 
0.4489 

0.0667 
0.1378 
0.3000 
0.55H 

IOO 

104 
108 

0.2311 
0.0956 
0.0156 

0.7689 
0.9044 
0.9844 

certain  comparison  weight  will  be  obtained  as  a  determination 
of  the  just  perceptible  negative  difference  (see  Table  VII.).     By 

TABLE  VII. 

VALUES  OF  Pk  FOR  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE 
NEGATIVE  DIFFERENCE. 


108 

0.0156 

104 

0.0941 

IOO 

0.2058 

96 

0.3073 

0.2641 

88 

0.0976 

84 

0.0145 

2 

0.9990 

R 

O.OOIO 

252 


F.  M.   URBAN. 


multiplying  these  probabilities  with  the  intensity  of  the  corre- 
sponding comparison  stimuli  one  finds  the  number  with  which 
each  stimulus  is  most  likely  to  come  down  for  the  determination 
of  the  just  perceptible  negative  difference,  and  by  adding  these 
numbers  one  finds  this  difference  itself.  Table  VIII.  gives 
the  course  of  this  computation  and  Table  IX.  shows  how  the 

TABLE   VIII. 

OF  rjtP*  FOR  THE  DETERMINATION  OF  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE 

NEGATIVE  DIFFERENCE. 


92 

96 

100 

104 
io8 

1.3104 
8.5888 
24.2972 
29.5008 
20.5764 
9.7864 
1.2180 

2 

95.2780 

computed  result  agrees  with  the  observations  on  the  same  sub- 
jects. This  table  shows  how  many  times  it  happened  that  each 
stimulus  was  the  greatest  to  be  judged  *  lighter,'  z*.  e.,  how  many 
times  this  stimulus  was  judged  *  lighter '  when  all  the  stimuli  of 
greater  intensity  were  judged  *  heavier'  or  *  equal.'  The  coin- 
cidence of  the  observed  results  with  the  computed  results  is  very 
close  as  it  is  seen  especially  in  Table  X.  The  same  experi- 
ments were  made  on  six  other  subjects  and  the  general  outcome 
was  invariably  the  same  :  the  coincidence  of  the  observed  results 

TABLE  IX. 

RESULTS  OF  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  NEGATIVE  DIFFER- 
ENCE IN  FOUR  SERIES  (IV A.,  I.,  III.  AND  IV.)  OF  100  EXPERIMENTS  EACH. 


IVA. 

I. 

in. 

IV. 

rk 

A* 

'*** 

"k 

r& 

"* 

'*»k 

fk 

Ifc^l 

84 

2 

168 

I 

84 

2 

1  68 

4 

336 

88 

6 

528 

12 

1,056 

13 

1,144 

17 

1,496 

92 

30 

2,760 

23 

2,116 

28 

2,576 

33 

3,036 

96 

29 

2,784 

29 

2,784 

24 

2,304 

30 

2,880 

100 

21 

2,100 

19 

1,900 

28 

2,800 

14 

1,400 

104 

10 

1,040 

13 

1,352 

I 

104 

2 

208 

108 

2 

216 

3 

324 

4 

432 

I, 

100 

9,596 

100 

9,616 

100 

9,528 

IOO 

9,356 

Average 

95.96 

96.16 

95-28 

93.56 

METHOD    OF  JUST  PERCEPTIBLE  DIFFERENCES.       253 


with  the  theoretical  results  is  very  close  in  all  the  cases  ;  in  some 
cases  it  is  less,  but  in  other  cases  it  is  considerably  greater  than 
in  our  example. 

TABLE  X. 
RESULT  OF  THE  COMBINED  SERIES. 


»Tl 

A* 

r*Nk 

84 

88 
92 
96 

100 

104 
108 

48 
114 

112 
82 
26 

9 

756 
4,224 
10,488 
10,752 
8,200 

2,704 
972 

400 

38,096 

Observed  result 
Computed  result 
Difference 

95.240 
95.278 

0.038 

We  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  experimental  procedure 
which  was  described  by  Fechner  and  Wundt  as  the  method  of 
just  perceptible  differences,  by  Miiller  and  Titchener  as  the 
method  of  limits,  is  peculiarly  well  adapted  for  its  purpose.  It 
may  be  handled  in  such  a  way  as  to  yield  experimental  data 
which  can  be  worked  out  as  well  by  the  algorithm  of  the  method 
of  right  and  wrong  cases  as  by  that  of  the  method  of  just  per- 
ceptible difference  despite  the  fact  that  the  pairs  of  comparison 
stimuli  are  not  presented  in  the  order  of  their  intensity  which 
seemed  to  be  an  indispensable  feature  of  this  method.  The 
theoretical  basis  of  the  method  of  just  perceptible  differences  is 
the  same  as  that  of  the  error  method,  namely  empirical  deter- 
minations of  the  probabilities  of  judgments  of  different  types  on 
given  differences  of  intensity.  The  result  of  the  so-called 
method  of  just  perceptible  differences  is  that  amount  of  differ- 
ence for  which  there  exists  the  probability  one  half  that  it  will 
be  recognized.1 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  May  27,  1907.  —  ED. 


THE  ULTIMATE  VALUE  OF  EXPERIENCE.1 

BY  PROFESSOR  STEPHEN  S.  COLVIN, 
University  of  Illinois. 

In  a  brief  article  appearing  in  this  REVIEW  last  November, 
I  pointed  out  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  certain  essential  charac- 
teristics of  experience,  emphasizing  particularly  the  thought 
that  experience  is  the  ultimate  essence  of  the  universe,  and  as 
such  is  subject,  and  never  object.  Hence  it  follows  that  this 
most  fundamental  of  all  activities  cannot  be  known,  since  we 
can  know  only  objects.  The  experience  of  the  moment  is  pure 
being,  immediate  and  underived,  while  objects  experienced  are 
always  conditioned  being,  mediate  and  derived  ;  yet  only  through 
these,  can  experience  as  such  be  described  or  comprehended. 

This  experience,  however,  as  subject,while  thus  distinguish- 
able from  the  objects  of  experience  is  not  something  separable 
from  them.  Without  them  it  could  not  exist  as  experience.  It 
is  not  something  left  over  and  above  them,  but  becomes  an  ac- 
tuality only  through  its  objects.  Just  as  light  is  invisible  where 
there  are  no  objects  for  it  to  illuminate,  so  experience  vanishes 
when  the  objects  of  experience  are  no  more.  Yet,  although 
experience  becomes  actual  only  in  its  objects,  it  is  not  merely  a 
logical  shadow  of  these  objects  themselves.  It  actually  ts9 
although  itself  it  is  incapable  of  being  experienced.  To  give  it 
a  mere  formal  existence  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  thought 
would  be  absurd.  It  is  more  actual  than  any  or  all  of  its  ob- 
jects. It  belongs  to  another  order  of  being,  unknowable  be- 
cause unmediated,  final,  undefined. 

Nothing,  then,  can  be  said  of  this  experience  except  to  deny 
to  it  certain  qualities  which  its  objects  possess.  Its  objects  flow 
and  develop  ;  they  are  limited  by  temporal  and  causal  categories. 
With  them  nothing  is  final ;  all  is  relative  and  incomplete. 

1  This  paper  was  read  before  the  Western  Philosophical  Association , 
Chicago,  March  30,  1907. 

254 


THE    ULTIMATE    VALUE   OF  EXPERIENCE.  255 

They  have  no  values  in  themselves,  but  possess  worth  only  in 
terms  of  their  origin  and  goal.  Their  significance  is  acquired 
in  the  process  of  their  development  into  and  integration  with 
other  objects  of  experience.  Experience  as  ultimate  being, 
however,  cannot  be  limited,  or  dependent  on  anything  else  for 
its  value.  If  it  possesses  worth  and  significance,  this  cannot  be 
because  it  leads  anywhere,  nor  because  it  serves  any  ulterior 
purpose.  If  it  has  value  that  value  must  be  ultimate  and  com- 
plete. 

Little  satisfaction,  however,  can  come  from  such  negative 
determinations  as  these,  and  we  might  well  let  the  whole  matter 
drop  here,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  among  the  objects  of 
experience  there  exists  a  group  which,  although  clearly  derived 
and  secondary  in  their  nature,  still  in  a  way  function  for  this 
unknowable,  absolute  experience,  and  come  to  take  its  place. 
This  group  of  experienced  objects  which  I  refer  to,  forms  the  core 
of  our  objective  existence.  They  reside  largely  in  those  sen- 
sations that  are  at  the  basis  of  instinctive  expressions,  that  lend 
color  and  warmth  to  more  external  objects  —  they  combine  into 
emotions,  and  give  the  notion  of  the  self  as  a  feeling  and  active 
being ;  they  are  subconscious ;  they  suggest  a  beyond ;  they 
point,  as  they  vanish  from  a  world  of  conscious  objectivity  to  a 
realm  of  completed  being  which  contains  all  and  conditions 
reality. 

These  subconscious  experiences,  then,  functioning  for  an 
absolute  into  which  they  seem  to  recede  and  from  which  they 
appear  to  be  derived,  may  be  studied  by  the  psychologist,  an- 
alyzed and  defined,  and  this  analysis  may  be  taken  in  a  certain 
way  as  representing  the  pure,  subjective  experience  of  which 
they  are  symbols.  These  concrete  experiences,  however,  should 
never  be  identified  with  the  subject  of  experience,  as  is  often 
the  case.  They  are  subjective  only  in  a  relative  sense.  Even 
the  self-experience  itself  is  an  object  among  other  objects  and 
cannot  be  considered  as  anything  more  than  a  phase  or  aspect 
of  experience,  certainly  not  the  experience  as  such. 

This  relatively  immediate  aspect  of  this  group  of  objects  of 
experience  is,  I  take  it,  the  psychological  entity  to  which  Pro- 
fessor James  has  given  the  name  of  *  pure  experience  ' ;  it  is  the 


256  STEPHEN  S.   COLVIN. 

part  which  may  be  called  simple  sensation,  mere  feeling,  unde- 
fined longing,  objectless  impulse.  It  is  as  such  an  abstraction, 
because  it  never  exists  in  its  purity,  or  if  it  does  so  exist  it  is 
essentially  unknowable.  This  pure  experience  is  that  part  of 
the  total  experience  which  is  least  objectified,  that  tends  the 
least  to  develop ;  that,  however,  as  far  as  it  does  develop,  gives 
up  its  original  character,  and  passes  into  something  quite  dif- 
ferent. In  so  far  as  it  remains  undeveloped,  however,  it  resists 
analysis  and  hence  comes  to  be  regarded  as  quite  apart  from  the 
clear-cut  objects  of  experience  in  the  center  of  consciousness. 
Thus,  vaguely  defined  and  relatively  unknowable,  it  has  been 
the  fruitful  source  of  mysticism  and  absolutism  in  philosophy. 
Here  is  found,  for  example,  Fitche's  Absolute  Ego,  which  re- 
fuses to  reveal  itself  completely  in  the  personal  me,  and  of 
which  no  assertion  can  be  made. 

Such,  then,  is  this  phase  of  objective  experience  which  may 
be  studied  by  the  philosopher  and  psychologist  as  representative 
and  symbolic  of  the  unconditioned  subject  of  experience,  or  ex- 
perience as  such.  One  of  its  most  striking  and  interesting 
characteristics  is  that  it  in  a  certain  sense  possesses  an  ultimate 
value.  This  core  of  our  objective  world  does  not  readily  pass 
over  into  the  more  fleeting  objects  to  which  it  gives  value  and 
degrees  of  worth ;  it  tends  to  remain  in  itself  and  to  be  satisfied 
with  itself.  Its  worth,  like  that  of  the  absolute  experience,  is 
in  the  moment,  non-temporal  and  in  a  sense  eternal.  Its  value 
is  simply  because  it  t's,  not  because  it  grows  into  something  else. 
It  is  not  good  or  bad  because  it  is  pleasurable  or  painful.  As 
experience,  it  is  good ;  it  can  be  bad  only  in  the  sense  that  it  is 
not  as  rich  an  experience  as  might  be  possible.  The  good  of 
the  universe  from  this  standpoint  is  not  summed  up  in  the 
thought  more  pleasurable  experience,  but  rather  more  experi- 
ence. Common  sense  recognizes  this  fact  in  often  cherishing 
those  experiences  that  have  been  full  of  pain  and  trouble  because 
they  have  given  glimpses  of  realities  unknown  to  more  mild  and 
pleasurable  states  of  mind.  "  To  have  loved  and  lost  is  better 
than  never  to  have  loved  at  all,"  for  the  experience  itself  with 
all  its  bitterness  has  an  ultimate  value  because  it  is  an  ex- 
perience. 


THE    ULTIMATE    VALUE    OF  EXPERIENCE.  257 

In  these  days,  however,  we  seem  to  be  in  danger  of  losing 
sight  of  this  fact,  not  in  our  practice  probably,  but  very  possibly 
in  our  theorizing.  We  see  this  tendency  to  forget  that  imme- 
diate experience  has  a  value  in  and  for  itself  exemplified  in  the 
modern  theory  of  utilitarian  and  prudential  ethics,  and  in  its 
companion  theory,  in  intellectual  philosophy,  twentieth  century 
pragmatism. 

This  is  perhaps  somewhat  striking  when  we  remember  that 
utilitarianism  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  hedonism,  which  in 
making  pleasure  the  norm  of  action,  affirmed  the  ultimate  value 
of  experience.  For  pleasure  is  pleasure  of  the  moment.  It  is 
the  eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-die  variety.  Only 
when  it  began  to  rationalize  pleasures,  put  some  above  others 
as  more  worthy  or  satisfying,  did  hedonism  and  modern  utili- 
tarianism depart  from  its  original  position  and  seek  values  not 
given  in  the  experience  as  such. 

The  same  seems  to  be  true  of  pragmatism  to  an  ex- 
tent. It  also  starts  with  immediate  reality  in  the  pure  experi- 
ence of  James,  and  seems  clearly  to  reaffirm  this  principle 
of  immanence  in  the  doctrine  that  truth  is  satisfaction.  My  pur- 
pose here  is  not,  however,  to  dwell  on  this  phase  of  the  incon- 
sistency, but  rather  to  point  out  that  in  the  rational  development 
of  these  two  philosophies  they  seem  at  times  to  have  very  thor- 
oughly forgotten  the  immanent  basis  from  which  they  alike 
originated.  To  emphasize  this  latter  point  we  may  consider 
more  definitely  modern  utilitarianism  in  some  of  its  teachings. 

The  essence  of  this  doctrine  may  be  summed  up,  I  believe, 
in  the  statement  of  *  voluntary  general  altruism  '  (so  called),  that 
the  end  of  virtuous  striving  is  to  secure  the  greatest  good  for 
the  greatest  possible  number  on  the  whole  and  in  the  long  run. 
This  demands  that  any  act,  if  it  be  truly  ethical,  shall  consider 
all  the  consequences  that  may  flow  from  it,  and  thus  justify  or 
condemn  itself.  On  the  surface  there  seems  to  be  no  possible 
objection  to  such  an  ethical  philosophy,  except  perhaps  the 
difficulty  of  securing  any  satisfactory  criterion  on  which  to  base 
an  evaluation  of  conduct.  This,  however,  is  no  real  objection 
to  the  theoretical  bearings  of  the  system.  If  we  look  more 
closely,  however,  I  believe  we  can  detect  an  inherent  weakness 


258  STEPHEN  S.   COLVIN. 

in  the  doctrine,  which  relates  itself  to  the  general  topic  under 
discussion  in  this  paper,  and  which  shows  this  school  of  ethical 
theorizers  to  have  been  better  logicians  than  they  were  psycholo- 
gists. I  can  perhaps  make  my  point  clearer  by  a  concrete 
example. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  person  has  fallen  into  the  water  and 
is  in  danger  of  drowning.  Someone  standing  on  the  bank  may 
have  an  impulse  to  jump  in  and  attempt  at  the  risk  of  his  own 
life  to  rescue  the  other.  Now  if  the  man  on  the  bank  chances 
to  be  an  utilitarian  philosopher  he  must  consider  the  conse- 
quences of  his  deed  in  terms  of  the  general  good.  Perhaps  the 
man  that  is  drowning  is  of  little  value  to  the  world,  while  the 
person  who  feels  moved  to  risk  his  own  life  in  order  to  save  the 
unfortunate  in  the  water  may  occupy  an  important  place  in  the 
affairs  of  men.  Then  he  should  refrain  from  the  attempt,  since 
the  greatest  good  demands  his  own  safety  be  considered  as  of 
primary  importance.  This  seems  a  simple  case  of  logic,  but  I 
am  persuaded  that  it  is  too  simple.  In  the  analysis  something  has 
escaped  that  is  more  valuable  than  that  which  has  remained,  an 
act  of  heroism  and  a  heroic  impulse  have  perished.  Clearly  this 
has  worth  —  a  worth  arising  not  merely  from  the  consequences 
that  flow  from  heroic  deeds,  but  a  worth  in  itself.  It  is  good  to 
be  heroic.  As  an  ultimate  experience  heroism  has  value  ;  con- 
sidered in  a  mere  timeless  relationship  it  is  good. 

So  the  utilitarian  philosopher  must  revise  his  reasoning  in 
this  particular  emergency.  He  must  include  in  his  calculations 
of  ultimate  benefits  this  impulse  of  heroism  and  find  its  place 
in  his  scale  of  values.  He  must  see  to  it  that  it  finds  its  due 
place.  Now  this  readjustment  may  seem  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  the  situation.  Logically  the  system  may  be  thus  justified ; 
but  psychologically  such  an  attempt  would  prove  an  absurdity. 

For  let  us  assume  that  the  utilitarian  philosopher  attempts  in 
the  evaluation  of  his  act  to  consider  the  worth  of  the  impulse 
that  prompts  it ;  let  us  suppose  that  he  brings  into  his  focal  con- 
sciousness his  instinctive  heroism.  In  that  moment  the  impulse 
vanishes,  the  instinct  dies.  No  one  can  be  heroic  if  he  analyzes 
his  heroism.  As  has  already  been  pointed  out  it  is  impossible 
to  bring  these  subconscious  tendencies  and  feelings  into  atten- 
tion and  have  them  remain  in  their  true  value. 


THE    ULTIMATE    VALUE    OF  EXPERIENCE.  259 

Thus  it  happens  that  utilitarianism  can  never  evaluate  this 
element.  It  falls  into  an  obvious  dilemma.  If  the  impulse  is 
to  exist,  it  cannot  form  a  part  of  the  ethical  scheme,  which  thus 
becomes  inadequate ;  if  rational  analysis  attempts  to  place  it  in 
the  scale  of  values  it  disappears  from  experience.  Its  value  as 
an  ultimate  reality  precludes  the  possibility  of  its  entering  into 
the  mediate  world  of  rationalized  and  clearly  objectified  expe- 
rience. 

Of  course  it  would  be  quite  possible  in  retrospect  to  evaluate 
this  impulse.  This,  however,  would  not  give  it  a  place  in  the 
realm  of  ethical  values  in  the  moment  of  their  existence,  and 
would  not  help,  therefore,  in  the  actual  situations  of  life. 
Further  this  evaluation,  in  retrospect  or  in  prospect,  of  impulses 
tends  to  destroy  these  impulses  as  such.  If  we  lay  bare  our 
affective  life  it  becomes  deadened  and  mechanical.  The  real 
enthusiasm,  the  spontaneity  of  expression,  fail  us ;  sympathy 
becomes  mere  prudence ;  courage,  rational  foresight ;  just 
indignation,  calculating  expediency,  and  so  on.  This  is  one 
of  the  greatest  faults  of  the  practical  ethics  of  our  present  age ; 
over-analysis  has  often  eliminated  the  *  Schone  Seele  '  and  even 
the  4  Categorical  Imperative.' 

If  we  turn  from  a  consideration  of  utilitarian  ethics  to  utili- 

i 

tarian  epistemology  we  find  a  parallel  difficulty.  It  is  here  in 
the  noetic  realm  exactly  on  a  level  with  hedonism  in  the  conative 
realm ;  for  hedonism  says  pleasure  is  the  norm  of  goodness^ 
pragmatism  says  that  satisfaction  is  the  measure  of  truth.  So 
any  pleasure  that  is  genuine  is  good ;  any  satisfaction  that  is 
real  is  truth.  Here  is  pure  immanence,  a  genuine  absolute, 
self-contained  and  unconditioned.  Yet  soon  we  find  these  two 
philosophies  seeking  to  go  outside  this  immanence  to  distinguish 
between  pleasures  and  satisfaction  in  order  to  rationalize  their 
view-points  and  organize  their  thinking.  Naturally  such  a  pro- 
cedure is  necessary  if  a  system  is  to  be  built  up.  My  sole  criti- 
cism here  would  be  that  their  immanent  starting  point  would 
never  in  itself  have  developed  into  such  a  system  without  the 
injection  of  something  quite  foreign  to  it  in  its  original  form. 
Hedonism  and  pragmatism  can  be  attitudes  of  feeling  and 
action,  but  never  in  their  original  forms  ethics  or  epistemology. 


260  STEPHEN  S.   COLVIN. 

Although  in  the  discussions  on  pragmatism  which  have 
appeared  during  the  last  few  years  truth  has  been  often  spoken 
of  as  a  feeling  of  satisfaction,  the  pragmatist  has  not  actually 
held  to  this  description  of  the  experience  without  soon  going 
beyond  it.  Ethical  utilitarianism  was  long  ago  forced  to  depart 
from  its  immanent  starting  point  to  evaluate  goodness ;  so,  too, 
pragmatism  has  continually  sought  justification  by  measuring 
satisfaction  in  something  outside  of  the  immediate  satisfaction. 
It  has  recognized  that  it  could  not  consider  satisfaction  as  such 
the  badge  of  truth,  but  only  that  satisfaction  which  is  based  on 
wide  experience  and  clear  intelligence.  Otherwise  the  satis- 
faction of  the  unthinking  dogmatist  would  stand  for  a  greater 
truth,  generally  speaking,  than  the  more  mild  and  less  perma- 
nent contentment  of  the  critical  seeker  after  reality.  Clearly 
this  further  evaluation  is  quite  desirable  and  necessary.  It  is 
not,  however,  in  accord  with  that  aspect  of  pragmatic  philosophy 
that  has  its  basis  in  pure  experience. 

In  its  growth  pragmatism  like  utilitarianism  has  gone  very 
far  from  a  subjective  basis ;  it  has  become  indeed  the  complete 
opposite  of  absolutism,  whether  subjective  or  objective.  It  is  a 
philosophy  of  development,  it  has  no  finality,  no  abiding,  no 
permanence.  Its  only  universal  truth  is  that  there  is  no  uni- 
versality to  truth.  What  is  good  in  the  scheme  of  utilitarian 
ethics  to-day  may  be  bad  tomorrow ;  what  is  true  in  the  fabric 
of  utilitarian  epistemology  to-day  may  be  false  tomorrow. 

The  parallelism  between  the  two  doctrines  may  be  carried 
still  farther.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  how  the  ethical 
utilitarian  in  attempting  to  evaluate  conduct  and  to  arrive  at  the 
greatest  good,  leaves  out  of  necessity  the  very  impulses  from 
which  good  actions  spring,  which  impulses  are  of  themselves  of 
final  worth,  not  because  they  lead  anywhere  but  because  as 
immanent  experience  they  have  an  ultimate  value.  So,  too, 
intellectual  utilitarianism  in  carrying  out  its  principle  that  truth 
depends  on  relationships  is  compelled  to  ignore  that  factor 
which  gives  truth  its  final  value,  namely  that  sense  of  convic- 
tion that  comes  with  every  conclusion.  This  impulse  to  assert 
that  the  truth  we  arrive  at  is  not  a  merely  relative  affair,  and  to 
believe  that  in  some  way  it  has  a  transcendent  value  is  charac- 


THE    ULTIMATE    VALUE   OF  EXPERIENCE.  261 

teristic  of  all  thinking  that  ends  in  a  proposition.  There  is  a 
feeling  that  in  some  way  an  abiding  fact  has  been  reached. 

Of  course  in  the  next  moment,  the  thinker  may  find  his 
assertions  unsatisfactory  and  incomplete,  and  thought  may 
develop  toward  a  new  resting  place.  However,  in  the  moment 
that  we  have  an  experience  of  truth,  we  possess  a  feeling  of  con- 
viction. This  conviction  is  quite  at  variance  with  the  attitude 
that  holds%to  relativity  and  incompleteness.  This  intellectual 
emotion  does  not  thrive  well  under  pragmatic  logic.  Enthu- 
siasm for  truth  does  not  tend  to  abound  and  spread  over  the 
earth,  when  it  is  made  known  that  truth  as  such  is  not  to  be 
gained.  The  utilitarian  who  confidently  asserts  that  a  situation 
is  true  because  it  works  (o*-  i  -ause  you  can  work  it),  is  not  apt 
to  realize  that  the  very  reason  why  the  situation  works  is  because 
there  goes  with  it  a  feeling  of  conviction.  Action  does  not 
develop  in  uncertainty.  To  hesitate  is  here  as  elsewhere  to  be 
lost.  The  feeling  of  certainty  is  necessary  but  is  not  easily  in- 
cluded in  the  pragmatic  scheme  ;  here  it  tends  to  lose  its  instruc- 
tive force  and  immanent  value ;  for  like  the  tendency  toward 
right  action,  this  impulse  toward  true  action  vanishes  as  soon  as 
it  is  forced  into  the  world  of  partial  and  conditioned  values. 
The  instinct  of  certainty  will  not  work  if  it  is  valued  only  as  a 
thing  to  be  worked ;  but,  since  it  is  at  the  basis  of  all  workable 
propositions,  nothing  will  work  without  it  being  present;  yet  no 
pragmatist  may  say,  —  "  Go  to,  I  need  this  certainty,  in  order 
to  have  my  situation  work  out  truly,  therefore  I  will  possess 
myself  of  this  feeling  in  order  that  I  may  work  it  to  my  practical 
advantage."  And  even  if  the  pragmatist  could  accomplish  this 
impossibility  ;  even  if  by  such  a  means  he  could  make  his  situa- 
tions work  as  best  satisfy  his  demands,  he  would  have  failed  to 
have  gained  that  ultimate  experience  of  truth,  which  knows  no 
relativity  in  the  moment  of  the  experience  and  which  in  the  scale 
of  human  values  has  a  final  and  abiding  worth. 

Such  a  humanizing  experience  can  never  come  to  the  phi- 
losopher nor  scientist  who  believes  that  the  truth  he  now  pos- 
sesses, at  this  moment,  is  merely  a  relative  affair,  and  true  only 
in  the  sense  that  it  fits  temporarily  into  a  scheme  of  workable 
relations.  As  in  ethics  speculation  on  a  moral  impulse  helps  to 


262  STEPHEN   S.  COLVIN. 

destroy  it,  so  in  logic  reflection  on  the  instinct  of  certainty  tends 
to  remove  all  certainty,  and  thus  to  hinder  intellectual  progress. 
The  result  is  the  same  in  either  case,  a  moral  or  an  intellectual 
sophistry. 

To  sum  up  the  foregoing: 

Ultimate  experience  as  such  cannot  be  known,  since  only 
objects  can  be  known ;  yet  such  ultimate  experience  is  an 
actuality.  Of  it  as  such  nothing  can  be  said,  except  to  deny  to 
it  the  characteristics  of  the  objects  of  experience.  There^  is, 
however,  in  every  experience  a  group  of  objects  that  function  in 
a  sense  for  the  ultimate  experience  (the  subject  of  the  objects 
experienced),  and  which  may  be  taken  as  symbolic  of  the  pure 
experience  that  does  not  reveal  itself.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant characteristics  of  this  relatively  subjective  and  immediate 
aspect  of  experience  is  that  it  seems  to  have  an  ultimate  value 
and  finality  in  itself.  In  modern  times  two  philosophic  creeds 
have  arisen  out  of  this  immanent  experience,  the  one  utili- 
tarianism and  the  other  pragmatism.  Both  have  in  a  sense 
assumed  the  validity  of  this  immanent  experience,  the  one  in 
the  doctrine  of  pleasure  as  the  ultimate  end  of  striving,  the  other 
in  the  assertion  that  satisfaction  is  the  badge  of  truth  ;  yet  in  the 
development  of  their  philosophic  beliefs  both  have  departed  at 
once  from  the  immanent  point  of  view,  thus  ignoring  their  origin. 
Further,  these  two  systems  in  their  evaluation  of  goodness  and 
truth  have  not  taken  account  of  the  goodness  that  is  good  in  and 
for  itself,  and  the  truth  that  is  self-contained  and  unconditioned. 
They  have  in  other  words,  disregarded  the  ultimate  worth  of  that 
part  of  our  experience  that  is  relatively  subjective  and  which  ordi- 
narily does  not  enter  into  the  flux  of  a  constantly  changing 
world. 

The  true  point  of  view  seems  to  be  that  there  are  elements 
in  our  experience  that  have  what  may  be  termed  a  final  value 
in  the  moment  of  that  experience,  that  point  back  to  no  condi- 
tioning reality,  nor  forward  to  a  growing  system  of  facts. 
Here  are  found  impulses  and  feelings  that  lie  at  the  basis  of 
our  moral  and  intellectual  judgments  and  give  all  experience  its 
significance,  not  only  because  of  that  which  is  to  follow,  but 
also  because  of  that  which  actually  is.  These  impulses  and 


THE    ULTIMATE    VALUE    OF  EXPERIENCE.  263 

feelings  are  necessary  for  our  right  living  and  true  thinking. 
They  give  a  final  worth  to  action  and  an  abiding  value  to  truth. 
An  utilitarian  philosophy  should  evaluate  them,  and  find  a  place 
for  them  in  its  world  of  contrasts  and  relations.  This,  how- 
ever, it  is  singularly  incapable  of  doing,  since  when  it  attempts 
such  an  evaluation  the  very  being  of  these  impulses  vanishes. 
Thus  there  must  always  be  an  inadequacy  in  this  philosophy. 
It  can  never  give  more  than  a  partial  view  of  the  world  because 
it  ignores  one  of  its  most  essential  constituents.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  intuitive  ethics  and  an  absolute  logic,  while  not  free 
from  errors,  both  consider  the  immanent  aspect  of  experience  in 
which  these  impulses  are  found.  Here  a  moral  impulse  and  an 
intellectual  thrill  are  given  their  worth.  Rightly  or  wrongly, 
too,  they  are  held  to  function  for  a  pure  experience,  outside  of 
the  objective  flow  of  consciousness,  that  contains  absolute  worth 
and  abiding  truth.  Here  is  the  psychological  basis  for  a 
philosophy  of  permanent  values  and  transcendent  significance. 


ON  TRUTH.1 

BY  PROFESSOR  J.  MARK  BALDWIN, 
Johns  Hopkins  University, 

I.  THE  MEANING  OF  CORRECTNESS. 

Our  discussion  of  truth  may  be  considerably  abbreviated  in 
view  of  the  preceding  genetic  discussions  ;2  for  the  lines  of  pro- 
gression converge  very  plainly  to  a  consistent  point  of  view.  It 
has  become  evident  that  the  progress  of  mind  is  marked  by  the 
differentiation  of  control  spheres  into  which  the  classified  and 
dependable  and  typical  modes  of  experience  fall.  All  this  has 
been  traced  in  terms  of  the  development  of  *  dualisms.'  We 
find  certain  great  psychic  dualisms  developing  and  undergoing 
constant  transformation  and  restatement  with  the  development 
of  the  mental  life  as  a  whole. 

Further,  it  is  simply  a  necessity  of  this  development  of 
dualism,  as  between  the  inner  and  outer  control  factors,  that 
there  should  arise  modes  of  what  we  have  called  '  conversion.'3 
This  is  necessary  since  the  progress  of  consciousness  is  toward 
setting  up  its  constructions  as  under  mediate  control,  that  is  as 
relatively  remote  from  the  original  experiences  with  their  direct 
coefficients.  The  entire  development  of  inner  control  is,  as  we 
have  seen,  toward  the  more  and  more  independent  construction 
of  a  content  of  presentation  and  thought,  which  has  its  reference 
however  back  through  some  process  of  mediation  to  the  sphere 
in  which  it  is  to  find  its  direct  confirmation  again.  Images  are 
•  read  as  memories,  and  not  fancies,  according  as  they  are  converti- 
ble into  experiences  of  the  perceptual  type.  Private  experiences 
make  good  only  as  they  are  convertible  in  turn  into  the  corre- 
sponding experiences  of  other  persons  besides.  Thoughts  are 

1  Being  part  of  Chap.  XIII.  of  Thought  and  Things  or  Genetic  Logic,  vol. 
I.,  'Experimental  Logic',  somewhat  modified  to  make  reference  to  criticisms 

of  vol.  I.,  by  Dewey  and  Moore  (see  the  '  Comment '  below  in  this  issue,  p.  297). 

2  See  Chap.  XI.  of  vol.  I.  of  Thought  and  Things. 
*Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  Chap.  IV.,  \\  3,  4. 

264 


ON   TRUTH.  265 

true  and  valid  when  they  find  confirmation  in  some  more  direct 
mode  of  experience  that  they  are  true  to. 

We  have,  therefore,  the  rise  of  two  modes  of  meaning  — 
one  that  of  mediation,  and  the  other  that  of  lack  or  failure  of 
mediation.  The  fact  of  mediation  is  just  that  of  relative  refer- 
ence to  the  further  and  more  direct  control  which  the  given  con- 
struction mediates.  The  lack  or  failure  of  mediation,  while 
not  a  negative  thing  in  itself,  yet  arises  from  the  same  motive  as 
that  whose  positive  requirement  is  mediation. 

Now  we  have  found  it  necessary  to  recognize  at  least  two 
great  cases  of  outright  mediation  —  cases  in  which  the  evident 
value  and  role  of  a  construction  is  to  present  an  original  con- 
trol and  conserve  its  force,  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  made  rel- 
atively remote  and  mediate.  These  typical  cases  are  those  to 
which  we  have  already  given  the  character  of  '  mediate  control' ; 
namely,  memory,  taken  in  the  broad  sense  of  reproductive  im- 
agery, and  thought.  Memory  is  a  context  that  mediates  per- 
ceptual control  by  possible  conversion  into  it ;  this  we  have 
shown  in  the  three  great  cases  of  the  physical,  the  social  or 
personal,  and  the  merely  temporal  (the  memory  of  events).1 
Thought,  too,  is  a  context  set  up  in  a  way  that  mediates  the 
control  of  the  spheres  from  which  its  materials  come,  whatever 
that  may  be. 

Here  we  may  add,  that  to  deny  this  character  to  these  two 
modes  of  construction  —  whatever  else  we  may  deny  of  them  -- 
is  to  destroy  them,  as  the  modes  of  psychic  meaning  that  they 
are.  To  make  a  memory  inconvertible  into  direct  experience  is 
to  make  it  no  longer  a  memory,  but  a  fugitive  or  fanciful  image, 
an  illusion,  a  dream ;  for  such  states  are  differentiated  from 
memories  just  in  that  they  lack  this  mediation  of  the  coefficients 
of  perceptual  or  other  simpler  control.  The  character  of  mem- 
ory, then,  that  makes  it  what  it  is  in  the  actual  progression  of 
cognition,  is  its  correctness ,  its  accuracy,  its  way  of  *  matching 
up '  with  the  experiences  whose  control  the  memory  mediates. 

So  it  is  with  thoughts.  Their  first  and  essential  character, 
as  a  system  of  meanings  set  up  in  a  mind,  is  this  :  they  have  a 
content  that  is  not  capricious,  fugitive,  disconnected,  but  one 

*  Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  Chap.  IV. 


266  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

that  mediates  the  sphere  of  control  from  which  the  contents  were 
drawn.  Thoughts  are  correct  or  incorrect,  according  as  they 
are  referable  or  not  to  something  or  other  in  a  world  in  which 
there  is  a  matching  with  the  simpler  contents  whose  control  is 
thus  mediated.  The  correctness  or  incorrectness  of  memories 
we  call  their  '  accuracy '  or  inaccuracy ;  that  of  thoughts  we 
call  their  *  truth  '  or  falsity. 

I  use  the  word  «  match '  deliberately,  only  to  discard  it  later 
on  for  the  case  of  truth,  since  it  is  actually  applicable  to  mem- 
ory, and  has  suggestions  that  are  valuable  throughout.  In 
memory  there  is  an  actual  image,  a  sort  of  visual  or  other  pic- 
ture, constructed  on  the  lines  of  the  original  perceptual  content, 
and  we  can  often  bring  it  up  in  mind  so  definitely  that  the  real 
thing  can  be  compared  with  it,  and  the  details  actually  matched 
one  upon  the  other.  I  know  when  my  memory  leaves  out  a 
note,  when  my  visual  image  leaves  out  a  feature,  so  soon  as  I 
have  the  actual  tune  or  shape  reproduced  for  me,  so  that  I  can 
directly  match  the  two. 

In  memory,  the  need  of  correctness  is  evident  enough. 
Action  in  the  larger  sense,  on  the  part  of  the  knower,  depends 
upon  the  accuracy  of  the  image  that  stands  for  the  actual  thing. 
The  individual  acts  upon  the  thing ;  then  he  acts  similarly  on 
the  memory  of  the  thing ;  this  he  can  do  because  the  memory 
has  this  prime  character  of  mediating  the  thing. 

Admitting  the  analogy  between  the  cases  of  memory  and 
thought,  we  may  then  suggest  for  memory  a  pair  of  questions 
that  are  much  discussed  with  reference  to  thought.  Are  the 
memories,  we  may  ask,  correct  because  we  can  act  on  them  in- 
stead of  on  the  things,  or  is  the  proper  account  the  reverse  —  that 
we  can  act  on  memories  instead  of  the  things  because  they  are 
correct  f  In  reply,  I  should  say  that  the  latter  is  the  proper  way 
to  put  the  case ;  since,  while  we  cannot  act  successfully  on 
what  is  not  correct,  we  can  establish  correctness  without  impli- 
cating the  motive  to  the  specific  sort  of  action.  That  is  to  say, 
granted  that  action  is  implicated,  and  that  it  is  necessarily  carried 
out  in  actually  securing  the  matching  that  confirms  the  correct- 
ness, still  it  is  not  genetically  the  motive  to  the  acceptance  of 
the  memory  item  as  correct.  The  same  is  true  of  truth,  in  my 


ON  TRUTH.  267 

opinion,  and  so  it  may  be  well  to  examine  the  case  of  memory 
more  fully  here. 

Suppose  we  take  a  case  recently  used  by  others l  in  advo- 
cating the  opposite  view.  One  is  lost  in  the  woods,  and  has  a 
*  thought '  —  in  this  case  it  would  be  largely  a  memory  —  of  the 
way  to  get  out.  Of  all  the  possible  plans  of  direction,  turnings, 
etc.,  he  acts  on  the  one  that  seems  'right.'  He  comes  out  at 
his  home.  Now  what  has  constituted  the  correctness,  or  truth, 
of  his  plan  ?  —  why  is  the  thought  of  the  situation  on  which  he 
has  acted  to  be  labelled  *  correct '  ? 

The  '  action  theory '  —  so  to  call  it  briefly  —  says  the  plan  is 
true  or  correct  because  it  has  led  to  successful  action  :  but  for 
his  success  in  getting  out,  his  plan  would  have  been  false. 
The  essence  of  the  correctness  or  truth  of  the  thought  or  mem- 
ory is  to  be  found,  then,  in  its  being  a  plan  of  successful  action. 

But  certain  difficulties  with  this  are  so  evident  that  they  '  fly 
up  and  strike  one  in  the  face.'  Suppose  we  ask,  how  the  case 
would  have  differed  if  the  man  had  not  got  home ;  would  he 
not  still  have  used  the  thought  as  a  plan  of  action?  Yes,  it  is 
said,  but  not  successfully.  Then  the  critical  point  is  not  merely 
the  action,  but  the  success  of  the  action.  Now  what  is  the 
mark  of  success  of  the  action?  —  how  does  the  man  know  his 
action  is  successful?  The  only  answer  is,  by  what  he  sees 
or  otherwise  finds  before  him  when  he  recognizes  the  familiar 
surroundings  ;  that  is,  by  the  -perceptual  experiences  found  to  be 
what  the  thought  or  memory  presented  in  image.  Without  this 
recognition  or  identification,  action  is  vain.  The  test  then  is  a 
perceptual  experience  fulfilling2  the  details  of  the  -plan  that 
guided  his  action.  Instead  then  of  the  action  establishing  or 
guaranteeing  the  correctness,  it  is  the  correctness  alone  that 
justifies  the  specific  form  of  action.  In  other  words,  we  are 
correct  in  our  first  proposition  made  just  above,  namely,  that 
action  cannot  get  to  its  appropriate  goal  without  the  preliminary 
presumption  that  the  thought  that  guides  it  is  correct.  Accu- 
racy of  imagery  and  truthfulness  of  thought  are  the  conditions 

1  Russell  and  Dewey,/0«r#.  of  Phil os.,  III.,  599,  and  IV.,  201. 

2  That  is,  establishing,  confirming,  realizing,  in  the  sense  of  giving  the  same 
contents  with  the  perceptual  coefficients. 


268  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

of  the  substitution  of  these  constructions  for  the  original  things, 
which  as  guides  to  action  they  mediate.  If  the  man  fails  to 
recognize  his  home  when  he  sees  it,  the  plan  may  still  be  true 
though  to  him  his  action  has  not  been  successful. 

The  *  success '  necessary,  therefore,  does  not  attach  to 
acting  thus  or  so,  but  to  the  mediating  of  the  original  physical 
control  for  the  individual's  experience,  or  for  a  larger  social  ex- 
perience with  which  the  individual's  normally  agrees. 

Now  let  us  take  up  the  second  statement,  to  wit,  that  correct- 
ness may  be  established  without  the  motive  to  specific  action. 
Suppose  a  school  boy  is  put  to  drawing  a  map,  and  draws  one 
that  the  teacher  pronounces  correct  or  truthful,  using  only  the 
data  of  his  history  and  geography  books,  together  with  verbal 
hints  and  instructions  from  others.  Wherein  consists  the  *  cor- 
rectness '  of  the  map  ?  We  are  told  by  the  action  theory  that  it 
is  correct  or  true  because  one  might  well  act  upon  such  a  map, 
in  going  say  from  Baltimore  to  Washington .  Very  good,  but  is  this 
the  reason  the  boy  made  this  map  just  what  it  is  in  its  details ; 
is  this  his  motive  for  accepting  the  details  as  correct?  Suppose 
instead  of  doing  what  his  teacher  told  him  to,  he  had  placed 
Washington  north  of  Baltimore  instead  of  south.  Apart  from 
any  experience  he  has  had,  any  promptings  to  action  on  his 
part,  that  would  do  just  as  well.  What  then  has  determined 
him,  what  has  motived  his  actual  construction  in  respect  to  cor- 
rectness, what  has  guided  and  controlled  the  making  of  the  map? 
Evidently  the  fact  that  he  did  what  he  was  told  to  do,  what  all 
his  copies  required,  getting  what,  in  other  words,  could  be  con- 
verted into  experience  of  a  different  cognitive  order  —  in  this 
case  into  the  reported  experience  of  other  persons.  All  this  is 
what  we  have  called  *  secondary  conversion/  It  accepts  the  per- 
sonal control  of  another  person's  thought  as  mediated  by  one's 
own  present  thought.  This  makes  the  thing  accurate  for  one- 
self. 

Here  the  successful  mediation  of  a  socially  common  control 
has  established  the  correctness  of  the  personal  thought,  apart 
from  any  further  mediation  of  the  actual  physical  control  in  the 
country  represented  in  the  map. 

Suppose  again,  instead  of  making  a  map,  the  boy  is  to  give 


ON  TRUTH.  269 

an  account  of  a  historical  scene,  or  to  narrate  a  series  of  past 
events.  Here,  as  we  have  seen,  the  events,  the  transitive  parts 
of  the  thought  context,  are  -per  se  subject  to  no  further  con- 
firmation than  that  given  by  concurrent  testimony.1  It  is  the 
larger  social  control  that  mediates  the  by-gone  events  as  true. 
The  truth  is  tested  by  its  social  acceptability  —  its  corroboration 
by  testimony,  written  records,  etc.  — the  process  of  verification 
being  that  of  secondary  conversion  into  a  recondite  context  of 
original  testimony.  In  some  vague  sense,  we  might  say  that 
this  could  be  tested  by  action ;  it  does  have,  as  all  knowledge 
has,  its  following,  its  dynamogeny  of  active  impulses,  always 
proper  to  the  thought ;  but  the  motive  to  the  acceptance  of  the 
result  as  correct  is  not  that  of  doing  something  or  going  some- 
where, but  that  of  matching  the  details  of  one  person's  thought 
with  those  of  another's. 

We  may  put  this  a  little  differently  in  order  to  sharpen  the 
essential  issue.  To  act  on  a  plan  is  to  set  up  the  plan  as  an 
end  for  realization.  The  action  is  merely  a  means  to  this  end. 
Successful  action  is  action  that  gets  the  end  thus  set  up  —  no 
longer  as  mere  presentation  but  as  fact.  Now  how  is  one  to 
know  when  he  gets  it?  —  certainly  this  confidence  is  not  given 
in  the  mere  action,  in  the  means.  It  comes  only  in  the  realization 
of  the  thing,  the  something  of  fact  that  the  construction  repre- 
sented, the  fulfilment  that  the  end  prophesied.  The  correctness, 
the  truth,  then,  is  the  end-realizing  character  of  the  presenta- 
tion set  up. 

These  points  seem  to  me  very  plain  in  the  case  of  the  control 
mediated  by  memory.  I  say  to  you  that  your  memory  of  this 
or  that  is  correct  or  incorrect.  Or  course,  you  can  use  it  for 
practical  purposes,  to  get  the  original  things,  if  it  is  correct ; 
and  you  can  take  the  risk  if  it  is  not  correct.  Your  justification 
in  either  case  resides  in  your  acceptance  of  its  right  to  mediate 
a  sort  of  experience  called  fact,  reality,  or  existence.2 

1 A  part  from  the  remote  possibility  of  tracing  out  physical  effects  —  sub- 
stantive changes  — following  upon  the  event. 

2  It  may  be  said  in  objection  that  by  action  is  not  meant  alone  the  gross 
activity  of  going  to  or  handling  things,  but  also  those  functional  processes  of 
attention,  etc.,  by  which  the  presentation  is  constituted  what  it  is.  '  What  is 
true  '  is  only  another  name,  it  may  be  said,  for  '  what  is,'  under  these  determin- 


270  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

We  may  observe  too,  before  going  further  with  the  discussion 
of  truth,  that  correctness  is  independent  of  the  mode  of  origin, 
and  the  degree  of  validity  for  theory,  of  the  original  control 
meanings  thus  mediated  by  conversion  processes.  However  con- 
sciousness got  the  meaning  '  physical  control,'  and  however 
there  arose  the  secondary  or  mediate  controls  by  which  this  and 
others  are  mediated,  still  the  relative  modes  remain  what  they 
are  in  their  respective  progressions.  Given  a  process  that  has 
memories,  then  the  entire  place  and  role  of  that  mode  would  be 
destroyed  if  there  were  no  conversion  of  it  —  no  mediation  into  it 
of  the  coefficients  already  made  up  in  the  earlier  processes. 
There  are  in  the  progress  of  consciousness  ways  of  returning 
to  a  relative  immediacy ;  this  appears  in  the  play  and  sem- 
blant  modes ;  but  the  character  of  such  modes  is  shown  just 
in  this  to  be  different  from  that  of  memory  :  their  differentia  does 
not  consist  in  relative  correctness  and  incorrectness.  They  are 
not  held  to  the  original  dualisms  as  memory  is.  Memory  has 
its  justification  just  in  the  relative  correctness  with  which  it 
mediates  the  coefficients  belonging  to  the  worlds  of  fact  or 
existence. 

In  an  important  sense  this  is  true  also  for  thought ;  it  mediates 
but  does  not  banish  dualisms.  Yet  the  processes  whereby  the 
mediating  control  of  thought  or  reflection  arises  are  so  complex 
and  their  subsequent  meanings  so  legislative  and  seemingly 
independent,  that  the  discussion  becomes  very  much  more 
complicated. 

Before  going  on,  however,  I  may  point  out  a  distinction  that 
sums  up  the  opposing  interpretations  suggested  above,  and  shows 
itself  sharply  in  the  two  current  uses  of  the  term  '  control/  As 

ing  processes.  This  recurs  below  where  we  find  the  '  truth '  to  be  just  the 
'what  is  '  when  the  'is'  is  the  control  in  which  'the  what'  is  acknowledged. 
But  there  our  analysis  is  the  same  as  here  (as  is  anticipated  in  Vol.  I.,  Chap.  III.) , 
i.  e.,  we  find  that  the  control  sphere  is  determined  by  coefficients  of  various 
sorts  of  existence  and  is  not  resolvable  into  the  motor  processes  that  operate 
with  and  upon  them.  As  soon  as  there  is  a  control  meaning  at  all  it  is  a  dualis- 
tic  or  pluralistic  control  meaning.  There  is  no  valid  sense  in  which  these  co- 
efficients can  be  called  '  habits  '  or  *  motor  complexes  ' ;  for  habit  belongs  at  the 
pole  of  '  inner  '  as  over  against  external  control ;  and  conflict  of  habits  or  of 
habitual  selves  is  within  the  entire  inner  sphere  that  encompasses  them  (as  in 
the  larger  synergetic  process  of  attention). 


ON   TRUTH.  271 

used  in  my  work  it  means  any  coefficient  or  character  of  a 
content  that  classifies  and  delimits  it,  giving  it  a  sphere  in  which 
it  is  or  might  be  present  as  itself.  We  may  say  of  any  presenta- 
tion that  it  is  or  might  be  present  in  its  proper  class  or  sphere 
of  presence  or  existence.  Now  on  this  view  the  development  of 
knowledge  is  by  the  formation  and  development  of  these  spheres 
of  control ;  and  however  far  away  from  the  original  control 
coefficients  a  representative  or  ideal  content  may  be,  it  still  has 
the  meaning  that  gives  it  its  assignment  to  that  and  no  other 
control.  From  this  point  of  view  knowledge  develops  within 
the  distinctions  of  control ;  there  is  development  of  knowledge 
in  idea  or  thought  only  through  the  original  controls  mediated 
by  these  modes  —  as  we  have  just  seen  to  hold  of  memory. 

Calling  this  the  theory  of  knowledge  through  control  there 
is  a  variant  upon  it  that  may  be  called  the  theory  of  control 
through  knowledge  —  the  4  control '  of  action,  and  through  it 
of  experience,  by  means  of  the  mediating  context  of  thought. 
This  is,  as  I  understand  it,  the  'control'  of  the  Studies  in  Log- 
ical Theory  and  other  works  of  the  so-called  Chicago  school.1 
It  is  control  of  a  personal  sort,  management  —  considered  actively 
-  or  effective  handling  of  the  details  of  experience  through 
knowledge,  reflection,  etc.  This  distinction  is,  in  the  sequel, 
important.2  Both  phenomena  are  real,  <  knowledge  through 
control '  and  '  control  through  knowledge  ' ;  but  here  it  may  be 
easily  seen  that  to  the  latter  theory  control  is  what  is  to  the  former 
'inner'  or  personal  control,  one  of  the  sorts  of  control  in  general 
found  actual  by  the  former.  The  '  control  through  knowledge  ' 
is  a  concept  of  this  active  functional  relation  between  self  and  its 
world  of  experience ;  that  of  *  knowledge  through  control '  is 
one  of  logical  or  content  relation  between  different  modes  of 
experience. 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  in  my  opinion,  that  this  dis- 
tinction should  be  clearly  understood.  We  may,  therefore, 

1 1  hope  here  and  below  I  am  not  again  misrepresenting  Professor  Dewey.  On 
the  whole,  though  unfortunate,  such  experiences  are  frequent,  generally  mutual. 
The  writers  mentioned  accept  so  much  that  I  also  hold  to,  that  it  is  desirable 
that  we  keep  on  '  discussing.'  My  use  of  '  control '  goes  back  to  my  address  on 
'  Selective  Thinking  '  given  in  December,  1897. 

2  It  is  developed  in  detail  in  a  later  chapter  of  Vol.  II.  of  Thought  and 
Things. 


272  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

seek  to  sharpen  the  line  of  cleavage  between  the  two  concep- 
tions —  *  control  of  knowledge  by  facts,'  and  '  control  of  facts  or 
experience  through  knowledge'  —  by  showing  the  fundamental 
way  in  which  the  present  day  distinctions  are  really  based  upon 
their  implicit  recognition.1 

Let  us  take  a  detached  point  of  view  for  the  consideration 
of  the  context  of  thought  or  ideas.  Here  is  a  set  of  presenta- 
tions hanging  before  us  for  interpretation.  We  may  consider  it 
in  the  greatest  detachment  simply  for  itself,  as  having  its  own 
organization  and  relationships  ;  so  considered  it  is  the  content  of 
formal  logic.  Formal  logic  strips  thought  of  its  references,  its 
implications,  both  of  material  truthfulness  and  also  of  worth  for 
appreciation.  For  it,  inference  is  purely  a  matter  of  relation, 
whether  or  not  it  be  about  something  true  or  something  good. 
There  is  then  a  neutrality  as  to  further  intent  in  both  aspects ; 
the  ideal  of  such  a  discipline  is  pure  validity.  For  it  thoughts 
are  subjects  and  predicates  and  nothing  more. 

Now  it  is  evident  that  there  are  two  ways  of  leaving  formal 
logic  behind.  So  soon  as  we  ask  what  further  meaning  may 
attach  to  such  a  system  of  thoughts,  we  come  upon  the  two 
conceptions  just  distinguished  :  either  the  thoughts  represent  and 
so  mediate  a  control  in  which  they  are  true,  or  they  represent 
and  mediate  a  mode  of  appreciation  which  they  fulfil.  In  the 
one  case,  there  is  a  recognition  of  a  world  of  facts  to  be 
acknowledged  or  extended ;  in  the  other,  there  is  the  intent  to 
find  worth  or  value  in  experience  in  and  through  the  thoughts. 
By  the  mediation  of  control  we  have  the  development  of  the 
world  of  facts,  for  which  the  thought  is  instrumental.  Here  we 

]I  give  this  of  course  as  my  way  of  describing  the  difference  of  view  be- 
tween the  two  conceptions,  not  '  saddling '  it  on  anyone  else.  I  cannot  accept 
Dewey 's  account  of  our  difference  without  modification  —  an  account  that  makes 
my  point  of  view  '  epistemological '  and  his  own  '  logical '  (Journ.  of  Philos.^  May 
9,  '07,  p.  255).  For  while  my  own  is  epistemological,  recognizing  a  dualism  of 
self  and  not-self  meanings,  his  view,  while,  as  having  only  the  dualism  of  idea 
and  fact  in  view,  it  can  be  called  logical,  yet  as  theory  of  control  and  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  terms  of  the  dualism,  it  is  in  its  implications  more  epistemological  ; 
for  it  implicates  control  entirely  of  the  inner  or  active  sort.  It  postulates  in  other 
words  a  closed  inner  process,  thus  making  the  entire  movement  of  experience 
'  inner. '  To  do  this  is  I  think  to  mutilate  thought  by  banishing  the  '  outer ' 
control  while  clinging  to  the  '  inner  '  ;  but  the  position  is  still  epistemological. 


ON   TRUTH.  273 

have  experimental  or  instrumental  logic  —  the  science  of  the 
control  of  thought  through  facts ,  or  the  extension  of  knowledge 
as  truth. 

This  science  may  be  looked  at  in  two  ways  according  as 
facts  or  thoughts  are  made  primary.  We  may  consider  the 
motive  to  be  the  establishment  of  thought  by  appeal  to  fact, 
giving  '  experimental  logic,'  as  a  method  of  the  proving  of 
thoughts  ;  or  we  may  consider  the  motive  to  be  the  establish- 
ment of  facts  in  thought,  when  we  have  the  science  of  the 
development  of  knowledge  as  controlled  by  facts  :  this  is  epis- 
temology.  We  may  with  confidence  write  down  both  instru- 
mental logic  and  epistemology  as  sciences  of  'truth'  —  the 
sciences  of  the  control  of  thought  through  facts.  Facts  of  any 
world,  is  meant,  of  course ;  and  facts  are  experiences  of  an 
original  order  of  control  coefficient. 

But  now  in  contrast  to  this  set  of  motives  and  the  sciences 
that  issue  from  them,  there  is  the  other  great  way  in  which  the 
context  of  thought  has  meaning.  The  neutrality  of  purely 
formal  logic  may  be  departed  from  not  alone  in  the  way  of 
establishing  truth  by  the  control  of  thought  by  facts ;  there  is 
the  other  departure  from  neutrality  found  in  the  intent  to  fulfil 
personal  purpose  and  interest.  The  system  of  thoughts  is  now 
set  up  not  merely  for  discovery  or  confirmation;  it  is  made 
means  of  the  fulfilment  of  ends.  All  the  selective  and  pur- 
posive motives  to  individuation  come  up  in  the  further  reading 
of  the  context  preferentially  and  so  to  speak  *  axiologically.'1 
The  mediation  of  thought  is  now  not  the  control  by  fact  and  the 
embodiment  of  truth,  but  the  acknowledgment  of  worth.  Truth 
is  now  means  to  satisfaction.  All  the  interests  besides  the 
theoretical  come  into  their  own ;  and  the  theoretical  interest 
itself  appears  as  a  personal  and  selective  motive. 

This  is  what,  I  take  it,  such  phrases  of  current  discussion  as 
*  control  of  experience,'  *  control  of  a  situation,'  '  dealing  with 
things  profitably,'  *  readjusting  conflicting  habits'  —  phrases 
used  by  the  new  school  of  theorists  of  the  instrumental  order  — 
really  come  to.  Their  emphasis  is  on  the  management  of  situa- 

JThe  term  'axiology '  was  suggested,  I  think,  by  W.  M.  Urban  for  the  sci- 
ence of  worth-predicates  as  contrasted  with  predicates  of  fact. 


274  /•  MARK  BALDWIN. 

tions,  the  manipulation  of  experience,  through  the  use  of  a 
context  of  knowledge.  Knowledge  enables  us  to  cope  with  the 
worlds  of  things,  facts,  experiences,  situations,  to  get  good?  and 
we  use  knowledge  as  means  to  an  end.  The  inner  control 
factors  —  habit,  attention,  disposition,  interest,  constituting  the 
self  —  by  which  the  whole  movement  is  motived,  are  left 
strangely  unexplained.  These  are  not  logical  terms  ;  they  are 
affective-conative  contents. 

This  it  is  evident  is  the  sort  of  mediation  supplied  to  the 
factor  of  inner  control  by  the  context  set  up.  The  ideas  are 
said  to  guide  conduct,  the  knowledge  to  become  practical  in- 
sight, the  concrete  situation  to  yield  to  the  interpretation  and 
use  that  thought  suggests.  All  these  expressions  deal  with  the 
relation  of  the  reflective  to  the  concrete,  of  the  idea  to  the  fact; 
but  as  soon  as  we  use  the  word  control  with  reference  to  it,  we 
see  that  the  'self  of  judgment  —  the  selective,  purposive,  set  of 
factors  —  is  the  control  that  is  mediated.  By  the  knowledge, 
the  insight,  the  facts  are  interpreted,  the  judgment  guided,  the 
self  factor,  whatever  its  constitution,  determined  and  advanced. 
There  is  then  the  control  of  facts  through  knowledge,  by  the 
inner  synergetic  process  that  counts  as  'self.'2  The  motive  is 
the  personal  one  of  reaching  an  end  ;  a  meaning  is  set  up  as  a 
desire,  a  remote  worth,  and  the  ideas  are  accepted  as  means. 

Even  the  phrase  *  solving  a  problem  '  used  most  often  by 
these  writers  invites  this  criticism  ;  for  the  '  solution  '  of  the 
problem  is  in  terms  of  '  readjusted  habit,'  '  successful  action/ 
etc.,  all  factors  of  just  what  I  recognize  as  advancement  of 
'inner  control'  or  'self.'  Such  a  'solution'  actually  gives  an 
expansion  of  self-feeling,  and  a  sharpened  objective  plan  of 
the  truthful  facts  ;  it  is  dualistic  to  the  core. 

2.  WHAT  TRUTH  is. 

We  may  introduce  the  discussion  of  the  mode  of  truth  as  such 
by  asking  what  would  be  necessary  to  constitute  an  active  con- 


is  the  suppressed  premise  of  the  whole  theory.  It  substitutes 
'good  '  for  'true,'  and  fails  to  recognize  the  nature  of  the  inner  control,  for 
which  the  good  is  'good.'  As  soon  as  this  is  allowed,  the  correlative  dualistic 
term,  the  '  external  '  control,  returns  also,  and  the  problem  is  the  epistemo- 
logical  one  of  truth  —  of  •  knowledge  through  control.' 

•The  organized  self  over  against  impulse,  partial  habit,  etc. 


ON   TRUTH.  275 

trol  process  —  a  mode  of  action  —  as  the  sole  criterion  or 
mark  of  truth,  and  then  ask  whether  thought  or  reflection 
realizes  such  a  requirement.  In  this  way,  we  throw  into  relief 
the  differences  between  the  two  points  of  view  already  spoken 
of  and  secure  the  added  interest  that  comes  from  having  current 
theories  in  mind. 

If  then  we  ask  what  would  be  necessary  to  banish  the  re- 
quirement of  correctness,  considered  as  agreement  or  corre- 
spondence with  some  control  read  as  external  or  foreign  to  the 
process,  our  answer  would  be  —  simply  the  banishing  of  the 
coefficients  of  externality.  The  question  then  would  come  back 
to  one  which  we  asked  and  answered  in  the  first  volume  of  our 
work  —  the  question  as  to  whether  the  active  dispositional 
processes  could  be  conceived  as  entirely  making  up,  and  hence 
as  fully  fulfilled  in,  the  psychic  object,  apart  from  data 
having  coefficients  requiring  reading  as  '  external.'  This  we 
found  to  be  unrealizable  for  consciousness  such  as  it  is ;  for 
the  existence  both  of  things  of  the  physical  order,  and  of  per- 
sons apart  from  oneself,  requires  the  operation  of  the  motives 
that  mature  in  the  mind-body  dualism.  In  other  words,  the 
dualism  of  existences,  as  meanings  of  separate  control,  forbids 
a  purely  active  determination  of  things ;  and  replica  of  '  the 
things  —  the  image-objects  —  together  with  the  variations  in 
the  correctness  of  these  latter,  are  meanings  that  testify  to  the 
truth  of  this.  Now,  how  is  it  with  the  higher  mediation,  that 
of  truth,  in  which  the  terms  of  the  dualism  are  those  of  reflection 
or  thought? 

It  must  be  admitted  that  we  find  here  remarkable  progress  in 
the  sort  of  mediation  which  would  banish  the  external  control 
factor,  and  so  tend  to  reduce  all  controls  finally  to  one,  and  that 
the  control  of  active  inner  process.  This  aspect  of  the  devel- 
opment may  be  spoken  of  first,  before  other  motives  are 
taken  up. 

Two  great  movements  are  to  be  noted :  one  that  whereby 
the  control  of  reflection  as  mode  of  inner  experience  is  consti- 
tuted, and  the  other  that  whereby  the  individual  judgment  be- 
comes *  synnomic,'  that  is,  competent  without  further  control 
from  that  of  other  persons.  Let  us  look  at  these  two  move- 
ments in  turn. 


276  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

The  process  whereby  thought,  functioning  in  acts  of  judg- 
ment, becomes  a  mode  of  mediate  control,  has  already  been 
described.  It  establishes  a  heightened  and  unified  conscious- 
ness of  self,  as  inner  control  function,  which  is  in  a  dualism 
with  all  the  objects  of  thought.  These  objects  mediate  the 
inner  control  which  the  self  in  judging  exercises  over  the  mate- 
rial it  deals  with.  On  the  other  hand,  this  inner  control  process 
arises  by  a  unification  of  those  more  partial  factors  which  rep- 
resent the  inner  aspects  of  prelogical  meanings.  There  is, 
therefore,  a  redistribution  of  the  objective  meanings  also,  their 
resetting  as  outer  pole  of  the  dualism  of  subject-object.  The 
question  now  urgent  is  as  to  whether  the  original  controls  by 
which  the  objects  of  thought  were  set  up  and  recognized  as 
outer,  etc.,  are  now  in  any  sense  still  operative,  when  the  whole 
context  is  made  one  of  thought. 

There  is,  in  fact,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  personal  life- 
process,  no  motive  that  arrests  the  original  control  factors,  so 
that  we  can  say  that  they  are  banished.  The  objects  of 
thought,  like  those  of  memory,  seem  to  require  the  sort  of  ful- 
filment, in  fact  of  some  kind,  that  the  objects  of  memory  do. 
Yet  we  find  certain  complications  now  for  the  first  time  present. 
For  whereas  the  objects  of  memory  were  in  a  sense  *  liftable ' 
from  the  original  things  they  reported,  and  also  on  occasion 
actually  lifted  from  them ;  yet  this  was  merely  an  incident  to 
the  essential  fact  that  whether  thus  separated  or  not,  the  two 
series  dovetail  together,  submitting,  on  occasion,  to  all  sorts  of 
vicariousnesses  and  substitutions  without  confusion. 

In  the  redistribution  found  in  reflection  there  is  no  such 
continuity  with  fact.  The  mode  of  inner  control  through 
thoughts  establishes  itself  in  a  much  more  radical  way.  The 
contents  are  not  only  *  lifted '  from  things  and  constituted  as 
a  different  mode  of  meanings,  having  a  way  of  mediating  the 
original  control,  but  this  is  done  by  a  mode  in  which  the  whole 
dualism  is  established  in  the  inner  world.  The  dualism  is  one  of 
conscious  reflection.  In  its  mediation  of  the  original  existence 
spheres  it  sets  its  own  form  of  dualism  —  a  new  and  character- 
istic one.  The  question  at  issue  now  is  whether,  by  becoming 
a  system  both  of  whose  terms  are  within  the  one  inner  control, 


ON  TRUTH.  277 

thought  loses  the  intent  to  refer  to  spheres  of  control  other  than 
itself.  Put  in  terms  of  action  this  would  read :  granting  that 
the  control  processes  of  the  inner  world  are  active  —  motived  by 
purposes,  ends,  satisfactions,  efforts,  etc.  —  can  this  set  of  con- 
trol processes  find  fulfilment  in  the  mere  contents  it  sets  up,  or 
must  there  be  still  a  recognition  of  the  external?  If  the  former, 
then  any  *  truth '  attaching  to  these  contents  would  be  derived 
from  their  relative  worth  as  fulfilling  personal  purposes  and  in- 
terests. That  is,  there  would  be  no  necessity  of  going  to  a 
sphere  of  fact,  to  any  sphere  of  simpler  perceptual  or  memory 
process,  to  secure  further  fulfilment. 

Only  on  such  a  supposition,  I  conceive,  can  an  action  theory 
of  truth  be  put  through  —  or  any  theory  distinctively  pragmatic. 
It  would  require  the  elimination  of  transcendence  as  meaning, 
the  loss  of  the  external  meaning  of  objects,  that  is,  of  any  con- 
trol-reference beyond  the  set  of  ideas  themselves.  Only  if 
ends  were  fully  fulfilled  in  thoughts  and  thoughts  had  no  further 
meaning  than  to  serve  as  ends  —  only  in  such  complete  coinci- 
dence of  thoughts  and  ends  would  further  reference  be  unnec- 
essary as  corrective  or  control  of  either. 

Now  thought  does  not  accomplish  this  —  no  more  than  does 
memory.  Thoughts  do  not  satisfy  purpose ;  purpose  runs  up 
against  hard  facts  foreign  to  it.  "  If  wishes  were  horses  the 
beggars  would  ride."  Interest  does  not  stay  with  thoughts  ;  it 
seeks  fulfilments  in  various  external-seeming  modes.  The 
thought  system  mediates  these  remote  controls ;  it  does  not 
banish  them. 

The  struggle  of  mind,  however,  to  do  what  the  pragmatists 
attribute  to  it,  is  interesting  and  pathetic.  It  develops  a  system 
of  meanings  that  approximate  and  personate  the  completely 
'  lifted  '  and  self-contained. 

Yet  it  cannot  finally  absorb  all  contents  as  only  ends  of  action, 
completely  dominated  by  processes  of  inner  control,  and  rest 
with  that.  Not  so.  It  marks  its  failure  indeed  by  falling  into 
the  diametrically  opposite  extreme.  It  aims  to  banish  dualism 
of  controls  and  so  suggests  the  effacement  of  '  self/  For  it 
develops  the  neutrality  of  a  purely  theoretical  interest,  and  sets 
up  a  theoretically  valid  system  of  thoughts  —  a  system  that  is 


278  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

valid  not  because  it  can  be  acted  upon,  nor  because  it  is  true  to 
anything  else,  but  because,  simply  and  only  because,  it  is 
reasonable  and  self-consistent. 

We  have  seen  this  motive  in  operation,  and  have  described 
it  as  the  prime  and  only  progression  proper  to  thought.1  It  is 
all  the  while  recognizing  the  necessity  of  control  from  fact.  It  is 
inductive,  tentative,  experimental,  schematic,  quantitative,  ex- 
istential. But  in  the  very  bosom  of  this  recognition  of  foreign 
controls,  it  hits  upon  the  contradictions  and  limitations  in  the 
body  of  its  data  that  motive  the  validity  of  .thought  proper. 
The  whole,  set  up  as  identical  and  self-consistent,  then  floats 
off  in  the  ocean  of  logical  form  as  such.  Its  validities  take 
the  place  of  former  inductive  confirmations ;  its  relevancies 
establish  themselves  within  its  own  body ;  its  beliefs  propagate 
themselves  in  the  form  of  syllogistic  conclusions ;  and  a  body 
of  implications  is  born  that  dispenses  with  any  further  control 
than  just  its  own  constitution  as  a  system  of  related  meanings. 

Now  what  has  happened?  It  is  clear  that  something  impor- 
tant enough  has  happened.  It  would  seem  that  thought,  the 
system  of  implications,  has  won  a  victory.  The  flow  of  valid 
relation  would  seem  to  take  the  place  both  of  the  concrete  ap- 
peal to  action,  and  of  its  dualistic  mess-mate,  the  matching  of 
thought  by  fact  in  a  world  of  foreign  control.  Personal  interest 
has  become  theoretical,  and  a  body  of  logical  validities  has 
arisen  to  fulfil  this  personal  interest. 

This  movement  is  analogous  to  the  similar  swing  of  the  pen- 
dulum—  just  where  we  should  expect  it  —  in  the  mode  of 
imagery,  where  the  same  two  factors  work  out  their  respec- 
tive places  on  a  lower  plane.  Mere  memory  is  everything,  fancy 
is  worthless  ;  memory  is  the  thing  to  be  interested  in,  it  guaran- 
tees correctness  and  action  ;  it  reports  what  actually  is  and  must 
be.  Therefore  let  us  rule  out  preference,  personal  interest, 
the  vagaries  of  desire  ;  let  us  recognize  the  '  is,'  and  banish  the 
vain  *  might  be.'  So  here  also ;  thought  sets  up  a  system  of 
relations  that  become  for  it  the  valid  simply  by  being  linked  up 
together  as  they  are. 

But  this  of  course  is  not  final.     Personal  desire,  purpose, 

!In  chapters  before  this  (Thought  and  Things,  Vol.  II.,  Part  III.,  Chaps. 
X.  ff.). 


ON   TRUTH.  279 

action,  *  find  themselves*  in  the  very  process  by  which  theoretical 
interest  asserts  its  exclusiveness.  A  new  dualism  arises,  one  of 
a  self  that  thinks  over  against  the  system  it  thinks  about.  The 
selections  for  action  are  not  annulled  even  when  the  dictations 
of  fact  seem  to  be.  Thought  even  when  most  abstract  is  after 
all  a  system  of  acceptances,  beliefs,  personal  satisfactions ;  and 
the  demands  of  such  intent  are  charged  into  the  abstract  forms 
of  the  syllogism.  A  whole  world  of  valuation  comes  to  find  its 
embodiment  in  the  system  of  thoughts.  Thoughts  are  thus 
made  ends  in  turn*  just  as  before,  and  the  external  controls,  the 
things  of  fact,  are  reestablished  for  the  '  realization  '  of  those  ends. 
We  have  to  recognize,  therefore,  two  general  movements  in 
this  progression  of  truth.  First,  there  is  the  development  of 
validity  pure  and  simple  taking  the  place  of  the  inductive  match- 
ing and  conversion  processes  of  external  control.  And  second, 
there  is  the  persistent  return  of  the  control  of  fact  through  the 
demands  of  action  and  appreciation  in  all  the  matters  of  concrete 
life.  Both  of  these  are  in  so  far  irreducible.  The  satisfaction 
of  active  tendencies  reasserts  fact,  while  the  demands  of  abstract 
validity  tend  to  mediate  truth  in  a  system  of  static  relations. 

In  short,  if  things  were  different,  if  the  life  of  purpose  and 
action  did  find  complete  fulfilment  in  thought,  so  that  thought 
had  no  further  reference  than  just  this  fulfilment,  then  such  a 
meaning  as  *  truth  '  would  be  impossible.  The  *  valid  '  too 
would  have  no  meaning.  The  *  good  '  would  take  their  place.1 
Thought  fulfils  desire  and  desire  arouses  and  propagates 
thought.  There  would  be  no  further  question  as  to  the  exis- 
tence of  the  desired  in  any  realm  other  than  or  beyond  thought. 
For  to  suppose  such  a  realm  would  open  just  the  question  of  a 
sphere  other  than  that  of  purpose  or  action,  giving  something 
beyondybr  the  true  to  be  true  to. 

I  think  we  may  safely  conclude,  therefore,  in  this  matter  of 
the  birth  of  personal  judgment  as  a  control  mode,  that  while  it 
seems  to  show  the  possibility  of  bringing  all  the  objects  of 
thought  under  a  unifying  principle  of  control  by  self,  and  so  to 
subject  the  whole  content  of  reflection  to  the  rule  of  personal 
action  and  purpose ;  yet  it  works  out  differently  when  we  con- 
Opening  James*  Pragmatism,  which  has  just  come  to  my  table,  I  find  this 
heading  in  the  Table  of  Contents  "Truth  is  a  good,  like  health,  wealth,  etc."1 


280  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

sider  the  actual  result.  Over  against  the  self  of  control  there  is 
developed  a  system  of  implication  which  is  universal,  self-con- 
sistent, and  relatively  independent  of  the  processes  of  individual 
control  and  judgment.  With  the  growing  personalizing  of  the 
knowing  process  comes  the  depersonalizing  of  the  content  of 
thought.  And  thereupon  there  arises  the  new  mode  of  inner  as- 
sertion through  purpose  and  appreciation. 

From  another  point  of  view,  also,  we  reach  results  of  some 
interest  —  the  point  of  view  of  the  'community,'  the  common 
meaning,  of  thoughts.  This  introduces  a  somewhat  neglected 
but  withal  important  set  of  considerations. 

We  found  it  necessary,  it  will  be  remembered,1  to  recognize 
as  attaching  to  all  judgment  two  modes  of  intent  both  of  which 
come  under  the  general  character  of  '  community ' ;  there  is 
community  in  the  two  senses  covered  by  the  statement  that  the 
judgment  is  a  content  having  both  a  «  by  whom '  and  a  4  for 
whom '  force.  Whatever  is  asserted  is  '  synnomic '  in  that  it 
intends  to  be  true  j  or  everybody ;  and  it  is  also  *  syndoxic'  in 
that  it  is  actually  held  only  by  somebody.  And  these  two  aspects 
of  community  are  not  coincident.  One  gives  the  force  of  the 
judgment  as  fit  for  acceptance;  the  other  assigns  the  degree  of 
actual  prevalence.  One  indicates  the  universality  and  validity 
of  the  implication  contained  in  the  whole  meaning ;  the  other 
indicates  the  aggregate  or  catholic  process  that  acknowledges 
this  validity. 

Now  the  question  of  truth  is  necessarily  a  question  of  truth- 
to-whom  as  well  as  of  truth-for-whom  ;  of  acceptance  in  a  social 
group,  as  well  as  of  worth  for  acceptance  by  any  single  mind. 
And  the  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the  truthfulness  or  falsity 
of  a  body  of  implications  must  not  be  one  that  mutilates  the  full 
two-fold  intent  of  community. 

First,  then,  looking  at  the  synnomic  force  —  the  intent  for- 
whom  —  of  a  logical  content,  we  find  the  state  of  things  just  de- 
scribed allowing  of  certain  further  extensions.  The  solidifica- 
tion of  the  inner  control,  by  which  a  self  is  determined  over 
against  the  objects  of  thought,  goes  far  to  bring  about  the  domi- 
nance of  the  selective  and  active  control  processes ;  especially 
1  Again  alluding  to  a  chapter  not  yet  published. 


ON    TRUTH.  281 

in  the  pursuit  of  hypothetical  and  inductive  research.  For 
here  the  schematic  meaning  rendered  as  hypothesis  is  largely 
a  matter  of  personal  interest  and  active  pursuit.  Allowing  this 
—  despite  the  fact  that  in  the  result  this  tendency  yields  to 
that  of  setting  up  an  independently  valid  relational  content, 
as  remarked  just  above — allowing,  that  is,  that  the  processes 
of  active  control  are  thus  greatly  emphasized  in  the  individual, 
still  a  further  question  arises  as  to  the  determination  of  the  self 
in  these  active  terms.  Is  the  self  that  now  judges,  one  of 
merely  individual  and  private  action  and  purpose ;  is  the  con- 
trol of  the  self-of-reflection  in  any  sense  a  private  control  ? 

No,  it  is  not.  All  our  work  of  analysis  —  and  that  of  recent 
social  psychology  —  goes  to  show  that  the  self  of  judgment  is 
the  self  of  common  function,  of  syndoxic  control,  of  processes 
so  interknit  as  among  individuals  that  it  is  reached  only  by  the 
elimination  of  personal  and  private  factors.  The  self  of  judg- 
ment is  not  the  private  self  of  appreciation  and  valuation;  that 
is  expressly  excluded  in  the  terms  whereby  judgment  is  achieved. 
The  factors  of  inner  control  are  generalized  inner  data,  read  back 
and  forth  in  the  dialectic  whereby  the  '  socius '  arises.  All  the 
way  along,  the  child's  self  is  not  one  that  asserts  his  crude  first 
preference  or  impression,  but  the  disciplined  and  chastened  self 
that  has  grown,  by  continuing  processes  of  secondary  conver- 
sion, into  agreement  with  others.  The  opposite  process  also 
shows  the  same  result :  'the  self  that  judges  legislates  its  own  re- 
sult, so  far  as  now  and  here  accepted,  back  into  the  minds  of 
others,  being  obliged  to  intend  it  to  hold  for  everybody. 

The  result  for  our  theory  of  truth  is  clear.  Truth  is  not  a 
matter  of  individual  interpretation  at  all,  whether  in  terms  of 
action  or  of  cognition.  Suppose  we  remove  the  factor  of  ex- 
ternal control  altogether  and  say  that  truth  consists  in  availability 
of  knowledge  to  minister  to  action;  still  the  question  comes  up, 
whose  action?  Certainly  not  any  individual's  action  ;  this  would 
reduce  the  '  for-whom '  to  the  realm  of  private  preference  and 
impulse,  making  the  true  that  which  ministers  to  personal  grati- 
fication in  a  narrow  and  private  sense.  This  directly  contradicts 
the  requirement  of  synnomic  community.  The  interpretation 
in  terms  of  action  would  require  the  sort  of  common  function  or 


282  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

action  that  would  support  and  guarantee  the  intent  of  universal 
acceptance. 

But  this  it  is  evident  would  again,  in  the  larger  social  whole 
of  meaning,  destroy  the  distinction  between  true  and  good.  If 
the  truth  is  to  be  the  socially  available,  in  a  pragmatic  or  utili- 
tarian sense,  it  is  then  identified  with  the  social  end  or  good. 
What  is  good  in  the  larger  social  sphere  of  welfare  is  the  social 
end  ;  and  this  would  then  coincide  with  the  thought,  determined 
as  fulfilment  of  that  end.  The  same  result  is  reached  then  on 
this  construction,  as  on  that  stated  above  in  individualistic  terms, 
—  the  determination  of  truth  in  terms  of  good  —  except  that 
now  both  terms  are  socially  controlled. 

This  result  does  seem  to  be  fairly  reasonable  and  just.  The 
derivation  of  ethical  good  from  social  usage  and  habit,  the 
reflection  of  social  utility  in  individual  conscience,  does  seem  to 
result  in  a  correspondence,  in  the  processes  of  natural  history, 
between  the  accretions  to  truth  and  the  accretions  to  good.  But 
the  further  difficulty  would  seem  to  be  precisely  that  which  we 
found  in  the  similar  correspondence  between  individual  good  and 
truth ;  the  difficulty  of  eliminating  the  factor  of  external  con- 
trol which  appears  in  this  case  also  in  the  realization  of  the 
ends.  Social  or  common  thought  could  not  of  itself  fulfil  the 
social  end :  that  could  only  come  from  *  things '  that  realized 
the  thought.  Social  welfare  is  not  —  just  as  individual  purpose 
is  not  —  if  so  facto  fulfilled  in  the  setting  up  of  ends,  in  this 
case  of  common  ends.  There  is  still  here  also  the  need  of  con- 
verting the  social  ends  set  up  into  actual  conditions  of  social  life  ; 
just  as  there  is  the  corresponding  need  in  the  case  of  the  indi- 
vidual's purpose.  In  other  words,  while  the  socially  true  is 
always  that  upon  which  social  action  may  go  out ;  still  there  is 
the  recognition  of  actual  social  fact ,  -whether  or  not  it  is  what 
is  desirable  for  action. 

The  conclusion,  then,  is  that  the  recognition  of  the  synnomic 
character  of  the  judgment  function,  while  broadening  out  the 
reference  *  for-whom '  to  judgment  process  generally,  does  not 
remove  the  essential  dualism  between  end  and  fact.1  The 

1  This  is  my  line  of  answer  to  Professor  Moore's  attempt  to  restate  the  case 
in  'social '  terms  (see  below  in  this  issue,  p.  294). 


ON   TRUTH.  283 

demands  of  action  are  not  fulfilled,  but  only  mediated,  by  the 
thought  context.  So  too  with  the  coefficients  of  fact ;  they  are 
mediated,  but  not  banished,  in  a  socially  available  system  of 
thoughts.  The  system,  the  entire  accepted  mass  of  social 
judgments,  thus  mediates  both  controls ,  the  socially  inner  or  syn- 
nomic  and  the  external,  physical  and  other,1  in  a  new  dualism, 
that  of  fact  and  end.  Truth  is  still  a  relative  conversion  of  the 
contents  of  social  acceptance  into  the  facts  of  a  system  of  ex- 
ternal controls.  Socially  considered,  truth  has  an  existential 
reference  that  is  not  removed  by  the  statement  of  social  desid- 
erata. As  of  the  individualistic  formulation  so  of  the  *  social ' 
—  the  criticism  is  the  same  —  the  determination  of  the  true  is 
not  entirely  through  the  -postulates  of  conduct. 

This  result  is  further  enforced  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
other  aspect  in  which  all  judgment  has  an  intent  of  '  community ' 
—  the  aspect  *  by  whom/  the  aspect  of  relative  catholicity. 

Catholicity  means  relative  actual  -prevalence  of  acceptance^ 
or  quantity  of  aggregate  belief.  It  is  that  aspect  in  which 
meaning  is  always  for  a  hearer  no  less  than  for  a  speaker,  for 
further  propagation  no  less  than  for  repeated  statement.  We 
have  seen  that  in  this  aspect,  as  embodied  in  the  linguistic  forms 
of  thought,2  logical  meaning  never  loses  its  hypothetical  or 
schematic  force ;  there  are  always  in  the  social  whole  indi- 
viduals still  to  instruct  or  convince,  always  a  future  of  genera- 
tions yet  unborn  to  whom  the  linguistic  is  to  be  the  mode  of 
essential  training  into  competent  judgment.  What  shall  we  say, 
as  to  the  interpretation  of  judgmental  matter  as  true,  from  this 
point  of  view? 

We  have  to  recognize  at  once  that  in  this  intent  of  renewed 
« proposal '  to  others  the  meaning  is  reduced  from  the  logical  - 
the  fully  accepted  or  '  synnomic  '  —  to  the  prelogical,  the  sche- 
matic and  personal.  That  which  is  not  yet  accepted  is,  to  the 
intelligence  not  yet  convinced,  problematical  and  personal.  The 
question  then  becomes,  how  can  such  meanings,  set  as  sugges- 
tion or  *  proposal,'  become  for  that  person  truth.  Evidently  only 

!The  other  including  the  other  persons  who  are  read  as  the  centers  of 
active  and  appreciative  process  just  as  the  one  individual  is. 
2  See  the  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  May,  1907. 


284  /.  MARK  BALDWIN, 

by  the  processes  of  confirmation  essential  in  all  such  cases  of  the 
passing  of  hypothetical  proposal  into  judgments  of  acceptance. 
The  processes  are  those  of  material  confirmation,  of  experiment 
and  induction.  But  this  means  a  direct  resort  to  those  coefficients 
of  control  by  which  fact  is  established.  It  is  a  resort  to  the 
sphere  in  which  the  hypothesis  set  up  finds  its  relevant  control. 
The  whole  affair,  then,  the  possibility  of  advance  in  the  matter 
of  diffusion,  propagation,  gain  in  prevalence  and  catholicity  — 
the  process  by  which  more  individuals  concur  in  a  statement  as 
true  —  is  one  that  reasserts  the  external  controls  by  which  the 
judgment  secures  its  classifications  and  limitations.  I  see  no 
escape  from  this  conclusion.1 

It  means  that  the  essential  process  by  which  relatively 
catholic  acceptance,  by  -whom,  passes  into  *  synnomic  '  accept- 
ance,y#r  whom,  a  matter  absolutely  requisite  to  the  availability 
of  judgments  for  social  use  —  that  this  process  is  one  of  direct 
resort  to  the  controls  of  fact.  It  is,  once  for  all,  not  a  resort  to 
the  sphere  of  end  or  action.  For  the  assertion  at  this  stage  of 
the  individual's  purpose  or  desire  would  only  emphasize  that 
divergence  that  would  keep  the  meaning  forever  in  the  selec- 
tive and  a-synnomic  stage  of  personal  preference.  Suppose  I 
decided  every  matter  placed  before  me  in  the  line  of  my  per- 
sonal interest  and  preference ;  then  the  agreements  by  which 
common  truth  and  value  alike  are  reached  would  be  impossible. 
There  could  be  no  truth,  because  there  could  be  no  judgment  at 
all  in  the  mode  of  *  synnomic  community'  —  no  judgment  of 
that  universal  import  which  implicates  general  agreement. 

The  consideration  of  the  community  intent  of  judgment, 
therefore,  reinforces,  on  both  counts,  our  theory  of  truth.  As 
synnomic  meaning  thought  is  available  for  action  in  so  far  as  it 
is  true — it  is  not  true  because  available  for  action,  either  social 
or  individual  or  both.  Of  judgment  in  the  forming,  of  meaning 

1  It  has  been  brought  against  me  that  in  my  address  on  '  Selective  Thinking  ' 
(chap.  XVII.  of  Development  and  Evolution},  I  made  truth  '  not  what  is  selected 
because  it  is  true,  but  what  is  true  because  it  has  been  selected.'  But  this  does 
not  at  all  contradict  what  I  now  say  ;  for  in  that  address  I  explicitly  made  the 
'  test  of  fact '  —  the  gauntlet  of  external  coefficients  —  part  of  the  process  of 
selection,  just  as  ^1  do  here.  Truth  is  what  is  selected  by  the  whole  experi- 
mental judgmental  process. 


ON  TRUTH.  285 

having  a  progressive  intent  *  by  whom,'  this  is  all  the  more  true  ; 
for  the  content  not  yet  accepted  could  never  be  accepted,  were 
the  rule  of  determination  anything  else  than  confirmation  in  the 
sphere  of  control  or  fact  in  which  the  *  truth '  is  finally  to  be 
acknowledged  as  open  to  common  inspection. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  further  point  to  observe  in  this  matter 
of  community.  It  is  a  point  that  comes  up  in  connection  with 
catholicity  considered  as  being  a  motive  that  recognizes  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  single  person.  We  say  that  it  is  impossible 
to  construe  thought  entirely  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  com- 
munity of  synnomic  intent,  that  is,  as  a  body  of  completely 
established  and  once  for  all  given  truths.  The  reason  is  that 
there  is  always  also  the  intent  of  further  propagation  and  ac- 
ceptance in  a  growing  social  whole.  The  other  aspect  or  intent 
of  community  must  come  into  its  own  as  well, -and  this  recog- 
nizes further  judgment  process  not  included  in  the  generaliza- 
tion of  the  personal  attitudes,  *  for  whom,'  whereby  the  synnomic 
meaning  was  constituted.  This  brings  up  the  singularity  and 
separateness  of  individual  judgment  centers  in  a  curious  and  in- 
teresting way.  The  reference  of  the  meaning  to  the  singular 
persons  who  do  not  believe  is  as  real  as  that  to  the  community 
of  persons  who  do  believe. 

Of  course,  we  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  implications 
of  the  acknowledgment  of  single  individuals  by  others  ;  here  we 
have  to  enquire  only  into  the  effect  of  such  acknowledgment 
upon  the  theory  of  truth.  This  is  shown  in  two  ways  that  we 
may  now  point  out. 

In  the  first  place,  the  process  of  conversion,  whereby  the 
proposed  meaning  passes  over  into  judgment,  is  one  of  recog- 
nition of  personalities.  It  consists  in  one's  taking  their  thought 
as  source  of  supply  for  one's  own.  The  act  of  getting  social 
confirmation  proceeds  always  by  such  recognition  of  others  as 
resourceful  selves,  whose  knowledge  is  to  be  drawn  upon. 
Thus  the  very  process  by  which  thought  is  accepted  as  true  im- 
plicates the  recognition  of  a  set  of  judging  selves  reaching  a 
common  result.  The  inference  is  that  no  theory  of  truth  can 
stand  that  does  not  involve  a  mode  of  consciousness  having  not 
only  the  subject-object  dualism  —  myself  and  what  I  think 


286  /.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

about  —  but  also  a  plurality  of  subject  individuals  having  a 
common  body  of  acknowledged  objects,  or  a  common  body  of 
truths.  There  is  then  a  common  -presupposition  in  the  implica- 
tion of  truth)  but  an  individtial  presupposition  in  the  implica- 
tion of  belief.  Truth  is  one ;  knovvers  of  the  truth  are  many. 
The  commonness  of  any  item  of  truth  is  achieved  by  the  act  of 
judgment ;  but  the  progress  of  judgment,  and  with  it  the  exten- 
sion of  truth,  implicates  a  set  of  persons  individuated  as  singular 
selves. 

The  second  point  is  that  the  individuals  so  implicated  are, 
each  for  himself,  a  center  of  inner  control  process ;  and  so  are 
they  all  in  their  meaning  to  each  —  a  set  of  objects  having  this 
character.  The  social  selves  are,  therefore,  truths  in  the  same 
sense  that  any  body  of  contents  are.  For  me,  it  is  true  that 
you  are  Mr.  Brown,  just  as  it  is  true  that  my  hat  is  white.  The 
essential  singularity  of  you,  as  Mr.  Brown,  resides  in  the  mean- 
ing I  must  give  you,  of  being  a  self  which  besides  being  a  true 
meaning  to  me,  also  has  the  common  fund  of  true  meanings  with 
me.  The  true  context  of  thought  as  a  whole  for  each  then,  in- 
cludes in  it  all  the  others  who  are  also  reaching  the  same  true 
context  of  thought. 

Here  is  a  snag  upon  which  the  current  instrumentalist 
theories  often  strike  (e.  £*.,  Moore,  in  this  issue  of  the  REVIEW). 
The  readjustment  of  '  conflicting  habits '  is  depicted  as  a  proc- 
ess of  attention,  a  process  of  restoring  equilibrium  of  action 
which,  if  more  than  a  figure,  must  be  in  the  individual.  But 
when  it  is  pointed  out  that  this  is  individualistic,  resort  is  made  to 
the  social  force  of  the  content  and  of  the  social  character  of  the 
self  (often  quoting  my  *  social  dialectic  n).  But  this  is  not  a  reply  ; 
for  there  is  no  social  attention ,  no  process  of  reconciliation  of 
socially  conflicting  ivills,  except  by  a  return  to  the  individual  as 
a  center  of  action  and  thought.  This  problem,  whether  set  in 
terms  of  action  (especially)  or  of  thought  (no  less  finally)  must 
be  solved  in  terms  of  the  individual's  experience,  however  fully 

1  My  earlier  work  shows  the  common  character  of  the  self-content,  but  does 
not  for  a  moment  deny  the  later  logical  individuation  of  singular  selves.  In 
my  present  work  I  trace  out  this  latter  movement.  Moreover  I  am  disposed  to 
agree  ( and  in  fact  I  argued  for  it  in  the  paper  on  '  Selective  Thinking  ' )  that 
the  mechanism  of  subjective  control  is,  as  Mr.  Moore  claims,  that  of  attention. 


ON   TRUTH.  287 

it  may  also  implicate  common  meaning.  Either  all  controls 
(other  persons,  as  well  as  external  things)  must  be  entirely  and 
finally  reflected  in  the  common  character  of  individual  judgment, 
or  thought  in  the  individual  will  reassert  itself  in  a  mode  of 
self-notself  dualism,  which  is  also  one  of  -personal  -pluralism. 
This  latter  is  the  outcome  in  the  mode  of  thought  as  such,  the 
mode  of  truth.  Any  essential  reconciliation  by  an  act  of  judg- 
ment is  impossible,  since  judgment  sets  up  its  own  dualism  of 
reflection.  The  position  that  objectivity  arises  only  when  con- 
flict is  not  mediated  by  judgment,  and  that  judgment  brings  a 
new  immediacy,  seems  to  me  flagrantly  untrue  (see  the  exposition 
of  Miss  Adams,  The  Esthetic  Experience^.  For  when  I  judge, 
I  set  up  and  acknowledge  a  content  as  object  over  against  myself. 
The  dualism  of  fact  and  idea  is  mediated,  in  the  establishing 
of  truth  ;  but  just  this  it  is  that  also  erects  the  further  dualism 
of  self  acknowledging  and  things  acknowledged,  together  with 
that  other  most  pregnant  dualism  between  fact  and  end. 

The  true,  then,  is  simply  the  body  of  knowledge,  acknowl- 
edged as  belonging  where  it  does  in  a  consistently  controlled 
context.  The  characters  of  truth  are  those  attaching  to  the  con- 
tent of  judgment  as  being  under  mediate  control.  The  mean- 
ing of  truth  is  its  intent  to  mediate  the  original  sphere  of  exist- 
ence meaning  in  which  it  arose.  It  is  possible  and  necessary, 
just  as  any  other  sort  of  relative  correctness  is,  wherever  there 
is  an  original  experience  having  coefficients  which  the  mediating 
later  experience  intends  and  invokes.  It  is  strictly  an  experi- 
ential mode,  since  the  controls  which  it  mediates  are  those  of 
developing  psychic  meaning.2 

1 1  suppose  Miss  Adams'  is  as  accredited  exposition  —  and  I  should  say  a 
very  clear  and  able  one  —  of  the  position  of  the  'Chicago  School.' 

2  Further  paragraphs  follow  on  '  How  Truth  is  Made,'  '  What  Truth  is  True 
to,'  'Falsity  and  Error,'  'What  Truth  is  Good  For,'  'Relative  and  Absolute 
Truth,'  etc.  —  topics  for  which  space  cannot  be  taken  here.  The  solutions  all 
depend,  however,  on  these  fundamental  positions  (i)  that  truth  is  a  system  of 
objective  contents  set  up  and  acknowledged  as  under  a  variety  of  coefficients  of 
control ;  (2)  that  this  system  is  socially  derived  and  socially  valid,  though  ren- 
dered by  acts  of  individual  judgment ;  (3)  that  the  whole  movement  issues  in 
a  dualism  of  self-acknowledging  and  objects-acknowledged,  a  dualism  from 
which  thought  as  such  cannot  free  itself. 


DISCUSSION. 

A  FURTHER   APPLICATION  OF  A  RESULT   OBTAINED 
IN  EXPERIMENTAL  ESTHETICS. 

In  a  recent  experiment  on  the  aesthetic  value  of  a  series  of  repeated 
units  in  architecture  and  design,1  a  certain  marked  difference  in  the 
introspection  of  my  observers  suggested  opposing  ideals  in  their  aes- 
thetic appreciation,  which,  it  has  seemed  to  me,  may  have  a  wider 
application  than  was  claimed  for  them  in  that  paper. 

The  difference  was  this :  In  looking  at  designs  consisting  of  a 
dozen  or  fifteen  repeated  figures,  which  together  made  a  band  of 
simple  decoration,  the  observers  described  their  reactions  in  two  dis- 
tinct ways. 

The  first,  whom  I  have  called  the  rhythmic  type,  enjoyed  the  units 
solely  in  terms  of  their  rhythmic  sequence.  The  activity  of  moving 
the  attention  uniformly  from  one  unit  to  the  next  like  it  was  the  only 
charm,  and  they  could  not  describe  their  pleasure  in  the  repeated 
design  in  other  terms  than  those  of  simple  temporal  sequence,  anal- 
ogous to  their  pleasure  in  auditory  rhythm. 

The  observers  of  the  other  type,  from  the  first  described  their  ex- 
perience in  different  terms.  They  said  the  passage  from  one  unit  to 
the  next  had  no  part  in  their  enjoyment,  but  was  often  in  fact  a  hin- 
drance. Their  pleasure  depended  on  the  satisfaction  they  got  from 
any  unit  as  a  fixation  point,  with  a  marginal  amount  of  attention 
bestowed  on  the  other  units  extending  both  sides  of  the  central  fig- 
ure. The  experience  was  a  stable  one,  on  any  figure  for  itself.  The 
fact  that  any  one  could  enjoy  rhythm  of  succession  for  its  own  sake, 
apart  from  the  value  of  the  individual  unit,  they  could  not  understand. 
This  divergence  in  method  of  apperception  was  at  first  puzzling,  but 
it  ran  systematically  throughout  the  experiment.  The  rhythmic  type 
had  little  choice  as  to  the  unit  of  the  series,  provided  it  was  repeated ; 
the  static  type  could  not  enjoy  the  repetition  if  the  figure  was  nat  in- 
trinsically agreeable  —  otherwise  repetition  only  made  matters  worse. 

The  rhythmic  type  could  not  enjoy  the  series  unless  enough  time 
was  allowed  them  to  look  along  the  design  and  get  accustomed  to  its 
rhythm ;  the  static  type  enjoyed  it  more  if  they  were  not  forced  to  look 

1  'Esthetics  of  Repeated  Space  Forms,'  Harvard  Psych.  Studies,  Vol.  II. 

288 


DISCUSSION.  289 

along  its  length,  but  could  keep  one  figure,  whether  for  a  long  or  short 
time,  as  the  center  of  balance. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  rhythmic  type  was  more  sensitive  to 
uniform  spacing  between  the  units.  If  these  interspacings  were 
altered  so  that  there  were,  irregularly,  longer  breaks  between  some 
than  others,  the  entire  rhythm  was  broken ;  the  static  type,  however, 
could  not  detect  that  they  felt  the  interspacing  to  be  equal,  although 
they  knew  it  to  be.  They  spent  so  much  attention  on  each  unit  for 
itself  that  they  lost  any  impression  of  a  rhythm  in  going  from  one  to 
the  next. 

These  and  other  differences  between  the  two  classes  of  observers 
have  suggested  that  their  two  ways  of  enjoying  decorative  design  are 
typical  of  a  deeper  difference  which  characterizes  two  opposing  demands 
of  art  as  well  as  of  life.  Many  other  conflicts  in  taste  may  perhaps 
grow  from  this  fundamental  difference  of  attitude,  but  I  have  taken  as 
a  possible  illustration  the  characteristic  art-appreciation  of  two  great 
classes  of  people,  the  American  and  the  Japanese. 

That  there  are  both  types  of  observers  in  every  race  and  in  every 
community  is  of  course  indicated  by  this  laboratory  experiment.  But 
it  is  easier  to  point  out  wide  divergencies  in  a  national  than  in  an  in- 
dividual taste,  and  I  would  suggest  that  in  an  average  of  many  cases, 
the  Japanese  would  fall  preeminently  into  the  static  division,  while  the 
American  would  fall  with  more  probability  into  the  rhythmic.  This 
anticipation  seems  justifiable  since  every  one  of  the  apperceptive 
differences  among  the  laboratory  subjects,  points  to  a  more  extended 
but  similar  difference  in  the  ideals  of  the  two  nations. 

There  is  a  most  interesting  account  of  the  aims  of  the  Japanese 
artist  in  two  books *  by  Mr.  Okakura,  sometime  director  of  the  Imperial 
Art  School  at  Tokio,  and  now  of  the  Hall  of  Fine  Arts  in  the  same 
city,  and  they  illustrate  in  a  striking  way  the  apperceptive  method  of 
the  extreme  static  type,  as  opposed  to  the  more  rhythmic  ideals  of 
America. 

These  examples  are  the  more  interesting  since  we  look  to  Japan 
especially  as  the  leader  in  decorative  art.  It  might  seem  thus,  that 
uniformity  in  repeated  designs  would  be  its  prime  characteristic,  but 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  just  the  reverse. 

It  is  western  Europe  and  America  that  have  adopted  uniform 
repetition  in  design,  but  it  is  Japan  and  the  East  which  demand  varia- 
tions to  a  degree  that  is  confusing  at  first  to  one  educated  on  the  other 
basis. 

1  The  Ideals  of  the  East  and  The  Book  of  Tea. 


290    RESULT  OBTAINED  IN  EXPERIMENTAL  ESTHETICS. 

The  Japanese  artist  may  embody  the  same  idea  over  and  over 
again  to  suggest  infinity,  but  in  his  decorative  series,  the  figures  and 
often  the  interspacings,  are  not  uniform.  His  method  of  apperception 
is  to  immerse  himself  completely  in  each  unit  —  which  is,  of  course, 
utterly  opposed  to  the  active  hurrying  from  point  to  point  which  the 
rhythmic  observer  feels  essential  to  his  pleasure. 

It  is  indeed  possible  to  go  through  the  list  of  characteristics  as  they 
appeared  in  the  laboratory  observers,  and  apply  them  with  equal  cor- 
rectness to  the  art  of  the  two  nations.  Much  of  America's  improved 
taste  has  come  directly  from  Japan,  so  the  styles  which  our  public  has 
adopted,  and  which  it  has,  so  far,  refused  to  adopt,  show  distinctly 
where  falls  the  division  line,  between  the  two  typical  tastes. 

1 .  The  rhythmic  types  were  but  little  affected  by  the  beauty  or 
ugliness  of  the  unit,  so  long  as  it  was  repeated. 

We  are  certainly  familiar  with  this  taste  in  every-day  architecture. 
Rows  on  rows  of  undifferentiated  pillars,  windows,  and  machine-made 
decorations  valueless  in  themselves  are  tolerated;  but  the  tiresome 
character  of  the  units  does  not  shock  us,  as  would  one  or  two  placed 
above  the  level,  or  at  unequal  distances.  Contrast  with  this  the  horror 
of  monotonous  repetition  in  the  mind  of  the  Japanese  (p.  96,  Book  of 
Ted).  "Uniformity  of  Design  was  considered  fatal  to  freshness  of 
imagination."  u  In  the  tea-room  the  fear  of  repetition  is  a  constant 
presence."  This  dislike  of  repetition  has  gone  so  far  as  to  center  the 
skill  of  Japanese  artists  on  birds  and  flowers,  rather  than  on  the  human 
figure;  for  a  human  spectator  being  always  implied  by  an  art- work, 
there  would  be  a  repetition  of  a  similar  form,  if  one  were  also  repre- 
sented in  the  picture !  The  Japanese  cannot  understand  our  habit  of 
decorating  dining-rooms  with  pictures  of  game  or  fruit.  Since  we  of 
necessity  eat  in  the  room,  it  is  the  place  of  all  others  where  food  should 
not  be  duplicated  in  the  pictures.  One  finds  continually  in  cloisonne" 
vases  different  designs  within  the  same  pattern,  as  if  the  designer  were 
impatient  of  that  very  recurrence  to  which  we  are  accustomed.  In 
any  art,  observers  of  both  types  would  agree  that  in  proportion  as  a 
unit  has  individual  value,  serial  repetition  becomes  less  allowable,  so 
it  would  naturally  follow  that  to  the  observer  whose  every  art-object 
is  an  end  in  itself,  repeated  series  would  be  intolerable. 

2.  The  rhythmic  observer  in  demanding  a  given  amount  of  time 
to  feel  his  rhythm,  demands  necessarily  that   the  succession  be  not 
hampered  by  unequal  attentive  periods  on  the  different  units.     On 
the  other  hand   the  ideal   of   the  Japanese   is  to  '  catch  a  glimpse  of 
infinity '  in  each  beautiful  figure,  and  the  notion  that  he  is  bound  to  a 


DISCUSSION.  291 

time  limit  to  move  from  one  unit  to  another  similar  one,  is  abhorrent 
to  him.  Each  figure  speaks  for  itself,  and  involves  submersion  in  it, 
not  activity  in  moving  from  it. 

Even  the  single  art  object  must  avoid  symmtery  (p.  17,  Book  of 
Tea}  since  that  implies  a  repetition  of  equal  distances  two  sides  of  a 
middle  point.  This  in  itself  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  American 
habit  of  decoration. 

3.  Another  interesting  tendency  of  the  rhythmic  observer  in  the 
laboratory  was  to  greatly  overestimate  his  interspacings.  Both  types 
were  asked  to  arrange  a  set  of  figures  at  distances  from  each  other 
equal  to  the  width  of  the  figures.  Since  these  units  had  groups  of 
lines  within  themselves,  they  had  the  character  of  an  optical  illusion, 
and  both  classes  overestimated  the  spacing,  but  in  an  average  of  three 
trials,  the  rhythmic  type  overestimated  twice  as  much.  Apparently 
the  very  motor  activity  which  constituted  his  pleasure,  carried  the 
rhythmic  observer  beyond  his  limits  and  made  him  4  see  large,'  where- 
as the  static  type,  more  absorbed  in  each  unit  for  its  own  sake,  had 
not  the  same  motor  impetus  to  overcome,  and  saw  smaller. 

Could  there  be  a  more  obvious  distinction  between  the  tastes  of 
the  two  nations?  The  heavy  fa9ades,  long  colonnades,  many  steps 
and  wide  doors  which  characterize  American  architecture  contrast 
strikingly  with  the  delicately  small  proportions  of  the  Japanese  build- 
ings. We  do  not  mean  to  imply  the  superiority  of  the  4  static '  de- 
mand ;  certainly  the  simple  repetitions  of  the  Greek  temple  make  that 
impossible ;  but  the  common  American  4  commercial  decorating ' 
illustrates  the  rhythmic  ideal  without  the  balance  of  the  opposing  ten- 
dency;  and  it  maybe  that  degenerate  Japanese  decoration  might  show 
the  opposite  fault  of  confusion,  though  as  yet  they  seem  to  have  pre- 
served better  their  artistic  conscience. 

If  one  might  generalize  even  more  on  this  laboratory  suggestion,  it 
would  seem  as  if  the  Westerner's  love  of  activity  for  its  own  sake  was 
an  expression  of  his  rhythmic  life,  his  enjoyment  of  every  experience 
in  terms  of  regular  accented  successions  ;  while  the  isolated  absorption 
in  the  unique  experience  of  the  Oriental  was  an  equally  characteristic 
indication  of  the  static  method  of  apperceiving  life  as  well  as  art. 

There  are  both  kinds  of  observers  in  every  race,  but  in  a  general 
sense  the  rhythmic  activity  of  one  leads  to  music,  rhymed  verse  forms, 
and  regularly  repeated  designs,  even  to  athletics  and  science,  since 
these  are  relative  activities,  never  the  perfect  moments  of  repose. 

On  the  other  hand  the  static  type  tends  more  to  the  visuul  arts, 
especially  to  exquisite  materials,  color  and  workmanship,  to  small 


292  EXPERIENCE,  HABIT  AND   ATTENTION. 

detail  and  endless  variety  in  design.  Moreover  it  is  in  the  East  that 
mystic  philosophy  and  religions  flourish,  since  they  express  not  rela- 
tivity but  absolute  values,  where  temporal  successions  have  no  meaning. 

Now  that  Japan  is  open  to  the  west  and  gaining  our  scientific 
activity,  she  is  having  to  fight  hard  for  her  national  art,  while  we  are 
learning  from  her  the  value  of  unique  beauty  as  distinct  from  the 
relative. 

Perhaps  the  perfect  art-lover  as  well  as  race,  will  represent  a  union 
of  both  apperceiving  types.1 

ELEANOR  HARRIS  ROWLAND. 

MOUNT  HOLYOKE  COLLEGE. 


EXPERIENCE,  HABIT  AND  ATTENTION. 

In  my  review  of  Professor  Baldwin's  Thought  and  Things,  Vol.  I., 
in  the  PSYCH.  BULLETIN  for  March  of  this  year,  I  referred  to  Professor 
Baldwin's  criticisms  of  the  attempt  to  state  cognitive  experiences  as 
part  of  the  whole  process  of  the  readjustment  of  conflicting  habitual 
and  instinctive  activities  through  attention.  Professor  Baldwin's  objec- 
tion was  that  such  an  account  cannot  take  care  of  the  case  of  4  a  new 
and  unwelcome  object  which  simply  forces  itself  upon  us,  *  *  4 
which  rides  full  armed  through  our  walls  and  compels  its  recognition.' 
My  reply  was  to  the  effect  that  this  very  4  new,' '  unwelcome,'  involun- 
tary, c  forced '  character  of  the  object,  when  analyzed  instead  of  being 
accepted  as  ultimate  and  quasi-miraculous,  turns  out  to  be  just  as  much 
a  function  of  habit  and  attention  as  the  4  voluntary '  cases.2 

Without  any  further  attempt  at  analysis,  Professor  Baldwin  in  the 
May  number  of  the  BULLETIN  reaffirms  his  objection  and  adds  another 
edition  of  it  from  the  standpoint  of  volitional  instead  of  cognitive  expe- 
rience to  the  effect  that  in  such  a  conception  of  experience  there  is  no 
4  motivation.'  He  says  c  I  can't  rest  content  with  a  dynamic  that  has 
nothing  outside  to  move  it  and  no  reason  inside  for  moving.'  This 
sounds  wonderfully  like  an  appeal  to  the  outside  4  unmoved  mover'  the 
insoluble  difficulties  with  which  our  Greek  forebears,  to  say  nothing  of 
Locke,  Hume,  Kant,  et  al.,  discovered.  To  rehearse  these  would,  I 
take  it,  be  an  unpardonable  anachronism.  As  for  '  no  reason  inside  for 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  April  4,  1907. 

2  Most  of  this  discussion  was  in  MS.  when  Professor  Dewey's  article,  which 
more  than  anticipates   the  main  point  of  this  paper,  appeared  in  the  Jour,  of 
Philos.,  Psychol.,  etc.,  for  May  9.     But  as  Professor  Dewey  in  that  article  points 
out  the  necessity  '  for  constant  dripping  to  wear  down  the  stony  hearted  '  I  send 
this  to  print  as  a  contribution  to  the  'drip.' 


DISCUSSION.  293 

moving,'  what  better  reason  could  there  be  than  the  conflict  of  the 
habitual  and  instinctive  activities  with  its  accompanying  dissatisfac- 
tion. 

Again,  Professor  Baldwin  asks :  "If  experience  proceeds  by 
readjusting  to  situations,  whence  comes  the  situation  that  '  puts  it  up ' 
to  it  to  adjust"  (italics  mine).  Now  the  use  of  the  preposition  '  to ' 
both  locates  and  at  the  same  time  begs  the  whole  issue.  In  the  view 
which  Professor  Baldwin  criticizes  experience  proceeds  by  situations 
#/"  readjustment,  not  by  adjustments  to  situations.  The  situation  to  be 
readjusted  is  one  in  and  of  experience,  not  one  which  is  '  put  up  '  to 
it  from  without.  That  Professor  Baldwin  must  be  aware  in  some 
measure  of  this  view  seems  implied  in  his  next  question  :  c  Why  does 
it  (experience)  grow  discontent  with  its  own  habit  world '  (italics 
mine)  ?  This  certainly  assumes  that  somebody  regards  the  readjusting 
situation  as  made  by  the  discontent  of  experience  with  its  own  habit 
world. 

As  for  the  answer  to  the  question  :  4  How  this  discontent  can  arise,' 
that  is  not  far  to  seek.  As  has  been  pointed  out  again  and  again,  it  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  habits  are  constantly  coming  into  conflict.  In 
more  general  form  experience  has  constantly  to  face  the  results  of  its 
own  work  and  utilize  them  as  the  material  of  its  own  further  develop- 
ment. And  if  it  be  further  asked  how  this  conflict  reveals  itself,  the 
answer  is;  through  dissatisfaction  and  pain. 

The  same  point  is  involved  in  the  following  questions  on  my  answer 
to  which  Professor  Baldwin  says  he  '  will  stake  the  whole  business ' : 

"  First.  How  can  experience  of  the  dynamic-relative  type  secure  or 
utilize  knowledge  that  is  socially  valid  without  at  the  same  time  rein- 
stating other  things  as  valid,  as  the  social  fellows,  including  the  thinker 
himself? 

"  Second.  How  can  an  experience  that  has  no  environment  except 
its  own  habit  and  no  reality,  save  its  present  function,  set  up  any 
dynamic  at  all  ? 

"  Or  to  put  these  two  questions  in  one  :  In  what  sense  is  the  will 
of  the  mother  spanking  the  child  part  of  the  habit  of  the  child,  and 
why  does  the  child's  experience  take  on  this  particular  phase  of  rela- 
tive dynamic  —  this  occasional  and  very  disconcerting  phase  of  habit  ?"" 

In  this  last  inclusive  and  very  concrete  form  of  his  question  I 
assume  that  Professor  Baldwin  does  not  intend  to  put  me  at  any  empi- 
rical disadvantage  by  having  the  '  mother '  instead  of  the  father  do  the 
spanking  —  an  arrangement  which,  personally,  both  as  a  child  and  as 
a  parent  I  have  always  favored.  As  for  4  staking  the  whole  business 


294  EXPERIENCE,  HABIT  AND  ATTENTION. 

on  my  answer,'  that  happily  is  not  necessary,  as  that  is  a  responsibility 
already  shared  by  many  others. 

In  general,  Professor  Baldwin's  questions  all  reveal  the  chronic 
and  apparently  incurable  determination  of  most  critics  of  pragmatic 
doctrines  to  take,  at  any  rate  in  their  criticisms,  the  terms  c  experience/ 
*  consciousness,'  4  habit,'  4  attention,'  etc.,  in  the  sense  of  the  '  experi- 
ence,' 4  consciousness,'  4  habit'  and  '  attention'  of  some  one  individual. 
Whereas  all  these  terms,  when  they  are  used  without  explicit  reference 
to  a  particular  individual,  refer  to  the  entire  world  of  activity  in  which 
all  experiencing  individuals  have  their  being —  '  experience  '  being  the 
general  term  for  that  world  of  activity,  the  other  terms  meaning  partic- 
ular modes  or  functions  of  that  activity. 

This  does  not  mean  that  these  particular  modes  or  functions,  such 
as  habit  and  attention,  may  be  regarded  as  some  sort  of  disembodied 
4  things  in  themselves,'  capable  of  an  existence  apart  from  individuals. 
They  are  the  functions,  the  modes  of  the  activity  of  individuals  — 
habit  being  the  conserving,  the  mechanical,  the  structural  mode,  atten- 
tion the  reconstructive,  reforming,  readjusting  activity.  While  this 
conception  does  not  then  in  any  sense  attempt  to  substitute  experience, 
habit,  or  thinking  in  general  or  at  large  for  the  experiences,  habits  and 
thinking  of  individuals,  it  does  protest  just  as  insistently  against  re- 
garding these  activities  as  shut  up  within  the  epidermic  confines  of 
some  one  individual.  However  much  John  Smith's  habits  and  ideas 
belong  to  him,  they  belong  also  to  the  whole  community  in  which 
he  lives  and  which  is  affected  in  any  way  by  them,  be  that  as  large  or 
small  as  it  may.  Conversely,  just  this  community  center  of  habits  and 
ideas  is  John  Smith.  That  this  is  to  be  taken  literally  and  not  figura- 
tively, Professor  Baldwin  himself  shows  in  his  volumes  on  Mental 
Development. 

Now  if  this  conception  of  the  habits  and  ideas  of  the  individual  as 
also  functions  of  the  whole  community  life,  be  kept  steadily  in  view, 
it  would  seem  that  the  impossibility  of  framing  such  questions  as  the 
above  is  as  obvious  as  their  answer. 

Turning  to  the  first  question,  Why  should  anyone  speak  of  ;  rein- 
stating social  fellows  '  and  '  other  things '  ?  Who  has  turned  them  out  ? 
Surely  not  those  who  teach  that  problems  arise,  run  their  course  and 
find  their  solution  not  in  the  solipsistic  realm  of  John  Smith's  habits 
and  ideas  as  a  complete  world  in  itself,  but  in  the  habits  and  ideas  of 
John  Smith  as  a  conserving  and  reconstructive  agent  of  the  whole 
community  life. 

As  for  the  second  question,  in  view  of  what  has  already  been  said 


D7SCC7SS/ON.  295 

of  the  place  of  habit  in  experience,  it  seems  redundant  to  add:  (i) 
that  habit  cannot  be  regarded  as  an  external  enviroment  to  experience, 
or  (2)  that  experience  does  not  have  to  ;  get  up'  any  dynamic.  The 
4  dynamic  '  is  already  there  :  (a)  in  the  obviously  active  character  of 
the  habits;  (3)  in  their  coming  into  conflict;  and  (c)  in  the  recon- 
structive work  of  attention. 

Professor  Baldwin's  putting  of  the  c  spanking  '  question  lends  itself 
somewhat  temptingly  to  facetious  treatment,  but  as  the  case  is  really  a 
serious  one  for  all  parties  concerned,  I  prefer  to  treat  it  so  and  to  ob- 
serve ;  first,  that  in  urging  the  distinction  between  the  experience  of  the 
mother  and  that  of  the  child,  the  question  seems  irrelevant  to  the  orig- 
inal issue,  which  is  the  possibility  of  stating  the  'whole  situation 
whether  it  involves  one  person  or  a  thousand,  few  or  many  things,  in 
terms  of  a  conflict  of  activities  resolved  through  attention.  It  insists 
that  the  'whole  situation,  including  the  mother,  the  child  and  the  spank- 
ing, whether  regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mother,  the  child  or 
both,  is  a  system  of  conflicting  activities  undergoing  reconstruction. 
And  from  this  standpoint  there  is  no  more  need  for  identifying  the 
ideas  or  will  of  the  mother  and  the  habits  of  the  child  in  the  sense  of 
making  them  the  same  thing  or  making  one  a  4  part '  of  the  other,  than 
of  identifying  habit  and  will  in  the  mother,  or  in  running  together 
distinguishable  functions  or  aspects  of  any  other  process. 

Admitting,  freilich  then,  the  distinction  between  the  activities  of 
the  mother  and  those  of  the  child,  we  must  yet  keep  hold  of  the  fact 
that  if  they  are  not  4  parts'  of  each  other,  yet  they  are  ' parts  ^  in  the 
sense  of  constituent  interacting  activities,  of  one  situation.  This  is 
reflected,  in  general,  in  the  very  terms  in  which  we  state  the  case. 
The  performance  as  a  whole  may  be  stated  either  as  '  the  mother  spank- 
ing the  child,'  or  4  the  child  being  spanked  by  the  mother.'  It  depends 
on  the  point  of  view.  Again,  the  term  '  mother '  implies  that  one  of 
the  individuals  is  the  kind  of  an  individual  that  has  the  habit,  the  atti- 
tude of  caring  for  '  her  child.'  And  the  term  '  her  child'  implies  that 
the  other  is  the  kind  of  a  individual  that  is  to  be  protected  by  the 
mother  even  to  the  extent  of  being  spanked,  if  need  be. 

Following  the  analysis  still  further,  and  still  speaking  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  whole  situation,  how  can  c  the  will  to  spank '  be  re- 
garded as  the  exclusive  production  of  the  mother  ?  It  surely  is  the 
outcome  of  the  conflict  between  the  mother-attitude  of  perceiving  and 
keeping  the  child  in  safety  and  the  child's  present  activity  of,  say  play- 
ing with  the  fire.  It  is  a  joint  product  of  these  two  sets  of  activities, 
and  one  is  as  essential  as  the  other.  The  attempt  to  regard  the  will- 


296  EXPERIENCE,  HABIT  AND  A  TTENTION. 

ing  as  the  exclusive  production  of  the  mother  alone  transforms  the  con- 
crete will  to-spank-this-child-now-playing-with-the-fire  into  an  ab- 
stract '  will  to  spank  '  uberhaupt,  with  nothing  particular  to  spank, — 
the  essence  of  a  profoundly  tragic  situation. 

But  Professor  Baldwin  may  say,  after  all '  the  spanking '  is  '  forced ' 
on  the  child  as  the  perception  of  the-child-playing-with-the-fire  is 
forced  on  the  mother,  to  which  I  would  rejoin  :  (i)  Even  so,  this  but 
sustains  the  original  contention  that  however  '  new '  or  '  forced '  or 
'  unwelcome '  the  experience  may  be,  it  still  is  statable  in  terms  of  the 
readjustment  of  conflicting  habitual  activities  through  attention,  and 
even  if  for  any  reason  one  wished  to  state  the  case  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  mother  or  the  child  alone  there  are  no  other  terms  so  far  as  I 
can  see  for  the  statement.  (2)  The  spanking  is  no  more  '  forced'  on 
the  child  than  on  the  mother.  In  fact,  psychically  it  may  be  much 
less  so.  However  skeptical,  we  may  have  been  about  it  as  children, 
we  have  since  learned  that  our  mothers  spake  truly  when  they  said  : 
"I  am  sorry  that  I  am  'forced 'to  punish  you."  (3)  For  both, 
neither  '  the  spanking'  nor  the  playing-with-the-fire  viewed  as  an  oc- 
currence is  any  more  '  forced '  than  anything  else  that  may  have  pre- 
ceded, as  running,  talking,  sewing,  etc.  Even  the  image  of  the  child 
playing  with  the  fire  is  no  more  forced  upon  the  mother  than  her  own 
breathing,  her  impulse  to  rescue  the  child,  or  her  will  to  spank  it.  In 
this  sense,  all  those  activities  which  constitute  the  '  self  of  the  mother 
upon  which  other  things  are  said  to  be  '  forced '  is  as  much  '  forced  ' 
as  the  things.  In  this  sense  everything  is  'forced.'  'Forced'  here 
means  simply  '  happens.'  And  in  this  sense  things  are  no  more  and 
no  less  '  forced  '  upon  us  than  we  are  '  forced  '  upon  things,  or  '  forced  ' 
upon  ourselves.  What  goes  on  'within  our  '  walls  '  is  as  much  '  forced  ' 
as  the  thing  '  which  rides  full  armed  through  them.'  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  this  mere  happening  of  things,  however  '  new  '  or  '  sudden,'  e.  g., 
Professor  James'  classic  thunder-clap,  is  not  experienced  as  '  forced  ' 
unless  it  conflicts  with  activities  or  attitudes  already  going  on.  And 
even  then  the  '  force '  obviously  is  not  all  on  the  side  of  the  '  new ' 
factor.  It  is  met  by  the  force  of  the  activities  already  there.  Pur- 
suing the  figure,  the  forces  behind  the  '  walls '  are  not  asleep  waiting 
to  be  aroused  from  without.  They  are  already  active.  And  if  the 
new  factor  be  recognized  as  an  improvement,  it  may  be  made  the 
basis,  the  ideal,  of  the  reorganization,  in  which  case  the  old  habits 
instead  of  the  '  new '  content,  will  appear  as  the  '  opposition.'  It  is, 
then,  only  when  there  is  a  conflict  of  happenings  and  some  content  is 
selected  as  an  end,  that  the  other  activities,  the  readjustment  of  which 


DISCUSSION.  297 

this  end  demands,  seem  '  opposed '  and  '  external '  to  the  end,  but  not 
opposed  or  external  to  the  ivhole  situation  or  to  4  experience.' 

As  these  remarks  are  already  beyond  their  alloted  space  I  cannot 
take  up  the  other  and  relatively  minor  points  to  which  Professor 
Baldwin  refers.  However,  regarding  my  complaint  of  confusion  in 
the  use  of  terms  I  should  like  to  ask  what  is  meant  by  '  trans-sub- 
jective '  and  '  extra-psychic '  realities  in  view  of  the  following  :  "  The 
envelope  of  the  developing  psychic  process  is  nowhere  ruptured.  The 
controls,  'foreign'  as  well  as  'inner'  are  all  psychic  meanings." 
(BULLETIN  for  May,  p.  126).  A  foot-note,  p.  12,  Thoughts  and 
Things,  says  extra-psychic  'means  independence  merely  from  the 
individual's  p§ychic  process.'  But  a  foot-note  on  the  psychic  '  enve- 
lope '  in  the  above  passage  says  :  "  It  is,  however,  an  envelope  of 
inter -psychic  or  common,  in  no  sense  private,  meaning."  So  far  as  I 
can  see  these  passages  use  '  psychic '  in  three  senses:  (i)  As  mean- 
ing '  the  individual's  psychic  process';  (2)  as  including  other  indi- 
viduals ;  (3)  as  including  all '  foreign  controls  '  whether  other  persons 
or  things  (italics  mine). 

A.  W.  MOORE. 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO. 

COMMENT   ON   PROFESSOR    MOORE'S   PAPER.1 

Professor  Moore's  position  assumes  'habit'  and  'instinct*  and 
also  '  conflict,'  and  withal  '  attention  '  to  '  readjust '  them.  But  genesis 
must  account  for  all  these  things  ;  the  same  question  of  accommodation 
vs.  habit  arises  in  the  simplest  organism  and  the  '  motivation '  of  a  proc- 
ess is  not  explained  by  the  assumption  of  its  whole  machinery.  It  is 
this  that  leads  us  —  the  critics  —  to  say  that  the  scheme  is  thoroughly 
individualistic.  It  would  seem  necessary  to  restate  it  in  social  terms. 
To  this  Professor  Moore  agrees ;  but  then,  as  I  think,  he  fails  to  give 
us  a  coherent  restatement  in  social  terms.  The  point  at  which  he  fails 
is  one  indicated  in  the  article  above  and  in  detail  in  my  book ;  in  brief, 
the  social  process  has  no  '  attention,'  the  conflict  of  wills  gets  no  sort  of 
readjustment  in  such  terms  as  habit  and  instinct  —  save  by  a  superficial 
analogy  —  and  the  whole  mediation  must  go  back  to  the  individual  proc- 

1  As  it  happens  a  proposed  contributor  to  this  issue  deferred  sending  in  his 
paper  ;  and  I  take  the  space  to  print  part  of  a  chapter  of  volume  two  of  the 
work  that  called  out  Professor  Moore's  remarks.  In  that  article  (above,  p.  264) 
I  answer  both  his  and  Professor  Dewey's  criticisms  (Journ.  of  Philos.,  May  9, 
1907)  more  effectively,  by  expanding  my  own  view,  than  I  could  in  such  more 
fragmentary  discussions  as  this. 


298  COMMENT  ON  PROFESSOR  MOORE'S  PAPER. 

ess  again,  dealing  now  with  socially  derived  and  socially  valid  mean- 
ings. That  is,  social  truth  must  be  rendered  in  individual  judgment 
—  must  be  what  I  have  called  synnomic.  But  just  here  the  individual 
factors  of  the  whole  mode  of  personal  judgment  reassert  themselves,  and 
the  new  dualism  of  self  and  things,  knower  and  known,  is  consti- 
tuted. In  other  words,  the  factor  of  foreign  control  again  arises,  in 
the  constitution  both  of  things  and  of  the  persons  of  the  objective  world 
of  reflection.1 

I  am,  as  Professor  Moore  is,  seeking  for  a  reconciling  mode  of 
experience;  I  do  not,  however,  find  it  where  he  does.  I  cannot  avoid 
seeing  that  for  the  knower  there  is  a  very  compelling  and  intruding 
sort  of  experience  —  that  is  what  the  much  criticised  sentence  about 
the  *  unwelcome  presence  that  rides  full-armed  through  our  walls  * 
means,  and  about  all  it  means.  This  is  for  and  by  him,  the  knower, 
read  as  a  c  foreign  control '  over  against  the  tendencies — habits,  instincts, 
volitions,  etc.  —  that  come  to  mean,  all  the  way  through,  inner  control. 
Judgment  bridges  this  chasm,  but  opens  another  one  —  that  of  the 
dualism  of  reflection.  The  real  mediation  is  found  in  the  c  semblant* 
consciousness  as  I  intimated  in  my  closing  remarks  on  Professor 
Moore's  review  (Psychological Bulletin,  April  15,  pp.  124-6). 

J.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY. 

1  In  this  connection  I  may  answer  Professor  Moore's  question  as  to  the 
meaning  of  'psychic.'  It  is  as  he  says  "  (i)  the  individual's  psychic  process, 
(2)  as  including  other  individuals  [among  the  meanings  it  gets  and  entertains] 
and  (3)  as  including  all  'foreign  controls '  whether  other  persons  or  things 
[also  among  the  meanings  it  gets  and  entertains].  My  explanations  are  inserted 
in  brackets.  It  is  all  '  psychic '  in  the  one  sense ;  and  that  hits  upon  the  re- 
quirement noted  above,  that  even  when  the  common  or  'social '  point  of  view 
is  taken,  the  function  of  readjustment,  of  advance,  of  mediation  must  be  in- 
terpreted as  going  on  within  the  '  psychic-envelope  'of  the  individual's  mind. 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  5.  September,  1907. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


THE  NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL  AND 
THEIR  RELATIONS.1 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILBUR  M.  URBAN, 
Trinity  College. 

i.  THE  PROBLEM. 

The  problem  of  feeling  and  will  and  the  nature  of  their 
relations  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  within  the  entire  field  of 
psychological  analysis.  The  reason  for  this  is  not  far  to  seek, 
for  nowhere  is  it  more  important  that  the  distinction  between 
appreciative  and  non-appreciative  description  should  be  realized 
and  a  true  theory  of  their  relations  formed,  and  nowhere  is  there 
such  confusion  on  these  points  as  precisely  in  this  sphere.2 

To  illustrate  my  point  in  detail,  the  distinction  between  feel- 

1  In  two  recent  articles  entitled  Definition  and  Analysis  of  the  Consciousness 
of  Value,  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  Vol.  XIV.,  Nos.  i  and  2,  a  definition  of 
feelings  of  value  and  an  analysis  of  the  different  modes  of  worth  experience 
were  developed  which,  as  was  explicitly  stated,  presupposed  a  theory  of  Feeling 
and  Will  not  fully  given  in  those  papers.    The  present  article,  while  in  a  sense 
an  independent  discussion,  nevertheless  serves  to  answer  certain  questions  left 
unsolved  in  those  studies. 

2  The  consequence  has  been  the  widely  divergent  analyses  with  which  psy- 
chologists have  been  scandalized.     The  original  distinctions  within  this  sphere 
were  made  from  the  appreciative  point  of  view  because  analysis  of  feeling  and  will 
first  began  with  the  worth  problem  (Plato  and  Aristotle  and  later  the  English 
Utilitarians).     As  the  original  interest  became  secondary  to  that  of  non-appre- 
ciative description,  the  distinctions  developed  in  appreciative  description,  when 
the  meaning  of  the  feeling,  i.  e.,  its  presuppositions,  was  taken  into  account, 
were  applied  without  reflection  to  hypothetical  feeling  abstracted  from  its 
presuppositions.     Tradition  was  all  powerful  here  (for  we  are  naturally  conser- 
vative in  all  that  affects  the  feeling  and  worth  side  of  experience),  and  when  at 
last  independence  of  analysis  appeared,  the  question  of  the  retention  or  elimi- 
nation of  these  distinctions  seems  to  have  been  determined  largely  by  personal 
inclination  rather  than  by  considerations  of  scientific  method,  and  hence  again 
the  divergence  in  analyses. 

299 


300  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

ing  as  passive  and  will  as  active  is  an  appreciative  distinction. 
One  concrete  attitude  is  relatively  more  passive  with  reference 
to  its  meaning  in  a  series  of  attitudes,  with  reference  to  what 
succeeds  or  precedes ;  but  when  we  abstract  from  the  meaning 
of  the  attitude  and  apply  the  distinction  to  hypothetical  content, 
it  involves  us,  we  shall  find,  if  it  is  made  absolute,  in  contradic- 
tions, and  is  far  from  representing  the  facts.  The  distinctions 
between  affect,  impulse,  desire,  wish  and  will  are  primarily 
appreciative,  made  with  reference  to  the  meanings  of  the  atti- 
tude and,  as  we  shall  see  later,  go  back  to  certain  cognitive 
differences  in  presuppositions.  And  finally,  the  distinction 
pleasantness-unpleasantness,  and  its  selection  as  the  dominant 
in  the  feeling  complex  or  attitude  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
aspects,  is  one  which  has  been  determined  largely  by  apprecia- 
tive purposes,  t.  e.9  it  is  the  abstract  aspect  which  appears  empha- 
sized when  the  attitude  (subjective)  is  transformed  into  a  state, 
as  object  of  another  attitude.  Now  when  these  appreciative 
distinctions,  which  are  largely  concerned  with  the  intent  of  an 
attitude  rather  than  with  the  content  of  a  state,  are  taken  to 
apply  to  content  from  which  meaning  has  been  abstracted,  in- 
teresting difficulties  and  contradictions  arise.  When  the  distinc- 
tions between  passive  and  active,  and  feeling  and  conation  (will), 
are  taken  as  non-appreciative  ultimate  distinctions,  we  have  a 
ualism  in  affective-volitional  meaning  which  the  several  dif- 
^erent  dualistic  theories  seek  to  bridge  by  establishing  relations 
of  causal  determinism  between  the  two  aspects.  One  finds 
feeling,  as  a  distinct  element  (passive  pleasantness  or  unpleas- 
antness), the  necessary  antecedent  of  all  conation ;  another, 
giving  the  primacy  to  conation,  finds  in  the  passive  feeling  the 
sign  of  the  satisfaction  or  arrest  of  some  antecedent  active  im- 
pulse or  desire ;  or,  finally,  the  dualism  may  be  pressed  so  far 
(as  in  the  recent  work  of  Schwartz)  as  to  admit  the  existence  of 
volition  without  feeling. 

The  extent  to  which  these  fundamental  conceptions  color  all 
worth  analysis  and  theory  is  obvious.  Psychological  hedonism, 
with  its  incapacity  to  explain  a  good  part  of  worth  experience, 
is  the  result  of  the  first.  A  theory  which  is  unable  to  include 
the  aesthetic  in  the  sphere  of  worths  is  the  result  of  the  second. 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  301 

From  the  third  we  get  the  strained  formalism  of  Kant  and 
Schwartz.  In  view  of  these  difficulties,  no  theory  of  feeling 
and  will  and  of  their  relations  (and  some  theory  is  necessary)  is 
of  any  value  unless  it  is  formed  with  a  clear  consciousness  of 
the  problem  involved  in  the  relation  of  the  appreciative  to  the 
scientific  description  of  the  psychical. 

There  are  two  views  which  have  been  formed  with  this  clear 
consciousness  of  the  methodological  presuppositions  involved. 
On  the  one  hand,  Meinong  tells  us,  to  take  him  as  typical, 
the  relation  of  feeling  and  will  can  only  be  determined  from  the 
worth  standpoint,  while  Wundt,  to  take  him  again  as  typical, 
looks  upon  the  distinctions  introduced  from  the  point  of  view 
of  worth  analysis,  such  as  the  distinctions  between  feeling, 
desire  and  will,  as  *  pure  logical  artifacts,  not  in  the  least,  how- 
ever, psychical  ultimates  distinct  from  each  other.'  As  a  con- 
sequence, the  distinction  between  feeling  and  will  is  for  the 
former  ultimate,  while  for  Wundt's  monistic  theory,  there  is  a 
fundamental  identity  (of  feeling  elements)  underlying  all  these 
retrospective  artificial  distinctions. 

Between  two  such  divergent  views,  with  such  different 
methodological  presuppositions,  there  would  appear  to  be  no 
middle  ground  and  yet  to  my  mind  both  have  a  relative  validity 
and  are  susceptible  of  reconciliation.  More  than  this,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  the  Identity  theory,  developed  from  the 
standpoint  of  analysis  of  content,  is  the  only  one  which  will  har- 
monize with  the  distinctions  in  affective  volitional  meaning, 
developed  from  the  worth  standpoint  or  the  standpoint  of  func- 
tional intent. 

2.  DUALISTIC  THEORIES  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  CRITICISM. 
We  may  begin  our  study,  then,  with  a  brief  critical  exami- 
nation of  those  views  which,  upon  the  assumption  of  absolute  dis- 
stinction  between  feeling  as  passive  pleasantness  or  unpleasant- 
ness and  conation  as  active,  seek  to  establish  a  relation  of  causal 
psychical  determination  between  them.  If  the  distinction  is  one 
of  content  viewed  apart  from  its  intent  or  meaning,  then  it  is 
necessary  that  experience  shall  show  us  either  passive  feeling 
as  the  necessary  antecedent  of  all  active  states  which  are  called 


302  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

conative  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  all  passive  states  of  feeling 
have  as  their  necessary  antecedents  arrest  or  accommodation 
of  conscious  impulse  or  desire,  in  its  very  nature,  as  content, 
different  from  feeling. 

(a)  The  first  of  these  dualistic  views,  in  its  original  form  of 
psychological  hedonism,  was  beautiful  in  its  simplicity.  Feeling, 
as  a  passive  state,  is  always  an  effect  of  content,  sensation  and 
idea,  and  their  relations.  The  aspects,  quality  and  intensity, 
vary  with  the  changes  of  sensational  and  ideal  content,  and  the 
intensity  and  quality  determine  impulse,  desire,  etc.,  the  active 
side  of  consciousness. 

A  very  superficial  examination  of  the  facts  suffices  to  show 
us  that,  if  by  feeling  we  mean  simple  passive  pleasantness  or 
unpleasantness  with  certain  intensities,  it  is  by  no  means  the 
necessary  antecedent  of  any  given  impulse  or  desire.  On  the  one 
hand  we  have  simple  impulses  for  which  there  is  no  such  con- 
scious hedonic  antecedent.  When  the  impulse  to  take  exercise 
comes  over  me  at  a  given  time,  introspection  will  show  me  that 
it  is  necessarily  preceded  neither  by  a  conscious  feeling  of 
unpleasantness  nor  by  an  anticipation  of  pleasantness,  although 
either  may  be  the  antecedent.  On  the  other  hand  there  are 
phenomena  of  a  more  developed  conation  which  we  have  seen 
described  as  *  intensitiless '  acts  of  preference  where  affective 
disturbance  is  at  a  minimum,  and  which,  if  feeling  be  described 
as  passive  hedonic  intensity,  certainly  show  no  such  feeling  ante- 
cedent. Impulses  with  the  note  of  obligation  in  them  are  fre- 
quently of  this  character. 

That  there  are  changes  in  affective  volitional  meaning  (Ge- 
muthsbewegungen,  in  the  broadest  sense),  described  as  im- 
pulse and  desire,  which  do  not  presuppose  an  antecedent  passive 
hedonic  consciousness  or  consciousness  of  hedonic  difference,  is 
clear.  If  we  include  in  feeling  other  qualities  such  as  tension- 
relaxation,  restlessness-quiescence,  it  is  merely  a  verbal  quibble 
to  raise  any  question  of  antecedent  and  consequent.  We  have 
already  attributed  to  the  concrete  feeling  state  the  essential 
character  of  the  conative  side,  a  virtual  acceptance  of  the  Iden- 
tity theory. 

This  fact,  that  there  are  numerous  impulses  and  desires  which 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  303 

follow  immediately  upon  presentation  and  judgment  without 
appreciable  hedonic  consciousness  intervening,  is,  moreover, 
admitted  by  the  upholders  of  this  theory  of  dependence,  without 
however  sacrificing  the  theory.  Thus  Kreibig  speaks  of  dispo- 
sitional  feelings  below  the  threshold  as  determining  impulse  and 
desire,  while  Ehrenfels  speaks  of  desire  as  determined  by  feel- 
ing or  feeling-dispositions.  And  even  when  it  is  actual  feeling 
which  is  conceived  as  causally  determinative,  it  is  not,  as  we 
have  seen  in  our  previous  analysis  of  Ehrenfels'  worth  defini- 
tion,1 feeling  as  a  separate  antecedent  state,  but  the  feeling  dif- 
ference as  determined  by  the  object  as  existing  or  not  existing 
and  the  feeling  disposition  of  the  subject.  In  the  case  of  the 
impulse  to  exercise  it  would  be  —  not  necessarily  the  unpleasant- 
ness of  the  present  state  nor  the  anticipated  pleasure  —  but  the 
difference  between  the  two  which  constitutes  the  necessary  pre- 
supposition of  the  impulse  or  desire. 

But  it  is  precisely  in  these  admissions,  and  consequent  modi- 
fications of  the  original  theory,  that  we  see  the  failure  of  this 
entire  theory  of  dependence  growing  out  of  the  separation  of 
feeling  from  conation.  For  a  feeling  which  does  not  rise  above 
the  threshold  is  a  pure  conceptual  construction.  So  also  is  the 
feeling  difference  when  made  the  presupposition  of  desire. 
For  a  feeling  difference  can  be  an  actual  psychical  determinant 
in  only  two  ways :  either  it  is  a  presentation  constructed  upon 
two  presented  feelings  and  then  we  have  presentations  as  the 
presupposition  of  the  desire,  or  else  this  difference  is  felt  as 
tension  or  restlessness,  as  an  expectancy  generated  by  the  hypo- 
thetical disposition,  the  active  conative  moment  supposed  to  be 
determined  by  the  feeling,  in  which  case  there  is  no  need  for 
such  duplication  of  phenomena.  In  the  latter  case  then,  where 
feeling  difference  is  conceived  to  be  the  presupposition  of  cona- 
tion, it  is  either  not  distinct  from  conation  or  else  it  is  a  purely 
conceptual  construction. 

(3)  The  second  theory  of  dependence,  which  has  been 
developed  upon  the  assumption  that  feeling  and  conation  are 
ultimates  from  the  point  of  view  of  content,  is  that  all  feelings 
have  as  their  necessary  antecedent  some  phase  of  conscious  co- 

1  Cf.  articles  already  referred  to. 


304  WILBUR  M.  URBAN. 

nation,  and  that  feeling  is  the  sign  of  arrest  or  satisfaction  of 
desire.  Here,  again,  if  conation  is  conceived  to  be  an  aspect  of 
consciousness  which,  as  content  for  non-appreciative  description, 
is  distinct  from  feeling,  it  is  difficult  to  establish  a  thorough-going 
relation  of  dependence.  It  is  true  that  affective  attitudes  on  the 
plane  of  worth  suggestion  presuppose  the  activities  of  acknowl- 
edgment or  rejection,  but  even  here  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
relation  is  one  of  antecedent  and  consequent,  nor  can  it  be  said 
that  the  worth  feelings  are  passive  pleasantness  and  unpleasant- 
ness. But  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  include  in  such  a  general- 
ization all  the  phenomena  of  feeling.  There  are  in  the  first 
place  the  feelings  which  accompany  simple  sensations,  the 
agreeable  or  disagreeable  affective  tone  of  an  odor  or  color. 
There  are  also  the  sudden  emotions  of  surprise  and  fear  and 
finally  the  instinctive  emotions,  inherited  and  appearing  at  first 
without  any  conative  experience  as  their  antecedent. 

As  to  the  first  group  of  phenomena,  those  who  hold  the  view 
that  feeling  has  its  rise  in  arrested  conation  insist  that  even  these 
phenomena  fall  under  the  general  law.  So  also  does  the  func- 
tional theory  in  general  when  it  is  consistent  and  sharply  distin- 
guishes feeling  and  conation.  Thus,  in  a  recent  article  written 
from  this  point  of  view,  unpleasantness  is  conceived  to  follow 
upon  arrested  conation  while  pleasantness  appears  only  when 
conation  is  accommodating  itself  after  arrest.  States  which  do 
not  contain  conative  moments  are  neutral. 

Nevertheless,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  an  answer 
are  not  to  be  minimized.  If  we  examine  the  reasons  given  for 
this  inclusion  we  find  that  they  are  of  two  kinds  —  the  first  being 
analytical  and  introspective,  the  second  functional.  The  first  is 
to  the  effect  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  the  feeling  tone  of  a 
simple  sensation  uncomplicated  with  the  aspects  of  tension-relax- 
ation, restlessness-quiescence,  with  their  suggestion  of  conative 
presuppositions ;  the  second,  the  functional  argument  to  the 
effect  that  the  law  of  decrease  of  affective  tone  through  habit 
and  repetition  of  stimulus,  is  primarily  a  law  of  adaptation 
of  tendency  to  stimulus,  and  that,  when  an  odor  or  tone  loses 
its  affective  tone  through  repetition,  it  does  so  because  the  tend- 
ency, or  need  of  excitation  of  the  organism,  produced  by  arrest, 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  305 

has  been  satisfied.  When  we  look  more  closely  at  these  argu- 
ments, the  difficulties  referred  to  appear.  Here  again,  as  in 
the  preceding  theory,  the  relation  can  be  made  universal  only 
by  going  beyond  immediate  experience  and  supplementing  it  with 
hypothetical  conceptual  constructions.  The  aspects  of  tension- 
relaxation,  of  restlessness-quiescence,  if  they  appear  in  the  simple 
feeling  tone  of  sensation,  are  analytically  separable  from  the 
feeling  as  antecedent  content,  intrinsically  different  from  feel- 
ing. Impulse  and  desire  are  not  conscious  presuppositions  of 
the  feelings.  When  the  intensity  of  feeling  tone  diminishes 
with  repetition,  it  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  actual 
impulse  or  desire  gradually  disappears  but  merely  that  some 
disposition  or  tendency  diminishes  in  strength  with  repetition  of 
the  stimulus.  The  proposition  that  all  feeling  presupposes  cona- 
tion holds  only  when  modified  to  read,  or  conative  disposition 
and  tendency. 

The  same  reflections  hold  good  for  the  other  phenomena 
of  feeling,  the  sudden  emotions  of  surprise  and  fear  and  for  the 
inherited  instinctive  emotions.1  When,  upon  walking  through 
the  woods,  I  am  surprised  with  the  odor  of  flowers,  this  surprise 
has  as  its  presupposition  no  specific  experience  of  impulse  or 
desire.  Such  surprise  is  possible  with  relative  passivity  of  con- 
sciousness although,  were  there  complete  passivity,  even  sur- 
prise would  be  impossible.  The  situation  seems  to  be  that  at 
least  some  general  conative  tendency  toward  objects  other  than 
the  flower,  objects  of  presentational  activity,  must  be  arrested  in 
order  that  surprise  shall  arise.  The  surprise  is  not  occasioned 
by  the  odor  directly  but  by  the  arrest  of  some  other  conative 
interest  or  tendency.  It  does  not,  however,  presuppose  actual 
desire.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  instinctive  emotions. 
Such  affects  presuppose  dispositional  or  instinctive  conative 
tendency,  not  actual  conation  :  they  are  themselves  experiences 
which  may  with  equal  right,  be  described  as  feeling  or  arrested 
impulse.  Finally  there  is  the  aesthetic  feeling  in  which,  while 
conation  is  presupposed  dispositionally,  certainly  no  conscious 
impulse  or  desire  necessarily  preceeds.  Analysis  shows  the 
aspects  with  conative  connotation,  relaxation  and  repose,  as 
well  as  the  merely  hedonic,  but  these  are  aspects  of  the  total 
attitude,  not  different  states  except  for  retrospective  analysis. 


306  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

(c)  The  conclusion  of  these  reflections  is  then  that  a  thorough- 
going dependence  of  feeling,  as  distinguished  from  conation, 
upon  conation  can  be  established  only  when  we  modify  our 
proposition  to  read  conation  or  conative  disposition  or  tendency. 
This  is  practically  the  conclusion  reached  in  the  examination  of 
the  theory  which  makes  conation  determined  by  feeling.  But 
when  we  have  introduced  the  dispositional  concept,  that  is  when 
we  have  gone  beyond  the  distinctions  of  immediate  experience 
and  supplemented  them  with  conceptual  constructions,  it  does  not 
matter  greatly  whether  these  dispositions  are  described  as  feel- 
ing or  desire  dispositions.  As  Ehrenfels  wisely  recognizes,  for 
worth  theory  —  which  is  concerned  with  the  changes  in  valua- 
tion and  their  laws,  as  determined  by  changes  in  dispositional 
presuppositions  —  it  does  not  matter  whether  these  dispositions 
are  described  as  affective  or  conative :  the  laws  of  valuation 
will  hold  on  either  assumption.  The  conclusion  which  is  of 
importance  is,  however,  that  the  distinction  between  feeling  and 
will  is  not  one  implicit  in  psychical  content,  but  rather  an  appre- 
ciative distinction  due  to  the  intent  of  that  content. 

3.  MONISTIC  AND  GENETIC  THEORY  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL. 
The  chief  outcome  of  our  consideration  of  two  theories  of 
the  relation  of  feeling  to  will  which  start  with  an  absolute  dis- 
tinction between  them,  as  between  the  active  and  the  passive, 
is  that  no  thorough-going  relation  of  dependence  can  be  estab- 
lished either  way  except  by  leaving  the  sphere  of  psychological 
fact  and  supplementing  it  with  the  conceptual  constructs  of  physi 
ological  dispositions.  If,  however,  in  order  that  we  may  fill 
out  this  relation  of  dependence,  we  include  among  the  attributes 
of  feeling  restlessness-quiescence  (which  have  the  conative  con- 
notation in  them)  it  is  doubtful  whether  anything  is  gained  by 
this  complete  separation  of  the  two  aspects  of  experience.  The 
*  Identity  '  theory  denies  that  this  distinction  is  fundamental,  but 
asserts  rather  that  it  arises  only  from  the  difference  in  point 
of  view  from  which  we  look  at  one  primary  content  of  conscious- 
ness. My  own  view  is  that  this  theory,  rightly  understood, 
affords  the  most  satisfactory  basis  for  a  true  theory  of  vaiues  as 
well  as  does  justice  most  completely  to  the  facts  of  analysis. 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  307 

We  shall  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  development  of  this 
theory. 

(a)  In  its  most  general  form,  it  has  been  well  stated  by 
Wundt  in  the  psychological  part  of  his  Principles  of  Morality? 
There  we  are  told  that  these  distinctions  are  purely  conceptual, 
determined  by  the  point  of  view  from  which  we  observe  a  series 
of  inner  events,  the  flow  of  consciousness  itself  being  not  con- 
cerned with  them.  "  Every  act  of  will  presupposes  a  feeling 
with  a  definite  and  peculiar  tone  :  it  is  so  closely  bound  up  with 
this  feeling  that,  apart  from  it,  the  act  of  will  has  no  reality  at 
all.  On  the  other  hand,  all  feeling  presupposes  an  act  of  will ; 
the  quality  of  the  feeling  indicates  the  direction  in  which 
the  will  is  stimulated  by  the  object  with  which  the  feeling  is 
connected." 

This  view  is  developed  in  more  detail  from  the  standpoint  of 
psychological  analysis  of  content  in  the  last  edition  of  his  Psy- 
chology. Here  the  affect  (or  Gefiihlsverlauf)  is  taken  as  the 
ultimate  of  concrete  affective-volitional  meaning  or  intent  and 
the  affect  (which  as  content,  is  a  complex  of  feeling  elements) 
may  be  called  emotion,  impulse,  desire  and  will  according  to  the 
nature  of  this  movement  or  complex.  "The  question  is  no 
longer  what  specific  conscious  content  the  will  is,  but  what  as- 
pect an  affect  must  assume  to  become  volition."  This  specific 
difference  he  finds  (i)  in  the  character  of  the  end  feelings  of  the 
affect  and  (2)  in  a  certain  meaning  or  intent  of  the  total  affect 
which  can  be  formulated  only  in  retrospective  logical  terms.  As 
to  the  first  point,  conation  or  will  process  is  an  affect  which 
through  its  movement  produces  a  final  feeling  which  in  turn 
destroys  the  affect.  It  is  the  final  feeling  of  relaxation  which 
distinguishes  the  conative  process  from  emotion.  Again,  in 
the  entire  affect,  when  experienced  as  conation,  there  dwells  a 
Ziveck-richtung  which  is  realized  in  the  relaxation  of  the  end 
feeling.  Primary  conative  processes,  such  as  impulse,  are 
affects  with  this  meaning ;  secondary  derived  conation,  such  as 
desire  and  will,  are  affects  in  which  certain  single  feelings  and 
presentations,  elements  in  the  total  affect,  are  singled  out  as  the 

1  Wundt,  Ethics,  Vol.  I.,  'The  Principles  of  Morality,'  pp.  6  and  7.  Also 
Physiologische  Psychologic  (5th  edition),  Vol.  III.,  chapters  16  and  17. 


308  WILBUR  M.  URBAN. 

motive  for  the  final  feeling  of  relaxation.  This  Zweck-richtung, 
which  we  retrospectively  find  the  distinguishing  character  of 
affects  with  conative  meaning,  arises  from  arrest.  So  that  *  de- 
sire is  not  so  much  the  preparatory  stage  of  an  actual,  as  the 
feeling  basis  of  an  arrested  conation.'  The  actual  affect  which 
constitutes  desire  may  be  viewed  as  feeling  or  conation  accord- 
ing to  the  point  of  view  from  which  it  is  observed.  All  these 
concepts  are  finally  logical  artifacts  and  not  fundamental  dis- 
tinctions of  content. 

A  similar  view  was,  in  all  its  essentials,  developed  by  Bren- 
tano l  before  Wundt's  present  formulation,  and  developed,  more- 
over, from  the  point  of  view  of  worth  analysis.  His  well  known 
claim  that  in  a  given  series  of  affective-volitional  meanings,  a 
vital  series  of  adaptation  passing  from  feeling  to  will  (as  for  in- 
stance the  following,  sadness,  longing  for  an  absent  good,  de- 
sire to  secure  it,  courage  to  undertake  to  secure  it,  decision  to 
act),  it  is  possible  at  no  point  to  make  an  absolute  distinction 
between  feeling  and  will.  It  is  rather  a  continuous  series  of 
meanings  in  which  these  two  aspects  can  be  distinguished  only 
relatively  and  conceptually. 

The  criticisms  passed  upon  this  conception  by  the  upholders 
of  the  dualistic  views  are  instructive  as  showing  the  contradic- 
tions involved  in  the  theories  which  make  these  distinctions 
ultimate  differences  of  content.  The  upholder  of  such  a  dual- 
ism must  put  his  finger  on  the  point  in  the  series  where  feeling 
ends  and  conation  begins.  Ehrenfels  finds  it  immediately  after 
the  first  stage  of  the  series.  Sadness  alone  is  pure  passive  un- 
pleasantness. All  the  others  have  the  active  principle  of  desire 
in  them.  But  both  the  superficiality  and  the  contradictions  in 
such  an  analysis  become  immediately  evident.  For  what  is  in- 
volved? Clearly,  to  make  the  distinction  at  this  point  necessi- 

^he  considerations  which  were  influential  in  this  analysis  of  Brentano 
were  precisely  those  which  we  have  already  taken  cognizance  of.  If  feeling  be 
taken  as  identical  with  passive  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness,  valuation  can- 
not be  reduced  to  determination  of  conation  by  feeling,  to  pleasure  causation. 
Feeling,  it  is  true,  viewed  merely  as  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness,  is  pres- 
ent throughout  the  entire  accommodative  or  vital  series,  such  as  that  described 
above,  but  it  becomes  less  and  less  significant  in  the  latter  stages  where  the  dy- 
namic tension  aspect  becomes  dominant.  Hedonic  intensities  become  irrele- 
vant redundancies  and  we  have  practically  intensitiless  conation. 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  309 

tates  the  throwing  of  the  emotions  of  hope  and  courage  from  the 
feeling  to  the  desire  side  of  the  distinction,  as  indeed  Ehrenfels 
does,  and  the  logic  of  such  procedure  would  be  to  confine  feel- 
ing to  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness  as  passive  and  unspeci- 
fied states.  But  even  if  this  violence  were  done  to  appreciation 
and  its  descriptions,  the  superficiality  of  the  analysis  would 
come  to  the  foreground.  Can  we  say  that  sadness  is  pure  pas- 
sive unpleasantness?  Certainly  not.  Already  in  the  relatively 
passive  state  of  sadness  we  have  the  preliminary  stage  of  the 
accommodative  reaction,  the  vital  series.  This  is  to  be  found 
in  the  expansion-tendency  of  the  feeling.  The  concentration 
of  images  in  this  phase  of  brooding  sadness,  the  expansion 
tendency  of  the  feeling,  contains  already  an  immanent  activity, 
differing  only  in  degree  from  succeeding  phases  of  more  ex- 
plicit conation.  The  fact  of  the  matter  appears  to  be  that  feel- 
ing seems  to  be  mere  feeling,  and  passive,  only  when  we  sepa- 
rate it,  retrospectively,  from  the  functional  whole,  the  vital 
series  of  which  it  is  the  first  phase.  Prospectively,  in  the  first 
phase  of  expanding  feeling,  is  already  contained  a  sense  of  the 
strength  and  extent  of  the  conative  system  arrested,  which 
passes  without  a  break  over  into  the  relatively  more  active  emo- 
tions, desire  and  will,  acts  which  follow  as  the  arrest  increases 
in  strength  and  duration.  From  the  standpoint  of  these,  the 
initial  feeling,  viewed  as  a  cause,  seems  relatively  passive. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  seek,  as  some  do,  to  find  the  point 
of  distinction  between  the  more  active  affects  and  decision,  at 
the  end  of  the  series,  the  only  point  of  difference  that  we  can 
find  is  again  an  end-feeling  of  relaxation.  The  origin  of  this 
end-feeling,  and  of  the  characteristic  sensations  which  go  with  it, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  simple  fact  that  the  general  disturbance, 
displayed  in  the  series  of  affects  preceding  the  moment  of  de- 
cision, has  found  a  definite  motor  channel  in  some  specific  bodily 
movement  or  word-formation.  But  to  separate  this  final  phase, 
this  end-feeling,  from  the  affects  which  precede  it,  is  again  to 
give  us  a  mere  torso,  an  unreal  abstraction.  The  entire  vital 
or  worth  series  is  one,  with  a  continuity  of  affective-volitional 
meaning.  Each  phase  may  be  interpreted  as  conation  or  feel- 
ing according  to  the  point  of  view  from  which  it  is  observed. 


310  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

(c)  The  consideration  of  these  two  attempts  to  mark  off  the 
active  and  passive  aspects  of  experience  —  to  differentiate,  in 
terms  of  elementary  content,  the  affective  and  conative  phases 
of  a  total  vital  worth  series  —  shows  that  such  an  effort  must 
prove  unsuccessful.  If  we  abstract  from  the  meaning  which 
the  attitude  has  by  virtue  of  its  place  in  such  a  series,  the  dis- 
tinction between  active  and  passive,  and  with  it  that  between 
affection  and  conation,  lapses.  We  have  in  these  conclusions 
therefore,  without  further  analysis,  the  grounds  for  our  negative 
position  with  regard  to  the  dualistic  theories  of  feeling  and  will 
which  find  the  worth  moment  in  feeling  conceived  as  passive 
pleasantness-unpleasantness  or  in  desire,  and  for  our  criticism 
of  any  conception  of  causal  determination  between  them.  They 
afford  positive  grounds  moreover,  for  our  definition  of  worth  as 
*  affective-volitional  meaning  *  and  for  the  view  that  the  worth 
experience  is  a  concrete  feeling  attitude,  in  which  references  to 
conation  are  always  present  and  conative  dispositions  always 
presupposed.1 

4.  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  MONISTIC  THEORY  ;    ITS  RELA- 
TION TO  THE  DEFINITION  AND  ANALYSIS  OF   THE 

CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  VALUE. 

(a)  Nevertheless,  while  this  duality,  this  distinction  between 
feeling  and  will,  is  not  one  of  elementary  content,  it  is  still  a 
duality  of  meaning  which  becomes  fundamental  from  the  appre- 
ciative point  of  view.  They  are  two  meanings  of  the  same 
general  content,  but  what  determines  the  difference  in  meaning? 
How  is  this  differentiation  to  be  understood?  Our  answer  to 
this  question  must  be  in  the  general  terms  of  the  Identity  theory, 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  a  recent  article,  '  The  Nature  of  Conation 
and  Mental  Activity  '  (  The  British  Journal  of  Psychology,  Vol.  II.,  part  i)  Pro- 
fessor Stout,  while  defining  conation  '  as  a  complex  experience '  which,  how- 
ever, contains  as  one  of  its  elements  'a  simple  and  unanalyzable  element 
uniquely  characteristic  of  it  —  an  element  from  which  the  whole  derives  its  dis- 
tinctively conative  character'  (which'he  describes  as  felt  tendency  and  which  is 
not  identical  either  with  motor  sensations  or  affection),  nevertheless  admits  that 
this  felt  tendency  and  affection,  though  distinguishable,  do  not  occur  separately, 
and  he  proposes  to  use  the  term  '  interest '  to  express  the  unity  of  conative  and 
affective  characters  in  the  same  process.  I  cannot  see  that  this  view  differs 
essentially  from  the  one  developed  here.  As  analyzed  by  Professor  Stout,  these 
two  aspects  are  retrospective  abstractions. 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  311 

that  is,  that  the  difference  can  be  described  only  in  conceptual, 
logical,  retrospective  terms.  By  this  it  is  meant  —  to  make  the 
general  statement  more  specific  —  that  this  duality,  this  distinc- 
tion, is  one  of  recognitive  and  selective  meaning.  The  passive 
or  active  meaning  is  one  which  the  attitude  gets  by  reason  of  its 
place  in  the  vital  series  and  one  which  becomes  explicit  only 
when  the  attitude  is  viewed  in  relation  to  preceding  or  succeeding 
phases  of  the  series.  They  are  differences  of  genetic  mode. 

If  we  seek  to  characterize  retrospectively  these  two  modes 
—  if,  in  other  words,  we  seek  to  convey  their  internal  meaning, 
after  the  fact  —  we  find  that  we  can  do  so  only  in  terms  of  cog- 
nition, by  description  of  the  cognitive  presuppositions  of  the 
attitudes.  According  to  Wundt,  the  special  aspect  which  an 
affect  must  assume  to  become  volition,  is  an  immanental  Zweck- 
richtung,  and  this  aspect  can  be  understood  only  as  change  in 
cognitive  attitude,  not  in  content.  In  this  connection  the  at- 
tempt of  Miinsterberg  to  characterize  the  distinction  is  instruc- 
tive. "  In  feeling,"  he  says,  "  an  object,  independent  of  us,  is 
interpreted  through  conation  (Trieb).  This  Trieb  remains,  how- 
ever, as  overtone  and  as  a  help  in  apperception  of  the  object, 
thought  of  as  independent,  which  we  judge  in  feeling.  If  we 
make  the  object  dependent  upon  us,  so  that  we  perceive  it  as  re- 
tained or  excluded,  then  we  experience  conation  and  impulse 
but  not,  properly  speaking,  a  feeling."  l  Now,  to  make  the  ob- 
ject dependent  upon  us  is  to  assume  its  existence  or  non-exist- 
ence, as  the  case  may  be,  that  assumption  being  motived  by 
the  subjective  control  of  the  disposition  presupposed.  To  think 
it  as  independent  of  us  (which  according  to  Miinsterberg's  anal- 
ysis, we  do  when  we  feel  rather  than  desire)  is  to  judge  or  as- 
sume its  existence  or  non-existence,  the  motivation  of  the  cog- 
nitive act  being,  in  this  case,  a  control  of  a  more  objective  origin 
and  character.  The  significance  of  this  analysis  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  distinction  between  feeling  and  will  (conation) 
is  one  which,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  reducible  to  a  difference  in 
the  immediate  functional  meaning  of  a  germ  content  and  that, 
when  this  meaning  is  retrospectively  described,  such  description 
involves  recourse  to  cognitive  presuppositions. 

1  Grundziige  der  Psychologic,  p.  360. 


312  WILBUR  M.   URBAN. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  this  difference  in  im- 
mediate functional  meaning,  though  retrospectively  describable 
only  in  terms  of  cognitive  attitude,  is  really  implicitly  present 
prior  to  explicit  cognitive  acts  of  judgment  and  assumption, 
below  the  level  of  worth  experience  —  that  this  duality  has  its 
germs  in  the  simplest  types  of  organic  accommodation  and  habit. 
The  *  dependence  upon  '  or  *  independence  of  '  subjective 
control,  which  on  the  higher  level  is  explicitly  cognized  in  acts 
of  judgment  and  assumption,  is  implicitly  felt  in  the  funda- 
mental attitudes  of  habit,  and  accommodation  after  disturbance 
of  habit.  If  we  view  in  this  more  external  way  such  a  vital  ac- 
commodative series  as  that  described  by  Brentano,  we  find  that 
what  distinguishes  the  phases  which  are  predominantly  affective 
from  those  predominantly  conative  is  the  degree  of  inhibition 
of  a  presupposed  disposition  or  tendency.  Whether  we  call  the 
phase  in  question  feeling  or  will  depends  upon  the  point  in  the 
process  of  accommodation  in  which  we,  so  to  speak,  catch  the 
experience.  In  the  Brentano  series  the  first  stages  are  char- 
acterized by  the  apprehension  of  the  object  as  relatively  inde- 
pendent of  the  subject  (in  this  case  the  apprehension  is  judg- 
mental)—  and  in  introspection  they  are  interpreted  as  feeling. 
In  the  later  stages,  the  object  is  apprehended  as  more  and  more 
dependent,  until  in  the  last  phases,  the  belief  or  judgment 
that  it  will  be  accomplished  enters,  and  voluntary  decision  has 
been  reached.  Likewise,  when  Wundt  describes  the  relation 
in  the  statement  that  *  feeling  may  just  as  well  be  looked  upon 
as  the  beginning  of  a  conative  process,  as  on  the  other  hand, 
will  may  be  conceived  as  a  complex  feeling  process,  and  that 
the  affect  is  a  transition  between  both,'  he  is  distinguishing  dif- 
ferent phases  of  one  accommodative  process. 

(V)  With  this  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  fundamental 
duality  in  meaning  of  feeling  (as  passive),  and  desire,  volition 
(as  active),  we  are  in  a  position  to  justify  our  definition  and 
analysis  of  worth  experience.  Feeling  and  desire  are  differ- 
ences of  genetic  mode,  relative  differences  of  functional  mean- 
ing, not  of  content.  The  worth  of  an  object  is  therefore  its 
affective  volitional  meaning,  and  is  given  in  feeling  attitudes  in 
which  there  is  always  reference,  transgredient  or  immanental, 


NATURE  OF  FEELING  AND  WILL.  313 

to  conation.  We  describe  the  worth  fundamental  as  feeling,  or 
concrete  affect,  because  pure  passive  affect  and  purely  active 
conation  are  limiting  terms  in  the  series  and  really  exist  merely 
as  abstractions.  But  the  affective-volitional  meaning,  or  worth, 
of  an  object,  namely  —  its  relation  to  desire  and  conative  dis- 
position as  interpreted  through  feeling — becomes  explicit  only 
on  the  cognitive  level  where  accommodation  is  in  the  form  of 
cognitive  acts  of  presumption,  assumption  and  judgment.  It  is 
the  actualization  of  the  dispositional  tendency,  either  in  feeling 
or  desire,  through  these  cognitive  acts,  which  gives  to  the 
feeling  or  desire  that  meaning  which  we  described  as  worth.1 

This  leads  us  finally  to  the  question  of  the  relation  between 
feeling  and  will,  of  affective- volitional  determination  in  worth 
experience.  We  have  seen  from  our  critical  analysis  that  no 
thorough-going  relation  of  antecedent  and  consequent  can  be 
established  between  feeling  and  conation  when  conceived  as 
two  ultimate  content  qualities.  The  only  sense  in  which  feeling 
may  be  said  to  condition  desire,  or  desire  feeling,  is  that  feeling 
always  presupposes  conative  tendency  and  desire  feeling  dispo- 
sition. The  disposition  is  the  significant  concept  in  our  defini- 
tion. The  feeling  and  desire  dispositions  are  one  and  the  same 
conative  tendency  and  whether,  when  actualized,  the  disposition 
will  give  rise  to  feeling  or  desire  depends  upon  the  cognitive  acts 
through  which  the  object  is  brought  into  relation  with  the  dis- 
position, these  cognitive  acts  representing  accommodations  after 
inhibition  of  habit. 

The  manner  in  which  feeling  is  presupposed  in  all  phases  of 
experience  described  as  desire,  and  conation  is  presupposed  in 
all  phases  described  as  feeling,  is  well  expressed  in  the  second 
portion  of  Miinsterberg's  analysis  already  given.2  In  feeling 
the  conation  (Trieb)  is  present  with  the  perception  as  *  overtone  ' 

1  Cf.  definition  of  feeling  of  Value  in  papers  already  referred  to. 

2  Miinsterberg  develops  this  point  more  fully  in  another  passage  in  the  same 
chapter  :  "Im  Trieb  ist  die  Wahrnemung  des  Gegenwartigen  nur  ein  mitklin- 
gendes  secundares  Element  des  Gesamten  Inhalts,  der  sich  auf  die  Zukunft 
bezieht,  im  Gefiihl,  dagegen,  ist  der  triebmassige,  auf  die  Zukunft  bezogene 
Empfindungecomplex  nur  ein  farbunggebender  Nebenfaktor  der  Wahrneh- 
mung.     Das  Gefiihl  ist  ein  Trieb  im  Dienste  der  Wahrnehmung,  wahrend  im 
reinen  Trieb  die  Wahrnehmung  sich  dem  Streben  uuterordnet." 

p.  361.) 


3H  WILBUR  M.  URBAN. 

as  part  of  the  meaning,  as  means  of  interpreting  the  situation. 
With  equal  right  it  may  be  said  that  in  the  predominantly  pas- 
sive experience  which  we  call  feeling,  conation  is  present  (in  the 
transgredient  and  immanental  references)  as  overtone,  as  part 
of  the  meaning  of  the  feeling.  The  various  modes  of  this 
meaning  we  have  already  analyzed  in  the  earlier  articles. 
The  importance  of  this  entire  conception  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
disposes  of  that  complete  distinction  between  feeling  as  passive 
and  conation  as  active  which,  when  made  absolute,  leads  to  the 
dualistic  conceptions  already  criticised  and  to  inadequate  con- 
ceptions of  worth  determination.  It  enables  us  to  look  upon  the 
relatively  pure  feeling  and  will  as  limiting  concepts  and  to  in- 
clude all  worth  experience,  even  the  aesthetic,  under  our  general 
definition  of  affective-volitional  meaning. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  in  this  conception 
of  the  nature  of  feeling  and  will  and  of  their  relations  we  have 
a  psychological  basis  for  the  study  of  the  laws  of  valuation. 
The  concrete  laws  of  valuation  are  not  reducible  to  general  laws 
of  feeling,  abstracted  from  conation,  nor  of  desire  abstracted 
from  feeling,  but  rather  of  affective-volitional  process  conceived 
as  a  whole.  If  we  apply  the  term  interest,  employed  by  Stout 
in  the  connection  already  referred  to,  to  designate  conative 
process  in  its  two-fold  aspect,  we  may  quite  properly  speak 
of  these  laws  as  laws  of  interest,  laws  of  acquirement  of  affec- 
tive-volitional meaning.1 

]The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  in  September,  1906. —  ED. 


A  FOURTH  PROGRESSION  IN  THE  RELATION  OF 
MIND  AND  BODY. 

BY  R.  W.  SELLARS, 
University  of  Michigan. 

If  all  signs  fail  not,  the  valiant  inconclusiveness  of  philos- 
ophy is  giving  way.  No  doubt  the  lists  are  still  crowded  and 
battle  cries  resound  but  there  seems  to  be,  withal,  a  new  eager- 
ness as  of  hope  long  deferred  coming  to  pass.  It  is,  then,  nat- 
ural, to  enquire  to  what  this  is  due.  If  a  squire  who  has  his 
spurs  yet  to  win,  may  venture  an  answer,  it  is,  *  To  science, 
especially  to  psychology.'  Now  this  is  not  spoken  to  encourage 
that  lusty  youngster,  for  he  needs  none,  his  boisterousness  and 
self-assurance  being,  the  rather,  a  cause  of  anxiety  to  the  poor 
metaphysician  who,  at  times,  harbors  the  suspicion  that  he  is 
pitied  by  this  one  of  his  household  as  a  grey  dotard.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  the  rejuvenation  of  logic  which  promises  so  much, 
in  the  way  of  a  clarifying  of  our  categories,  appears  to  be  the 
result  of  the  stimulus  of  social  intercourse  with  psychology  and 
scientific  methodology.  (Cf.  Baldwin's  Thought  and  Things 
which  Angell  describes  as  '  a  striking  example  of  functional 
psychology  evolving  into  logic.'  The  Studies  in  Logical  Theory 
might  be  spoken  of  in  similar  terms.) 

With  this  as  a  sort  of  philosophical  palinode,  giving  due 
notice  of  my  peaceful  intentions,  may  I  advance  a  criticism  of 
some  recent  tendencies  by  way  of  orientation?  I  shall  put  it 
in  the  form  of  a  question.  May  not  function  win  out  at  the 
expense  of  structure  through  the  erection  of  a  false  antithesis 
between  them?  Reconstruction,  change,  experimentation,  all 
these  are  of  great  importance  and  deserve  the  recognition  they 
are  receiving,  at  last,  but  organization  is  just  as  real.  "  Our  ex- 
perience is  constantly  undergoing  modification ;  there  are  no 
final  truths."  Yes,  certainly  ;  but  our  experience  is  not  a  flux. 
We  build  up  vast  constructs  whose  complexity  only  the  scientist 
(taking  science  in  the  sense  of  Wissenschaft)  can  realize.  Of 


316  R.    W.    SELLARS. 

course,  I  would  protest  against  the  imputation  to  myself  of  a 
radical  misunderstanding  of  pragmatism,  such  as  witnessed  to 
in  Joachim's  essay  on  the  Nature  of  Truth.  Yet,  must  not  the 
functionalist  and,  with  him,  the  pragmatist  widen  the  scope  of 
their  outlook  to  history  and  sociology  and  behold  the  slowness 
of  this  reconstruction  in  many  important  phases  of  human  life? 
I  am  inclined  to  maintain  that  each  individual's  experience  is  a 
microcosm  in  the  making  (at  least,  this  is  its  transcendental 
idea,  as  Kant  would  phrase  it)  and  that  advance  is  not  linear 
but  a  complex  process  of  development,  working  through  organ- 
ization. (Cf.  Stout,  Analytic  Psychology,  Vol.  II.)  That  this 
is  not  contrary  to  functional  views  is  evident  from  the  following. 
"  Functions,  on  the  other  hand,  persist  as  well  in  mental  as  in 
physical  life.  We  may  never  have  twice  exactly  the  same  idea 
viewed  from  the  side  of  sensuous  structure  and  composition. 
But  there  seems  nothing  whatever  to  prevent  our  having,  as 
often  as  we  will,  contents  of  consciousness  which  mean  the 
same  thing."  (Angell,  this  REVIEW,  March,  1907.) 

Howbeit  it  is  not  my  intention  to  engage  in  general  criticisms 
or  commendations,  which  would  be  as  valueless  as  uncalled  for, 
but  to  re-analyze  a  problem  which  lies  on  the  border  between  psy- 
chology and  metaphysics  and  which,  therefore,  is  of  peculiar 
interest  to  both.  To  attack  this  Gordian  knot  may  argue  to 
some  undue  temerity  or  the  breezy  rashness  of  the  novice  but, 
perchance,  it  may  keep  the  World-Mephistophiles  engaged 
while  a  wiser  spirit  outflanks  him.  My  earnest  conviction  is 
that  here  is  the  point  where  reality  is  exposed,  as  it  were.  Were 
I  to  need  further  defense,  a  recent  utterance  of  a  leading  psy- 
chologist would  suffice.  "  No  courageous  psychology  of  voli- 
tion is  possible  which  does  not  squarely  face  the  mind-body 
problem  and  in  point  of  fact  every  important  description  of 
mental  life  contains  doctrine  of  one  kind  or  another  upon  this 
matter."  (Professor  Angell,  ibid.) 

In  his  brief  reference  to  the  problem,  Professor  Angell  makes 
such  a  good  analysis  of  the  manner  of  approach  adopted  by 
recent  writers  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote.  "  The  position 
to  which  I  refer  regards  the  mind-body  relation  as  capable  of 
treatment  in  psychology  as  a  methodological  distinction  rather 


RELA TION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY.  317 

than  a  metaphysically  existential  one.  Certain  of  its  expounders 
arrive  at  their  view  by  means  of  an  analysis  of  the  genetic  con- 
ditions under  which  the  mind-body  differentiation  first  makes 
itself  felt  in  the  experience  of  the  individual  (Baldwin).  This 
procedure  clearly  involves  a  direct  frontal  attack  on  the  problem. 
Others  attain  the  position  by  flank  movement  emphasizing,  to 
begin  with,  the  insoluble  contradictions  with  which  one  is  met 
when  the  distinction  is  treated  as  resting  on  existential  differences 
in  the  primordial  elements  in  the  Cosmos."  Thus,  considerable 
unanimity  has  been  developing  of  late  years  in  regard  to  the 
methodological  character  of  the  theories  of  physiology  and  psy- 
chology in  respect  to  this  relation.  "  Our  task  in  discussing 
their  relation  is  not  to  transcend  a  given  dualism,  but  to  get  rid  of 
one  which  we  have  manufactured  for  ourselves  by  the  manipula- 
tion of  experience  in  the  interest  of  certain  special  scientific  prob- 
lems. Hence,  as  Miinsterberg  well  puts  it,  we  have  not  to  find 
the  connection  which  subsists  as  an  actual  fact,  between  body  and 
soul,  but  to  invent  a  connection  in  keeping  with  the  general  scheme 
of  our  artificial  physical  and  psychological  hypotheses."  (Tay- 
lor, Elements  of  Metaphysics,  p.  315.)  Wundt  gives  an  admir- 
able statement  of  his  own  position  in  his  Ethics  and,  since  it  is  to 
defend  himself  against  misunderstanding,  may  be  regarded  as 
authoritative.  "  Mechanical  causality  is  thus  a  subordinate  form 
of  psychical  causality.  But  in  the  case  of  all  empirical  relations, 
where  psychical  processes  may  be  regarded  from  an  external 
point  of  view,  these  processes  may  either  be  assigned  to  the 
complex  of  psychical  events  by  virtue  of  their  immediate  char- 
acteristics or  may  be  ranked  within  the  causal  nexus  of  mechan- 
ical processes  by  virtue  of  their  external  sensible  aspect." 
(Wundt,  Ethics,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  44,  note,  and  51.)  "  The  psychi- 
cal and  the  physical  are  incompatible  only  because  we  have  made 
them  so  in  the  development  of  our  scientific  description  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  distinction  is  a  functional  one,  instrumental  to  the 
practical  ends  represented  in  their  methodological  demands." 
(H.  Heath  Bawden,  Philosophical  Review,  1903,  pp.  315-16.) 
With  such  agreement,  one  is,  at  first,  inclined  to  wonder  why  the 
problem  still  remains.  Why  do  some  thinkers  hold  still  to  inter- 
action, while  others  vow  allegiance  to  parallelism?  Angell  de- 


318  R.    W.   SELLARS. 

cidedly  hankers  after  some  kind  of  interaction  as  he  must,  per- 
force, since  he  holds  that  the  mind  mediates  between  the  environ- 
ment and  the  needs  of  the  organism.  As  he  expresses  it :  "This 
is  the  psychology  of  the  fundamental  utilities  of  consciousness." 
(Cf.  also,  his  Psychology  >  Ch.  III.)  On  the  other  hand,  Professor 
Baldwin  advocates  parallelism,  yet  insists  on  a  psycho-physical 
evolution  since  he,  too,  holds  consciousness  to  be  no  negligible 
factor.  (Cf.  Development  and  Evolution ,  Ch.  I.)  There  must  be 
some  ghost  here  which  will  not  down  and,  since  metaphysicians 
are  supposed  to  prowl  about  in  weird  and  unseemly  realms  and 
delight  in  unsolvable  problems,  this  must  furnish  a  situation 
peculiarly  inviting.  My  endeavor  will  be,  then,  to  consider  Bald- 
win's presentation  in  the  light  of  recent  definitions  of  the  physical 
and  psychical.  I  hope  to  give  reasons  for  a  fourth  progression 
and  to  deduce  some  interesting  conclusions  therefrom. 

According  to  Baldwin  (this  journal,  1903),  there  are  three 
*  progressions' :  (i)  the  *  projective  progression  '  which  reads 
projects  become  personal-pr.  and  thing-pr. ;  (2)  the  *  subjective 
progression '  which  reads  personal-pr.  become  subject-self  and 
object-self ;  and  (3)  the  '  ejective  progression '  which  reads 
object-self  become  mind  and  body — the  last  alone  representing 
complete  dualism  of  body  and  mind.  "  We  find  that  to  think 
of  body  as  presentation  is  in  accordance  with  progression  (3) 
to  think  other  minds  with  it  as  presentation  and  this  involves  by 
progression  (2)  thinking  of  one's  own  mind  as  presentation.  In 
other  words,  it  is  impossible  on  this  hypothesis  to  take  any 
other  than  a  purely  fhenomenalistic  or  presentational  view  of 
both  sorts  of  objects,  body  and  mind.  The  procedure  which 
involves  treating  other  minds  as  objective  phenomena  and, 
at  the  same  time,  maintaining  the  psychic  point  of  view  with 
reference  to  one's  own  mind  is  illegitimate."  (Ibid.^  p.  230.) 
"It  is  only  in  the  one  case  of  the  relation  of  one  mind  to  one 
body  and  that  its  own  that  such  a  point  of  view  is  still  held.  In 
the  theory  of  interaction  the  attempt  is  made  to  justify  this 
remaining  case."  (P.  239.  Read  context.)  Here  is  where 
Baldwin  is  untrue  to  the  genetic  position  he  otherwise  so  well 
sustains.  He  does  not  go  far  enough.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
psychologist  when  holding  to  some  form  of  interaction  is  seeking 


RELA TION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY.  319 

to  adopt  a  fourth  progression  which  he  sees  only  vaguely.  He 
is  really  trying  to  escape  from  the  physical  world  considered  as 
a  closed  universe,  a  construction  which  as  Wundt  among  others 
has  pointed  out  is  untenable.  "  In  consequence,  our  experi- 
ence of  the  constancy  of  objects  has  crystallized  into  the  notion 
of  matter  as  an  absolutely  permanent  substrate  of  phenomena. 
It  is  a  concept  purely  hypothetical  in  character,  but  it  has  proved 
very  useful  in  the  establishment  of  further  principles ;  and  it  is, 
in  particular,  the  foundation  of  all  those  laws  of  constancy 
referred  to  above  as  giving  to  natural  causality  its  peculiar 
feature."  (Ethics,  p.  45.)  The  very  nature  of  the  postulates 
involves,  a  closed  system.  But,  if  the  physical  and  the  psychical 
are  merely  instrumental  distinctions  in  experience,  as  modern 
logic  seems  to  show,  this  cosmic  character  of  the  physical  can- 
not be  accepted.  To  resume :  in  the  third  progression,  the 
object-self  is  looked  upon  as  M' IB.  This  is  read  back  into 
ourselves  "because  the  theory  requires  that  the  view  reached 
should  cover  the  case  of  the  relation  of  another  person's  mind  to 
his  body  and  that  would  mean  his  mind  presented  as  object  to 
an  onlooker  in  the  same  sense  that  his  body  is  ^presented  as  ob- 
ject" (Ibid.,  p.  232.)  Baldwin's  analysis  here  is  excellent. 
Now,  what  occurs  when  we  move  from  the  psychological 
point  of  view,  as  this  undoubtedly  is,  to  the  psychic?  (Cf. 
Baldwin's  Diet,  of  Philos.,  sub  verbo.)  Do  we  advance  to  a 
higher  point  of  view,  genetically  speaking,  or  retrogress?  I 
am  strongly  inclined  to  maintain  that  a  new  progression  is  the 
consequence  of  such  a  changed  standpoint,  and  I  would  desig- 
nate it  the  progression  of  *  duplication.'  Each  individual  is  now 
put  on  the  same  basis  and  regarded  as  having  a  unique  psychic 
life.  "  The  only  states  of  consciousness  that  we  naturally  deal 
with  are  found  in  personal  consciousnesses,  minds,  selves,  con- 
crete particular  Fs  and  You's.  Each  of  these  minds  keeps  its 
own  thoughts  to  itself.  There  is  no  giving  or  bartering  between 
them.  No  thought  even  comes  into  direct  sight  of  a  thought  in 
another  personal  consciousness  than  its  own.  Absolute  insula- 
tion, irreducible  pluralism,  is  the  law.  It  seems  as  if  the  ele- 
mentary psychic  fact  were  not  thought  or  this  thought  or  that 
thought  but  my  thought,  every  thought  being  owned.  *  *  The 


320  P.    W.    SELLARS. 

breaches  between  such  thoughts  are  the  most  absolute  breaches 
in  nature."  (James,  Principles  of  Psychology ,  Vol.  I.,  p.  226.) 
I  advise  careful  study  of  these  pages.  We  hear  too  much  of 
experience-in-general  without  mention  of  the  owner.  If  this  be 
the  change  that  overtakes  M'  of  progression  (3)  how  must  B  be 
affected  by  it  since  the  terms  must  be  on  the  same  level.  In  the 
third  *  progression '  B  is  my  presentation,  a  part  of  my  psychic 
experience,  just  as  M'  is.  With  the  advance  to  this  new  pro- 
gression, B  must  be  reinterpreted.  If  M'  becomes  unique, 
must  not  the  other  also?  To  many  ears,  to  advocate  the  as- 
sumption of  what  corresponds  to  a  psychic  point  of  view  with 
regard  to  the  body,  may  sound  strange,  but,  before  a  too  hasty 
decision  is  reached,  let  us  ask  what  it  implies.  Philosophers 
have  so  long  resided  in  a  world  of  unincarnated  sensations  and 
thoughts,  acknowledging,  only  in  their  uninspired  moments,  the 
facts  of  death  and  birth,  that  the  mere  suggestion  of  such  an 
attitude  may  be  looked  upon  as  sub-dignitate.  The  conventional 
horror  raised  by  the  term  *  thing-in-itself '  has  prevented  a  thor- 
ough reinterpretation  of  it  in  the  light  of  recent  biological  and 
neurological  facts.  It  is,  however,  noteworthy,  that  here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  heretic  is  to  be  found  preventing  stagnation. 
Professor  Strong  has  argued  at  considerable  length  that  other 
consciousnesses  are  '  things-in-themselves  '  and  James,  in  the 
passage  quoted,  seems  to  support  similar  views ;  at  least,  his 
pluralism  has,  here,  its  raison  d'etre.  "  Another  man's  mind, 
then,  is  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  a  non-empirical  existence  ; 
something  real  yet  inaccessible  to  my  immediate  knowledge  ;  as 
much  so  as  material  or  mental  substance  and  differing  from  them 
only  in  the  nature  of  that  which  is  inferred."  (Strong,  Why  Mind 
Has  a  Body,  p.  216.)  The  criticism  one  is  inclined  to  pass  upon 
Strong  is  that  he  did  not  approach  his  subject  genetically  and 
logically.  Genetic  social  psychology  would  have  prevented  his 
famous  theory  of  instinctive  belief  in  other  minds,  and  logic,  his 
panpsychism.  There  has  been,  as  a  consequence,  an  unfor- 
tunate neglect  of  this  valuable  emphasis  on  the  isolation  of 
minds.  To  return.  Must  not  B  (organism)  drop  out  of  my 
experience  in  the  same  way  that  M'  (mind)  does?  At  present, 
there  seems  to  me  no  possibility  of  avoiding  this  conclusion  if 


RELATION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY.  321 

our  genetic  postulate  is  not  to  be  violated,  that  the  two  terms 
must  be  on  the  same  level.  Let  us  cast  about,  nevertheless,  for 
corroboration. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  discover.  That  every  individual's  ex- 
periencing is  dependent  on  what  we  call  his  organism  is  a  com- 
mon-place of  neurology  and  of  pathology  to-day.  I  could  refer 
to  the  researches  of  Kraepelin,  Ellis,  Flechsig  and  others,  but 
it  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation.  Neurology  not  only  has 
proved  cerebral  localization,  but  has  discovered  that  conscious- 
ness arises  only  in  a  circuit  of  at  least  five  neurones  involving 
the  Golgi  cell  type  II.  (Cf.  an  article,  Journal  of  Philosophy, 
Psychology  and  Scientific  Methods,  where  the  present  argument 
was  given  in  outline,  Vol.  IV.,  No.  i.)  Now,  it  would  be  ab- 
surd to  assert  that  another  individual's  consciousness  is  depend- 
ent on  B,  my  presentation ;  at  least,  we  do  not  usually  credit 
ourselves  with  creative  power  of  this  kind.  From  this  side, 
also,  we  are,  accordingly,  forced  to  admit  that  B  passes  out  of 
my  experience,  just  as  M'  did.  Moreover,  B  does  not,  then, 
become  part  of  the  second  individual's  experience,  else  would 
his  experiencing  depend  on  a  presentation  in  his  experience. 
Strongest  of  all  is,  I  think,  an  appeal  to  death.  Upon  the  in- 
dividual's demise,  the  body  remains.  These  are  trite  facts  but 
their  full  significance  has  not,  it  seems  to  me,  been  recognized. 

If  these  arguments  are  correct,  a  -peculiar  form  of  Agnos- 
ticism results  which  no  one,  to  my  knowledge,  has  developed. 
It  will  be  the  further  task  of  the  remainder  of  the  article  to 
accomplish  this,  and,  in  so  doing,  I  hope  to  indicate  the  possible 
solution  to  two  very  important  problems  :  What  is  the  individual  ? 
How  can  two  minds  know  the  same  thing? 

I  stated  that  this  position  leads  to  a  form  of  agnosticism ;  I 
might  better  have  said  it  results  in  a  reinterpretation  of  the 
word,  *  know,'  and  I  wish  to  develop  this  to  avoid  misunder- 
standing. As  is  easily  discernible,  the  thesis  is  purely  natural- 
istic in  its  implications  and  outlook  and  has  no  place  for  an  un- 
knowable of  the  Mansel-Spencer  variety.  We  are  limited  to 
our  experience?  Certainly;  but  who  would  wish  to  transcend 
it?  To  those  who  have  understood  Hegel  the  very  question  is 
meaningless.  The  real  and  vital  question  is  what  sort  of  ex- 


322  R.    W.   SELLARS. 

perience  have  we?  In  the  first  place,  if  my  argument  holds, 
*  reality*  becomes  a  more  inclusive  term  than  '  experience,'  exis- 
tentially  speaking.  Once  prove  that  the  organism  is  more  than 
the  individual's  experience  and  you  can't  stop  short  of  the  other 
objects  in  relation  to  the  body.  All  metaphysicians  seem  to 
admit  this.  The  organism  is  in  the  same  complex  evolving 
world  the  rocks  and  trees  and  air  and  waters  are.  The  indi- 
vidual's experience  agrees  with  reality  in  the  sense  that  it 
mediates  the  individual's  activity  in  relation  to  reality.  It  is  as 
a  lamp  unto  his  feet.  It  is  adaptive.  Of  course,  the  accommo- 
dation must  not  be  limited  to  the  so-called  physical  world  ;  the 
environment  is  also  social,  but  the  social  is  sustained  by  the 
physical,  without  it,  the  social  could  not  be  made  perfect.  And 
here  I  may  include  pragmatism,  giving  it  its  due  place  in  a  meta- 
physics. Thus  Professor  Dewey's  view  of  agreement  as  equal- 
ling success  must  be  interpreted  by  subsumption  under  the  cate- 
gory of  '  accommodation.'  Our  universe  is  a  process  including 
organizations  of  various  grades  seeking  adaptation.  "  You 
cannot  get  a  fixed  and  definite  color  sensation,  for  example, 
without  keeping  perfectly  constant  the  external  and  internal 
conditions  in  which  it  appears.  The  particular  sense  quality  is, 
in  short,  functionally  determined  by  the  necessities  of  the  exist- 
ing situation  which  it  emerges  to  meet."  (Angell,  this  REVIEW, 
March,  1907,  p.  17.) 

This  doctrine,  if  granted,  does,  of  course,  give  the  death- 
blow to  na'ive  realism.  I  do  not  know  how  Professor  Angell 
will  relish  the  deduction  of  agnosticism  from  his  thesis  of  the 
utility  of  consciousness,  but  that  it  points  in  this  direction  seems 
undeniable,  though  the  word  *  know '  must  be  reinterpreted  in 
the  light  of  the  teleological  nature  of  consciousness.  We  must 
not  demand  a  sort  of  knowledge  that  is  impossible,  even  un- 
thinkable, and  then  cry  out  about  an  <  unknowable.'  There  is, 
first,  the  selective  character  of  our  sense-organs  to  be  reckoned 
with.  "To  begin  at  the  bottom,  what  are  our  very  senses 
themselves  but  organs  of  selection  ?  But  of  the  infinite  chaos 
of  movements,  of  which  physics  teaches  us  that  the  outer  world 
consists,  each  sense-organ  picks  out  those  which  fall  within  cer- 
tain limits  of  velocity.  To  these  it  responds,  but  ignores  the 


RELATION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY.  323 

rest  as  completely  as  if  they  did  not  exist.  *  *  *  Attention,  on 
the  other  hand,  out  of  all  the  sensations  yielded,  picks  out  cer- 
tain ones  as  worthy  of  notice  and  suppresses  all  the  rest.  *  *  * 
The  mind  selects  again.  It  chooses  certain  of  the  sensations 
to  represent  the  thing  most  truly ,  and  considers  the  rest  as  its 
appearances,  modified  by  the  conditions  of  the  moment." 
(James,  Psychology ',  Vol.  I.,  pp.  284-5.)  Thus,  to  know  how 
things  act  and  function  is  all  that  is  necessary.  You  don't  want 
to  intuit  some  mysterious  essence.  Naturally  enough,  as  soon 
as  the  absurdity  of  the  old  idea  of  *  knowing '  is  realized,  one 
will  not  need  to  use  the  term  *  agnostic.'  To  know  about  an 
ionized  solution  is  not  to  intuit  some  mysterious  reality  or  have 
a  true  idea  of  it,  but  to  know  how  the  ions  behave.  In  short, 
we  can  handle  things-in-themselves ;  we  can  tear  them  apart, 
synthesize  them,  manipulate  them  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  but  can't 
be  them.  Stout  has  well  brought  out  the  importance  of  this  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  world.  "  He  may  ideally  analyze  and 
combine  in  a  mechanical  way  what  he  cannot  actually  take  to 
pieces  and  put  together  again.  He  may  even  assume  constit- 
uent elements  which  are  beyond  the  reach  of  actual  perception. 
*  *  Modern  theories  of  atoms  and  molecules  and  of  the 
motions  of  the  particles  of  ether  are  examples  of  the  highest 
development  attained  in  this  direction."  (Stout,  Manual  of 
Psychology,  pp.  505  ff.)  Electricity,  which  is  becoming  so 
omnipresent,  playing  an  important  role  in  electro-chemistry, 
physical  chemistry  and  biology,  is  not  something  to  be  copied. 
We  desire  only  to  know  how  it  acts  under  certain  definite  con- 
ditions. It  is  only  in  the  case  of  other  individuals  of  like  nature 
with  ourselves  that  we  can  speak  of  knowing,  in  the  sense  of 
content,  for  we  are  in  the  same  stage  of  evolutionary  organiza- 
tion. Our  agnosticism  in  comparative  psychology  in  regard  to 
the  experience  of  the  ant  or  fish  should  be  instructive.  As  I 
said  in  a  former  article,  '  epistemology  must  reckon  with  evolu- 
tion, for,  only  thus,  can  it  explain  common  knowledge  by  simi- 
larity of  organization  and  relationships.' 

We  have  answered,  then,  tentatively  at  least,  and,  by  impli- 
cation, the  first  question,  What  is  an  individual?  Our  con- 
clusion is  naturalistic,  but  not  materialistic,  since  matter  has 


324  R.    W.    SELLARS. 

disappeared  and  left  process.  Everything  points  to  the  belief 
that  conscious-experience  is  a  functional  part  and  expression  of 
this  individual  in  its  selective  relations  to  other  individuals  of 
various  degrees  of  organization.  Of  course,  when  the  grade  of 
organization  is  very  low  we  do  not  use  the  term  *  individual.' 
We  confine  it  to  molar  masses  usually,  though  science  has  a 
perfect  right  to  extend  its  application.  This  position  agrees 
with  the  results  of  evolutionary  science,  satisfying  its  prime 
postulate,  continuity,  and  is  monistic.  This  monism  grants,  how- 
ever,  James*  -pluralism.  As  I  said  in  the  former  article,  *  dif- 
ferent individuals  cannot  have  experiences,  in  any  sense,  nu- 
merically identical.'  Moreover,  I  do  not  perceive  the  need  of 
any  world  soul  or  absolute  to  bind  them  together.  The  con- 
nection which  makes  this  a  universe  comes  through  the  organism 
and  its  responsibility  to  its  surroundings,  and,  here  again,  it  is 
a  relation  of  functioning,  a  dynamic  unity,  with  free  interplay 
of  parts.  The  higher  the  grade  of  organization  the  greater  the 
independence  ;  it  is,  thus,  a  freedom  which  is  natural  to  the 
universe,  and  which  is  lawful.  This  will  give  a  hint  of  the 
bearing  of  this  hypothesis  on  ethics. 

There  is  reason,  moreover,  to  believe  that  the  mind-body 
difficulty  in  methodology  will  gradually  solve  itself  as  biology 
and  psychology  determine  more  the  categories  of  our  thinking. 
Body  and  mind  will  grow  into  one  another.  Habit  seems  to 
offer,  at  present,  some  prospect  of  a  mediating  factor,  for  has 
it  not  been  called,  rightly  enough,  the  pragmatist's  thing-in- 
itself  ?  Consciousness  was  looked  upon  as  mysterious  under  the 
tyrannic  reign  of  the  exact  sciences,  with  their  impersonal  and 
dualistic  outlook,  but  it  will  secure  its  rights  under  a  broader 
and  truer  naturalism.  Organization  is  the  scientists  substitute 
for  secondary  qualities  and  is  coming  to  its  own.  This  offers 
a  way  of  escape  from  the  merely  quantitative.  This  may  be 
seen,  in  chemistry,  in  the  study  of  color  compounds,  in  the  so- 
called  stereochemistry,  in  recent  physics,  in  the  examination  of 
radium,  uranium  and  actinium.  Physics  is,  thus,  becoming 
evolutionary  and  cannot  escape  quality  in  some  form  or  other. 

The  answer  to  the  second  question  follows  logically.  The 
identity  involved  in  the  common  object  must  be  interpreted 


RELATION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY.  325 

functionally,  i.  e.,  *  similar  organizations  in  similar  relations 
will  have  like  experiences  *  and  will  gradually  come  to  recog- 
nize this  likeness.  This  likeness  can  only  be  relative  since  indi- 
viduals differ  and  cannot  get  into  exactly  the  same  relations. 
Genetic  psychology  will  trace  out  the  process.  This  is  a  very 
simple  solution,  I  may  be  told,  but  that  is  a  merit. 

But,  I  shall  be  asked  with  some  indignation,  do  you  assume 
space  to  be  actual  apart  from  the  individual's  experience?  Not 
space  as  an  entity  or  as  a  form,  I  reply;  still,  I  believe  things 
to  be  mutually  exclusive  and  in  dynamic  relation  to  one  another. 
If,  perchance,  Kant's  old  dilemma  be  brought  forward,  as  vet- 
erans usually  are,  viz., —  if  space  is  real  how  can  mathematics 
hold?  Hence,  space  must  be  transcendentally  ideal  though 
empirically  real  —  I  shall  reply,  it  may  be  both  transcen- 
dentally real  and  empirically  real.  Let  me  explain  what  I 
mean  indirectly.  In  a  recent  article,  Stout  advances  the  thesis 
that  primary  qualities  are  actually  more  real  than  secondary. 
He  is  rather  vague  and  does  not  succeed  in  proving  his 
point.  Incidentally,  however,  he  makes  a  statement  that  fits 
in  with  the  position  I  have  advanced,  that  we  can  handle 
things-in-themselves  and  tear  them  apart.  "  Finally,  how  can 
the  internal  content  of  a  solid  be  resolved  into  any  possible 
series  of  sensory  presentations.  Slice  it  as  you  will,  you  only 
disclose  surfaces,  not  solid  content  but  only  the  boundaries  of 
solid  content."  (Aristotelian  Society's  Proceedings,  1903-4,  p. 
156.)  Now,  if  the  organism  is,  in  the  sense  defined,  a  thing-in- 
itself  and  consciousness  adapts  it  in  its  relations,  we  would  ex- 
pect some  mechanism  to  enable  consciousness  to  shadow  forth 
these  relations.  I  suggest  that  Flechsig's  theory  of  the  two  great 
silent  areas,  frontal  and  parietal,  which  are  whirlpools  of  asso- 
ciation, the  theory  of  local  signs  and  cerebral  localization  for 
the  parts  of  the  body  will  solve  this  problem.  There  appears 
to  be  a  sort  of  correspondence  between  the  nervous  system  and 
the  organism  and  its  environment  by  means  of  the  distance- 
receptors  which  tallies  with  the  correspondence  between  con- 
sciousness and  reality.  The  dominance  of  the  distance-receptors 
of  the  head  is  very  important  in  this  connection.  (Cf .  Sherring- 
ton,  Integrative  Action  of  the  Nervous  System,  Ch.  IX.)  The 


326  R.    W.    SELLARS. 

experience  of  the  individual  is,  accordingly,  a  *  microcosm  in 
idea '  focalizing  itself  in  special  situations  to  meet  the  exigencies 
of  the  organism  in  relation  to  the  macrocosm  of  reality.  Real- 
ity bends  back  upon  itself  by  means  of  the  brain  whose  terrific 
complexity  few  realize. 

If  this  mirroring  in  consciousness  by  space  of  the  dynamic 
relations  of  reality  is  a  valid  conclusion,  we  must  not  forget  that 
our  space  is  usually  of  two  dimensions.  We  are  seldom  concerned 
with  space  above  our  heads  or  below  our  feet.  The  universe  as 
a  -process  must  not,  however,  be  interpreted  in  this  fashion  as  a 
going  forward  as  we  go  forward.  That  would  be  too  anthro- 
pomorphic. It  is  a  stereometrical  process  in  which  various 
organizations  and  systems  of  organizations  beyond  our  con- 
ception are  equilibrated,  or  are  mutually  conflicting  and 
adapting.  As  a  consequence,  the  dynamic  relations  of  reality 
which  stereometry  shadows  forth  in  a  too  passive  way, 
because  conceptual,  appear  to  me  more  universal  than  time  re- 
lations. Time  strikes  one  as  more  personal  than  space.  We 
always  tend  to  look  upon  time  as  a  linear  process,  a  stream 
with  a  direction,  the  past-present-future  flow.  Accordingly, 
the  statement  that  the  universe  is  a  process  involves,  for 
many  minds,  the  flux-view  or  else  some  t  far  off  divine  event. 
Hold  to  this  dynamic,  stereometrical  view  of  process  as  primary 
and  all  that  is  avoided.  But,  if  space  has  an  infinite  number 
of  dimensions,  may  it  not  have  an  infinite  number  of  directions 
also?  At  least  two  possibilities,  therefore,  seem  to  be  open. 
Time  must  be  interpreted  stereometrically,  or  it  cannot  be  ap- 
plied to  the  universe  as  a  process.  Without  developing  this 
into  its  intricacies,  this  much  can  be  said,  that  each  irreversible 
'  process-system  '  has  a  time.  Our  solar  system  is  an  example 
of  this.  Each  conscious  individual,  also,  has  his  time  series 
which  he  fits  into  the  larger  series.  We  have,  then,  perceptual, 
conceptual  and  common  time. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  an  exposition  of  this  nature  to 
•justify  my  thesis  in  detail,  nor  shall  I  attempt  it.  Contrast  and 
comparison  with  some  current  teachings  may  serve,  however, 
to  give  its  general  trend.  "  What,  then,  is  needed,  I  think,  is 
a  complete  renovation  of  our  ontological  conceptions  of  mind 


RELATION  OF  MIND  AND  BODY. 

and  matter  in  terms  of  a  functional  psychology  of  experience." 
(H.  Heath  Bawden,  Philosophical  Review,  1903,  p.  311.)  This 
seems  clear  enough  and  most  of  us,  I  presume,  would  second 
the  statement  but  when  we  find  the  term  *  experience '  used  con- 
tinually in  a  vaguely  impersonal  way,  we  are  disposed  to  ask — 
Whose  experience?  Must  not  *  experience '  be  conscious  ex- 
perience and,  if  we  throw  some  hypothetical  world-soul  out  of 
the  reckoning,  somebody's  experience?  If  this  were  accepted, 
I  would  modify  Dewey's  doctrine  of  *  Immediate  Empiricism,' 
in  accordance  with  it.  "  Immediate  empiricism  postulates  that 
things  —  anything,  everything,  in  the  ordinary  or  non-technical 
use  of  the  term  *  thing* — are  what  they  are  experienced  as." 
(Journal  of  Philosophy,  etc.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  393.)  I  would  restate 
this  after  the  following  fashion  —  In  an  individual's  experience 
things  are  what  they  are  experienced  as.  This  would  save  the 
position  from  the  strange  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  '  Reality  as 
Experience.'  For  me,  truth,  experience,  and  reality  are  terms 
with  different  meanings,  although,  of  course,  experience  is  real. 

A  recent  movement,  seeking  to  reinstate  realism,  seems  to 
confuse  logic  and  metaphysics.  Personally,  I  do  not  under- 
stand how  a  functional  psychologist,  or  one  acquainted  with 
Berkeley  and  Kant,  could  be  a  na'ive  realist.  The  view  pre- 
sented here,  is  of  the  critical  sort.  "I  shall,  accordingly,  use 
the  word  consciousness,  to  mean  experience  that  is  essentially 
the  private  and  unsharable  experience  of  one  person  and  I  shall 
conceive  such  experience  which  for  each  one  of  us  is  a  certain 
streaming  of  objects  of  the  private  type  as  contrasted  with  objects 
that  are  public  and  directly  observable  by  anyone  so  far  as  their 
own  nature  is  concerned.  *  *  *  "  (Bush,  Journal  of  Philoso- 
phy, etc.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  567.)  Now  this  is,  to  me,  a  logical  dis- 
tinction more  clearly  worked  out  by  Baldwin  in  his  Genetic 
Logic.  (See  pp.  146-8.)  We  are  here  engaged  with  distinctions 
in  the  social-individual's  experience  and,  thus,  the  soi-disant 
realists  are  working  out  the  side  of  organization  neglected  by 
the  pragmatists. 

I  have  confined  myself  as  closely  as  possible  to  psychology 
and  logic.  If  the  progression  of  duplication  holds  good,  certain 
hypotheses  might  be  propounded  which  would  lead  us  farther 


328  R.    W.    SELLARS. 

into  metaphysics  and  science.     We  are  in  a  world  greater  than 
ourselves  and  each  must  say,  *  De  Profundis.' 

1 '  Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep, 
When  all  that  was  to  be,  in  all  that  was, 
Whirled  for  a  million  aeons,  thro'  the  vast 
Waste  dawn  of  multitudinous  eddying  light —  " 

Yet,  the  reverse  is,  also,  to  be  pondered  —  "  Does  Charidas  in 
truth  sleep  beneath  thee?  If  thou  meanest  the  son  of  Aremmas 
of  Cyrene,  beneath  me.  O,  Charidas,  what  of  the  underworld? 
Great  darkness.  And  what  of  the  resurrection?  A  lie.  And 
Pluto?  A  fable,  we  perish  utterly."  (By  Callemachus,  Antho 
logia  Palatina^  7,  524.)1 

JThe  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  May  26,  1907.  —  ED. 


SENSORY  AFFECTION  AND  EMOTION. 

BY  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY, 
Phrapaioom,  Siam. 

So  influential  a  voice  as  that  of  Stumpf  raised  in  favor  of 
what  has  been  long  considered  a  lost  cause  in  the  psychological 
world,  encourages  me  to  make  the  admission  that  for  a  number 
of  years  I  too  have  regarded  the  cause  as  far  from  lost,  and  to 
add  my  mite  to  the  discussion.  I  feel  different  about  doing  so 
because  I  am  writing  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  earth  where  I 
have  no  library  facilities,  and  only  a  few  of  the  leading  current 
periodicals,  which  reach  me  irregularly  and  whose  files  extend 
back  but  a  year  or  two.  If,  therefore,  even  my  mite  of  a  con- 
tribution proves  to  be  no  contribution  at  all,  but  a  mere  repeti- 
tion, I  must  beg  for  leniency.  In  any  case  I  am  well  aware 
that  I  have  nothing  startlingly  new  to  add.  My  only  expec- 
tation was  to  bring  together  some  of  the  recent  discussions  of  the 
problem  of  affective  processes  in  a  somewhat  new  way. 

The  paper  which  prompted  this  one  is  entitled  '  Ueber 
Gemiithsempfindungen,'  and  appeared  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur 
Psychologie^  I.  Abt.,  Bd.  44,  s.  I.  For  the  benefit  of  those  who 
may  not  have  Stumpf  s  discussion  freshly  in  mind,  I  will  give  a 
brief  summary  of  it.  I  wish  to  make  it  a  starting  point  for 
what  I  have  to  say. 

Stumpfs  thesis  is  in  general  that  the  sensory  affections  are 
themselves  another  class  of  sensations,  coordinate  with  those  al- 
ready recognized.  There  are  two  other  views  which  have  been 
held,  one  that  sensory  affections  are  mere  attributes  of  sensa- 
tion, and  the  other  that  they  are  elements  of  consciousness  of  a 
different  order  from  sensations.  The  first  view  he  considers 
sufficiently  refuted  by  Kiilpe's  well-known  arguments  on  the 
subject.  The  second  rests  chiefly  on  three  distinctions  between 
sensation  and  affection,  (a)  that  sensory  affections  seem  to  be- 
long in  the  same  class  with  emotions  in  that  both  are  pleasurable 
or  painful,  and  since  emotions  are  not  sensations  therefore  no 

329 


33°  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

member  of  the  same  class  can  be ;  (b)  that  affections  are  sub- 
jective whereas  sensations  are  objective ;  and  (c)  that  affections 
lack  the  spatial  extension  and  localization  which  many  sensa- 
tions possess.  As  Stumpf  points  out,  (a)  has  no  force  for  a  fol- 
lower of  the  James-Lange  theory  of  the  emotions,  but  he  is  not 
an  adherent  of  the  theory.  For  him,  too,  however,  the  argu- 
ment is  invalid  because  he  believes  that  the  classification  of 
sensory  affections  and  emotions  in  the  same  category  is  not 
justified.  The  emotions  proper  are,  in  his  opinion,  distinguished 
by  a  peculiar  "  kernel  "  which  is  distinct  from  the  muscular  and 
organic  accompaniments,  and  which  is  entirely  lacking  in  pure 
sensory  affection.  The  distinction  on  the  basis  of  subjectivity, 
(b)  Stumpf  considers  unsatisfactory  because  not  verified  by  or- 
dinary introspection.  The  *  plain  man  '  does  not  regard  pain  as 
subjective  in  any  other  sense  than  some  other  sensations.  He 
is  entirely  ready  to  admit  that  the  sweetness  of  an  object  con- 
sists merely  in  the  way  it  tastes  to  him,  just  as  the  painfulness 
of  another  object  consists  in  the  way  it  affects  him.  Further- 
more, it  is  not  always  true  that  sensations  give  information 
about  the  external  world.  There  is  a  whole  class  of  well  rec- 
ognized sensations,  muscular  sensations  from  the  internal 
organs,  which  tell  us  only  of  the  condition  of  the  body  itself. 
Finally,  the  distinction  between  the  ego  and  the  external  world 
rests  upon  a  complex  mass  of  experience  and  cannot  logically 
be  made  the  basis  for  a  distinction  between  classes  of  elements 
of  conscious  experience.  The  third  argument,  (c)  is  easily  dis- 
posed of  since  it  contradicts  verifiable  facts.  Pain  and  certain 
kinds  of  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness  undoubtedly  have 
both  volume  and  localization  as  definite  as  that  of  many  well 
recognized  sensations.  Since,  then,  none  of  the  arguments  in 
favor  of  making  affective  experiences  a  separate  class  of  ele- 
ments holds,  Stumpf  regards  it  as  logical  to  consider  them 
sensations. 

The  remainder  of  the  paper  is  divided  into  three  portions, 
a  discussion  of  (i)  pain  sensations  and  the  pleasure  sensations 
arising  in  the  skin  and  vegetative  organs ;  (2)  the  affective  tone 
of  the  higher  senses,  and  (3)  applications. 

i.  Stumpf  of  course  discards  the  view  that  the  sense  quality 


SEWS  OR  Y  A  FFE  C  TION  AND  EMO  TION.  33 1 

of  pain  is  a  pricking  sensation  to  which  is  united  an  affective 
element  of  intense  disagreeableness.  It  seems  to  him  that  only 
a  theoretical  prejudice  in  favor  of  separate  affective  elements 
has  led  to  this  view.  The  painfulness  of  a  pain  sensation  is 
itself  its  sense  quality.  "  Pain  is  simply  painful.  The  most 
discriminative  psychology  cannot  change  that."  If  one  talks 
of  agreeable  pain  sensations,  he  can  only  mean  a  state  in  which 
pain  and  pleasure  sensations  coexist.  Although  Stumpf  does 
not  stop  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  this  statement  reveals  his 
opinion  of  another  of  the  distinctions  frequently  drawn  between 
sensation  and  affection  —  that  there  can  be  but  one  affection 
at  a  time  in  consciousness  whereas  there  may  be  many  sensa- 
tions. Stumpf,  like  Royce  and  Calkins,  evidently  does  not  think 
the  statement  introspectively  correct.  Of  course  if  pleasure  and 
pain  are  sensations,  there  is  no  more  reason  why  they  should 
not  coexist  than  there  is  why  one's  face  should  not  be  warm 
and  his  hands  cold  at  the  same  time.  Very  conclusive  evidence 
for  the  fact  that  pain  is  a  separate  sensation  has  recently  been 
furnished  by  the  experiments  of  Von  Frey,  who  succeeded  in 
isolating  pain  sensations  by  peripheral  stimulation.  The  exist- 
ence of  delayed  pain,  both  under  pathological  conditions,  and 
normally  after  certain  stimuli  such  as  a  needle  prick,  has  long 
been  known  and  is  additional  evidence  of  its  sensory  nature. 

Though  we  have  made  no  approach  to  a  similar  isolation  of 
pleasure  sensations,  Stumpf  believes  that  we  have  examples  of 
them  in  the  tickling  and  itching  sensations  of  the  skin,  and  in 
the  sense  of  bodily  well-being.  Whether  these  sensations  are 
due  to  the  stimulation  of  pleasure  nerves,  corresponding  to  the 
pain  nerves,  he  leaves  an  open  question.  Their  assumption  he 
does  not  regard  as  necessary  to  the  theory.  Certain  pleasant  and 
unpleasant  experiences  must  be  conditioned  by  purely  central 
activities,  and  it  is  possible  that  all  pleasure  is  so  conditioned. 

The  algedonic  sensations  leave  behind  them  memory  images 
which  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  original  sensation  as  in  the 
other  senses.  Kiilpe  believes  that  the  important  difference 
between  sensation  and  affection  is  that  sensations  can  be  repre- 
sented in  consciousness  whereas  affections  can  only  be  reinstated. 
As  we  have  seen,  Stumpf  questions  the  fact.  He  thinks  it  pos- 


332  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

sible  to  have  a  memory  of  a  pain  in  the  same  sense  that  one  has 
of  an  odor,  though  the  power  to  call  up  memory  images  is  not 
universal  in  either  case,  and  images  of  algedonic  sensations 
easily  pass  over  into  hallucinations. 

2.  The  feeling  tone  of  the  so-called  higher  senses  he  con- 
siders under  two  headings,  the  case  of  excessive  stimulation,  and 
that  of  moderate  stimulation.     The  former  is  easily  dealt  with. 
Excessive  stimulation  affects  both  the  specific  nerves  and  the 
pain  nerves.     The  fact  is  most  evident  in  pressure  and  temper- 
ature stimulations.     It  is  in  accounting  for  the  feeling  tone  of 
moderate  stimulations,  especially  in  the  case  of  tones  and  colors, 
that  the  difficulty  comes  in,  a  difficulty  increased  by  the  very 
slight  intensity  of  the  affective  experience.     The  theoretical 
reasons  for   regarding   the  faint    agreeable  and  disagreeable 
experiences  as  accessory  sensations  are  the  same  as  in  the  case 
of  the  more  intense  experiences.    The  greater  difficulty  in  accept- 
ing the  theory  is  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  so  much  as  imagine  the 
agreeableness  of  a  tone  or  color  in  isolation  from  the  given  sensa- 
tion.   If  it  is  merely  an  accessory  sensation,  it  should  be  possible 
with  effort  to  form  a  separate  image  of  it.    Although  Stumpf  does 
not  feel  sure  that  such  an  isolated  image  has  ever  been  formed, 
he  thinks  it  not  impossible  that  it  should  be.     In  the  case  of  the 
more  intense  algedonic  tone  which  comes  with  color  and  tone 
combinations,  and  with  tastes  and  odors,  some  observers  assert 
that  it  is  possible  to  form  an  image  of  the  affective  tone,  quite 
independently  of  the  sensation  to  which  it  belongs. 

3.  Stumpf  believes  that  this  view  of  affection  has  the  advan- 
tage of  offering  a  natural  explanation  of  many  facts  which  caused 
difficulty  to  the  old  theory.    The  complete  and  partial  analgesias 
and  hyperalgesias  become  cases  of  anesthesia  or  hyperesthesia. 
The  delayed    pain   sensations  cease  to   be  an  anomaly.     The 
indifferent  states  cause  no  difficulty,  and  the  independence  of 
affective  tone  from  sense  quality  is  easily  accounted  for.    Futher- 
more  the  facts  known  about  sensation  and  the  methods  elabor- 
ated for  its  investigation  may  now  become  applicable  to  sensory 
affection.     This  formulation  he  also  considers  more  helpful  in 
the  attempt  to  give  an  account  of  the  genesis,  both  individual 
and  racial,  of  sensory  affection. 


SENS  OK  Y  AFFECTION  AND  EMO  TION.  333 

While  I  have  long  felt  that  regarding  pleasure  and  pain  in 
their  simplest  terms  as  themselves  sensations,  leads  to  the  most 
satisfactory  view  of  consciousness  as  a  whole,  I  still  think  with 
Stumpf  that  there  are  introspective  difficulties  in  the  way.  To 
my  mind  the  greatest  of  them  is  in  finding  any  experience  of 
pleasure  which  at  all  corresponds  in  definiteness  and  simplicity 
with  its  supposed  opposite  pain.  Stumpf  suggests  tickling  and 
itching  sensations  as  the  typical  pleasurable  experiences  from 
the  skin,  but  itching  is  to  most  people  a  distinctly  painful 
experience,  and  tickling  easily  becomes  so.  The  traditional 
view  of  the  two  is  that  both  are  complexes  of  sensations.  The 
nearest  approach  to  simple  pleasurable  experience  from  the  skin 
which  I  can  find  in  my  own  case  is  the  sensation  arising  from  a 
gentle  rubbing  with  some  soft  surface.  There  is  something 
akin  to  a  faint  itching  in  this  sensation,  and  it  is  perhaps  what 
Stumpf  has  in  mind  as  the  typical  pleasurable  skin  sensation. 

While  granting  the  introspective  difficulties,  I  still  consider 
the  reasons  for  Stumpfs  view  as  of  far  greater  weight  than 
those  against.  The  point  at  which  I  find  myself  at  variance 
with  Stumpf,  which  is  of  course  the  one  I  wish  to  discuss 
further,  is  that  of  the  relation  between  the  simple  sensory  affec- 
tions and  the  emotions.  The  question  is  one  which  Stumpf  dis- 
tinctly shuts  out  from  the  present  discussion,  but  he  states  his 
belief  that  the  emotions  are  quite  a  different  type  of  experience 
from  the  simple  sensory  affections,  and  that  a  sharp  line  should 
be  drawn  between  them.  The  grounds  for  this  belief  he  has 
published  more  in  detail  in  a  previous  paper  to  which  he  refers, 
and  to  which  unfortunately  I  have  no  access  here.  However,, 
he  does  in  this  paper  state  the  point  at  which  my  view  of  the 
emotions,  and  consequently  of  their  relation  to  simple  sensory 
affections  differs  from  his  own.  Stumpf  does  not  believe  that 
the  James-Lange  theory  of  the  emotions  furnishes  a  correct 
analysis  of  them.  He  holds  that  stripped  of  the  various  ac- 
companying muscular  and  organic  sensations,  an  emotion  still 
remains  an  emotion.  There  is  in  the  emotion  of  fear  a  'kernel* 
of  fearsomeness  which  is  not  destroyed  when  all  the  muscular 
and  organic  sensations  have  been  dissected  away  from  it.  To 
me,  and  to  all  the  adherents  of  the  theory  it  seems  equally 


334  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOL  LEY. 

plain  that  the  emotional  aspect  of  the  experience  does  indeed 
consist  in  the  mass  of  muscular  and  organic  sensations.  They 
seem  to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  emotion  without  which  it 
would  cease  to  be  an  emotion  at  all.  In  such  a  deadlock  of  in- 
trospective analysis,  argument  seems  to  be  of  little  avail.  What 
I  wish  to  do  is  first  to  state  a  little  more  fully  the  view  of  the 
relation  between  emotion  and  simple  sensory  affection  which 
seems  rational  to  one  who  holds  that  Stumpf  has  established  his 
thesis  with  regard  to  simple  sensory  affection,  but  who  also 
holds  to  the  James-Lange  account  of  the  emotions  ;  and  second 
to  point  out  the  general  conclusion  with  regard  to  the  nature  of 
consciousness  as  a  whole  which  seems  to  follow. 

To  one  who  combines  these  two  points  of  view  the  relation 
between  sensory  affection  and  emotion  is  merely  that  between 
a  simple  and  a  complex  state  of  the  same  type.  As  I  under- 
stand Stumpfs  analysis,  the  composition  of  a  simple  sensory 
affection,  such  as  a  pleasant  sweetness,  is  the  two  sensations 
sweet  and  pleasant.  The  total  state  of  consciousness  may  be, 
and  probably  is,  much  more  complex  than  this,  but  none  of  the 
other  simultaneous  constituents  are  to  be  considered  as  integral 
parts  of  the  simple  sensory  affection.  Just  how  he  conceives 
the  emotional  *  kernel '  I  do  not  know,  but  evidently  the  stuff  of 
which  it  is  made  up  is  something  other  than  sensation.  He 
would,  I  suppose,  analyze  an  emotion  into  a  central  cognitive 
content,  the  emotional  kernel,  and  as  an  adjunct,  a  mass  of 
muscular  and  organic  sensations.  To  which  of  these  constitu- 
ents he  would  assign  the  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness  of  an 
emotion,  I  do  not  know.  If  it  belongs  to  the  emotional  kernel, 
and  is  accordingly  non-sensational,  it  is  hard  to  account  for  the 
common  factor  between  this  class  of  algedonic  experiences  and 
the  simple  sensory  affections.  If  it  is  one  of  the  accompanying 
sensations,  it  is  non-essential  to  the  emotion  itself  —  a  view  quite 
opposed  to  all  accepted  doctrines. 

But  pointing  out  the  difficulties  in  a  theory  which  I  do  not 
myself  thoroughly  understand  is  probably  only  displaying  my 
ignorance.  Let  me  turn  to  the  aspect  of  the  question  in  which 
I  feel  more  confident,  the  advantages  of  the  alternative  view. 
According  to  that  view  there  is  no  sharp  dividing  line  between 


SENS  OR  Y  A  FFE  C  TION  AND  EMO  TION.  335 

simple  sensory  affections  and  emotions.  The  simplest  con- 
ceivable case  of  a  sensory  affection,  in  the  usual  acceptation  of 
the  term,  is  a  pain  sensation  without  organic  or  muscular  ac- 
companiments. It  possesses  but  one  quality  and  that  is  pain- 
fulness.  The  next  simplest  case  is  a  state  consisting  of  some 
other  sensation,  for  instance,  temperature,  accompanied  by  an 
algedonic  sensation  as  secondary.  Beyond  this  there  seems  to 
be  an  unbroken  series  of  increasing  complexity  occasioned  by 
the  addition  of  various  organic  and  muscular  sensations  as  sec- 
ondary, and  by  increasing  complexity  in  the  central  perceptual 
or  ideational  content,  which  ends  only  with  the  most  complex 
emotion.  If  then  we  analyze  any  simple  sensory  affect  or  emo- 
tion, leaving  aside  those  simplest  limiting  cases  which  exist 
rather  as  logical  limits  than  as  actual  states,  we  find  the  same 
constituents  —  a  presentational  or  representational  central  con- 
tent with  an  accompanying  mass  of  sensations  in  which  pleas- 
antness or  unpleasantness  and  muscular  and  organic  sensations 
are  prominent.  When  the  central  content  is  largely  represen- 
tational, and  the  accompanying  mass  of  sensations  is  complex 
and  intense,  we  call  the  experience  an  emotion  ;  when  the  cen- 
tral content  is  presentational,  and  the  mass  of  accompanying 
sensations  not  very  complex,  we  call  the  experience  a  sensory 
affection.  The  decreased  complexity  is  usually  due  to  the  lesser 
number  of  muscular  and  organic  sensations. 

Within  this  series  of  experiences  -there  are  many  on  the 
border  line  between  sensory  affection  and  emotion  which  might 
equally  well  be  classed  with  either  one.  Consider,  for  instance, 
the  state  occasioned  by  a  sudden,  unexpected,  loud  sound.  As 
a  very  unpleasant  sensory  experience  one  would  feel  inclined 
to  call  it  a  sensory  affection,  but  in  this  case  there  are  present 
a  sufficient  number  of  muscular  and  organic  sensations  to  give 
it  an  emotional  tone.  A  friend  who  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
colors  can  never  describe  the  experiences  they  give  her  without 
telling  of  the  cold  shivers  that  run  up  and  down  her  back.  In 
such  cases  shall  we  call  the  state  an  intense  sensory  affection 
or  a  slight  emotion?  To  me  it  seems  immaterial.  In  fact,  in 
most  cases  of  sensory  affection,  careful  observation  reveals  the 
presence  of  muscular  and  organic  sensations  which  seem  to  me 


336  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

to  play  their  part  in  determining  what  we  call  the  affective  tone 
of  the  experience. 

The  question  is  closely  bound  up  with  that  of  the  number  of 
distinguishable  affective  qualities  —  a  question  which  is  of  course 
not  decided  by  regarding  pleasure  and  pain  as  sensations.  The 
algedonic  sense  may  be,  like  the  temperature  sense,  one  which 
possesses  but  two  opposed  qualities,  or  it  may  possess  two  op- 
posed classes  of  qualities,  though  the  latter  conception  offers 
logical  difficulties  which  I  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  further. 

Stumpf  recognizes  the  possibility  that  the  apparent  differ- 
ences between  the  various  kinds  of  sensory  pains  may  be  con- 
stituted by  differences  in  the  groups  of  organic  and  muscular 
sensations  accompanying  them,  together  with  variations  in  the 
intensity  and  extensity  of  the  pain  sensations  themselves,  but  he 
finds  this  explanation  unsatisfactory  in  the  case  of  the  higher 
senses.  It  seems  to  him  impossible  to  regard  the  unpleasant- 
ness of  a  bad  odor  or  of  a  discord  as  having  the  same  quality 
as  a  pure  pain  sensation.  Most  psychologists  admit  that  even  in 
the  states  usually  classified  as  simple  sensory  affection  there  are 
present  a  certain  number  of  muscular  and  organic  sensations 
as  well  as  the  characteristic  quality,  and  the  algedonic  factor. 
Many  go  even  further  and  admit  that  this  group  of  sensations 
plays  an  important  part  in  determining  the  general  tone  of  the 
state  of  consciousness.  Angell  in  his  new  psychology  (p.  331) 
says,  *  All  consciousness,  to  be  sure,  seems  to  be  toned  more  or 
less  by  the  sensory  reactions  which  arise  from  the  constant  over- 
flow of  neural  excitement  into  the  muscles,  and  in  so  far  every 
psychosis  has  an  element  of  emotion  in  it.'  But  they  are  all 
unwilling  to  admit  that  this  mass  of  sensations  plays  a  part  in 
determining  the  affective  tone  of  consciousness.  That  they  re- 
gard as  a  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness  which  must  be  a  single 
simple  factor.  To  make  the  case  concrete  —  an  intense  sour 
sensation  is  usually  unpleasant  and  is  usually  accompanied  by 
distinct  sensations  of  muscular  contraction  from  the  muscles  and 
glands  behind  the  jaws.  The  question  is,  would  what  we 
ordinarily  call  the  unpleasantness  of  a  sour  taste  be  the  same 
unpleasantness  without  these  muscular  sensations?  To  me  it 
seems  not.  In  other  words  the  affective  tone  in  this  case  seems 


SENSORY  AFFECTION  AND  EMOTION.  337 

to  me  not  simple  but  complex.  The  feat  of  isolating  the  mere 
unpleasant  sensation  from  the  invariable  muscular  portion  of 
the  experience  is  a  very  difficult  piece  of  introspection  and  one 
which  we  are  not  often  called  upon  to  perform.  The  unpleas- 
antness and  the  muscular  sensations  form  a  unified  group,  and 
it  seems  to  me  clear  that  it  is  this  group  which  we  mean  in  or- 
dinary language  when  we  talk  about  the  unpleasantness  of  a 
sour  taste  and  insist  that  it  is  different  from  other  kinds  of  un- 
pleasantness. This  is  merely  to  apply  the  James-Lange  theory 
of  the  emotions  to  sensory  affections  as  well.  The  affective  tone, 
then,  of  a  sensory  affection  is  usually  not  a  totally  unanalyzable 
portion  of  consciousness,  just  as  the  emotional  tone  of  an  emotion 
is  not.  In  the  cases  where  there  is  least  complexity  there  seems 
to  be  no  difficulty  in  identifying  the  unpleasantness  with  the 
quality  of  a  pain  sensation.  For  instance,  an  intense  but  local- 
ized temperature  sensation  is  accompanied  by  an  unpleasantness 
which  is  readily  recognized  as  of  the  same  quality  as  isolated 
pain.  In  such  an  experience  as  a  discord  or  an  unpleasant  color 
combination  the  unpleasantness  is  much  less  intense  and  the 
muscular  sensations  much  more  prominent.  The  unpleasant 
odor  nauseates  us  and  the  discord  sets  our  teeth  on  edge  and 
makes  our  flesh  creep.  Here  the  identification  is  very  difficult 
and  to  many  seems  impossible.  The  final  appeal  is  to  intro- 
spection and  an  introspection  which  is  most  difficult.  One  is  in 
danger  of  being  unduly  influenced  by  the  alluring  simplicity  of 
the  view  which  recognizes  but  a  single  quality  of  pain  or  pleas- 
ure. Now  I  do  not  pretend  to  be  able  to  analyze  completely 
that  which  we  call  the  affective  tone  of  an  experience.  More- 
over, as  I  shall  explain  later,  I  believe  this  disability  to  be  in- 
herent in  the  nature  of  the  case.  Nor  am  I  able  to  isolate  in- 
trospectively  the  mere  unpleasant  factor  of  a  bad  odor  and  of  a 
discord  and  assert  that  they  are  of  the  same  quality  as  pain. 
But  it  does  seem  to  me  quite  evident  that  what  we  ordinarily 
call  the  unpleasantness  of  these  two  experiences  is  in  both  cases 
a  complex,  and  that  it  is  at  least  very  possible  that  if  we  could 
isolate  the  mere  sensation  of  unpleasantness  from  the  more  or 
less  vague  group  in  which  it  always  occurs,  we  should  find  it 
the  same  in  both  cases.  The  logical  difficulty  of  accounting 


HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

for  the  fact  that  such  varied  experiences  are  all  classed  as  pleas- 
ant or  unpleasant  would  then  disappear.  The  case  would  be 
one  of  similarity  on  the  ground  of  partial  identity. 

In  discussing  the  number  of  qualities  to  be  recognized  in  the 
algedonic  aspect  of  experience,  it  seems  worth  while  to  add  a 
word  of  comment  on  the  experimental  method  which  has  been 
employed  to  gain  evidence  on  the  subject  —  that  of  recording 
the  modifications  of  circulation  and  respiration  coincident  with 
affective  states.  The  work  has  been  done  under  the  assumption 
that  pleasure  and  pain  were  an  independent  order  of  elements, 
but  it  would  have  the  same  application  on  the  theory  that  they 
are  sensations.  The  assumption  underlying  the  experiments 
seems  to  be  that  if  it  could  be  shown  that  a  given  supposed  ele- 
ment of  consciousness  were  accompanied  by  a  constant  set  of 
physiological  changes  in  breathing  and  circulation,  it  would 
establish  the  claim  of  that  content  to  be  an  element.  In  con- 
testing this  view  I  may  perhaps  be  fighting  a  man  of  straw.  It 
is  difficult  to  find  an  explicit  statement  of  it  in  the  literature,  and 
some  of  the  more  recent  work,  such  as  that  of  Shepard,  is  clearly 
exonerated  from  any  suspicion  of  it.  Nevertheless,  much  of 
the  earlier  experimentation  seems  implicitly  based  upon  it.  A 
few  years  ago  I  took  the  trouble  to  make  a  comparative  study 
of  the  series  of  investigations  in  question,  summarizing  the 
results  in  tables.  The  manuscript  has  never  seen  the  light  of 
publication,  but  is  still  in  my  possession,  and  by  reference  to  it 
I  can  make  some  detailed  statements  of  results.  One  series  of 
experimenters,  Fere,  Lehman,  Mentz,  Meuman  and  Zoneff, 
Brahn,  Gent,  and  Boggs,  find  antithetical  physiological  proc- 
esses in  the  breathing,  vasomotor,  or  pulse  activities,  one  or 
all,  which  are  correlated  with  pleasantness  and  unpleasantness. 
Another  set,  Angell  and  his  co-workers,  Shields,  Binet  and 
Courtier,  Bonser,  and  recently  Shepard  and  Kelchner,  failed 
to  find  such  a  correlation.1  Recently  Wundt  and  his  students 
have  attempted  to  furnish  evidence  for  his  tridimensional  theory 
by  the  same  method.  Brahn  and  Gent  both  carried  out  elab- 

1 A  bibliography  for  the  earlier  part  of  this  series  of  papers  may  be  found  in 
an  article  by  Angell  and  Thompson,  PSY.  REV.,  VI.,  32,  1899 ;  and  for  the  later 
part  in  one  by  John  F.  Shepard,  Am.J.  of  Psych.,  XVII.,  522,  1906. 


SENS  OR  Y  A  FFE  C  TION  A  ND  EMO  TION.  339 

orate  and  careful  experiments.  Each  one  found  a  set  of  results 
consistent  with  itself,  and  in  accord  with  the  theory  —  three 
pairs  of  antithetical  physiological  processes  corresponding  to 
the  three  pairs  of  affective  qualities  —  but  they  failed  to  agree 
with  regard  to  the  exact  nature  of  the  physiological  change 
characterizing  each  of  the  three  affective  pairs.  Before  dis- 
cussing the  theoretical  interpretation  of  these  results,  I  would 
like  to  point  out  one  more  fact  which  is  significant,  the  fact  that 
those  workers  who  failed  to  find  the  correspondence  in  question 
were  those  who  used  the  greatest  variety  of  stimuli,  and  that 
Wundt's  students  who  failed  to  agree  about  the  physiological 
changes  characterizing  the  pairs  strain-relaxation  and  excite- 
ment-depression, used  very  different  stimuli  to  incite  these 
states.  For  instance,  for  stimulating  excitement  Brahn  used 
certain  odors,  high  tones,  and  noises,  while  Gent  used  the  sug- 
gestion that  the  subject  should  try  to  increase  voluntarily  the 
volume  of  one  arm.  Boggs,  who  repeated  Brahn's  work,  using 
the  same  stimuli,  obtained  the  same  results. 

Now  in  the  discussion  of  these  results  carried  on  between 
Titchener  and  his  pupils,  and  the  Leipzig  school,  there  has  been 
no  question  of  the  fundamental  validity  of  the  method.  The 
mutual  criticisms  have  been  directed  merely  against  methods  of 
experimentation  and  of  dealing  with  the  curves  obtained.  But 
what  can  be  the  basis  of  the  assumption  that  a  constant  set  of 
physiological  processes  means  an  elementary  conscious  state? 
To  be  sure,  we  have  a  general  doctrine  that  two  closely  similar 
conscious  states  will  have  similar  physiological  accompaniments. 
It  is  further  true  that  relatively  simple  states  are  more  easily 
reproduced  at  will  than  complex  ones.  But  the  question  of  an 
element  of  consciousness  is  a  question  of  absolute,  not  of  rela- 
tive simplicity.  It  is  more  than  possible  that  there  are  in  con- 
sciousness certain  relatively  constant  groups  of  sensations  which 
are  readily  reproduced,  and  if  so  they  would  have  relatively 
stable  physiological  accompaniments.  For  instance,  suppose 
that  Wundt  establishes  his  thesis  that  strain  is  always  accom- 
panied by  a  given  set  of  changes  in  pulse  and  breathing  —  does 
that  prove  that  strain  is  an  elementary  conscious  state?  Cer- 
tainly not.  It  would  merely  prove  that  it  is  a  relatively  stable 


340  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOL  LEY. 

and  easily  reproduced  state  of  consciousness.  In  the  experi- 
ments in  which  the  writer  participated  some  years  ago,  the  most 
constant  set  of  results  obtained  was  that  for  mental  application 
to  simple  arithmetical  problems,  but  that  was  not  considered 
evidence  that  mental  application  is  an  element  of  consciousness. 
Just  how  similar  two  states  need  to  be  in  order  to  have  the  same 
sort  of  physiological  accompaniments,  we  do  not  know,  but  it  is 
fairly  certain  that  they  do  not  need  to  be  elementary.  I  must 
repeat,  therefore,  that  it  seems  to  me  impossible  that  the  method 
in  question  should  furnish  any  positive  evidence  on  the  question 
of  the  content  elements  of  consciousness. 

If  one  adopts  the  view  which  has  been  presented  here,  a 
certain  remodeling  of  the  general  formulations  of  psychology 
becomes  necessary.  Stated  from  the  point  of  view  of  content  — 
the  aspect  of  consciousness  in  terms  of  which  the  discussion  has 
been  carried  out  —  it  means  that  the  ultimate  product  of  any  and 
every  analysis  of  the  content  of  consciousness  must  be  sensa- 
tions. To  put  the  matter  a  little  more  accurately  —  when  the 
final  discriminations  possible  to  analysis  have  been  made,  the 
discriminated  contents  are  all  sensations.  The  affective  ele- 
ments seem  to  have  met  the  fate  which  long  ago  overtook  the 
conative  elements. 

Whether  or  not  the  term  element  is  one  which  can  properly 
be  applied  to  these  simplest  discriminable  contents  of  conscious- 
ness is  a  further  question  which  I  should  answer  in  the  negative. 
The  point  has  been  ably  argued  by  Miss  Gordon.1  The  logic 
of  her  contention  seems  to  me  irrefutable.  An  element  is,  as 
she  says,  a  content  which  is  completely  homogeneous  and  not 
further  analyzable.  "  There  can  logically,  of  course,  be  only 
one  final  element,  since  opposites  always  have  a  common 
ground."  Now  each  sensation  can  be  distinguished  from  some 
thousands  of  others,  and  must  therefore  have  many  grounds  of 
distinction  within  it.  I  also  agree  with  Miss  Gordon  in  her  view 
that  the  discriminated  portions  of  consciousness  do  not  exhaust 
its  content.  There  is  always  present  an  undiscriminated  back- 
ground of  which  we  can,  of  course,  say  but  little.  The  usage 
Miss  Gordon  seems  to  favor  is  to  apply  the  term  affection  to  this 

ljour.  of  Phil.,  Psych,  and  Sd.  Meth.,  1905,  II.,  617-622. 


SENS  OR  Y  A  FFE  C  TION  AND  EMO  TION.  34 1 

undiscriminated  background  of  consciousness.  With  certain 
concessions  which,  I  take  it,  Miss  Gordon  really  makes  herself, 
the  usage  strikes  me  as  most  happy.  I  should  wish  to  extend 
the  term  affection,  or  affective  tone,  to  cover  not  only  the  undis- 
criminated background  of  consciousness,  but  the  relatively 
undiscriminated  portion  which  is  with  difficulty  distinguished 
from  it,  as  well.  In  so  far  as  we  have  succeeded  in  making  dis- 
criminations within  this  affective  realm,  the  sensations  revealed 
are  those  of  pleasure  and  pain,  muscular,  and  organic  sensations. 
Miss  Gordon  seems  to  have  such  an  interpretation  in  mind  when 
she  tells  us  that  *  feeling  is  the  relatively  simple,'  that  '  there 
are  many  different  feeling  qualities,'  and  that  '  an  emotion  is 
largely  made  up  of  muscular  stimulations.' 

If  this  usage  be  adopted,  a  distinction  must  be  made  between 
the  affective  tone  of  an  experience  and  its  algedonic  tone.  The 
latter  depends  upon  the  intensity  of  the  algedonic  sensations, 
the  former  upon  the  total  organic  reaction  of  the  organism  to 
the  stimulus.  This  reaction  frequently  involves  sensations  of 
pleasure  or  pain,  but  need  not  necessarily  do  so.  The  distinc- 
tion does  away  with  one  of  the  difficulties  in  the  older  formula- 
tion which  always  seemed  to  me  very  great.  If  the  affective 
tone  of  an  experience  consists  merely  in  its  pleasurable  or 
painful  quality,  then  it  must  follow  that  every  experience  which 
is  strongly  affective  —  such  as  a  strong  emotion  —  must  be 
either  intensely  pleasurable  or  intensely  painful,  whatever  else 
it  may  be.  To  my  introspection,  nothing  could  be  a  more 
evident  distortion  of  fact  to  fit  theory.  The  question  as  to 
whether  a  given  emotion  is  pleasant  or  unpleasant  is  often  very 
difficult  to  answer.  It  was  experimental  work  on  the  affective 
processes  which  first  called  my  attention  to  this  fact.  When 
left  for  some  time  in  a  state  of  revery  while  the  plethysmographic 
and  respiratory  records  were  being  taken,  emotional  memories 
or  ideas  which  caused  marked  modifications  of  the  curve  some- 
times occurred.  The  experimenter  always  demanded  to  know 
whether  the  emotions  were  pleasant  or  unpleasant.  Somewhat 
to  my  own  surprise  I  often  found  the  question  most  baffling. 
Anger  is,  in  my  own  case,  the  emotion  par  excellence  in  which 
the  algedonic  tone  is  slight,  if  present  at  all.  Nor  is  the  diffi- 


342  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

culty  disposed  of  by  the  admission  that  pleasure  and  pain  may 
coexist  in  consciousness.  Many  emotions,  as  Royce  points  out, 
are  characterized  by  their  simultaneous  presence.  In  fact  in 
my  own  experience,  pleasant  emotions,  if  at  all  violent,  have 
an  unpleasant  element  in  the  very  fact  of  their  intensity.  Feel- 
ing myself  given  over  to  any  violent  emotion,  even  though  I 
recognize  that  it  is  a  desired  experience,  is  in  so  far  unpleasant. 
But  there  are  other  cases,  notably  anger,  which  are  intense 
without  being  either  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  or  both,  to  any 
marked  extent.  In  other  words,  the  emotionality  of  an  expe- 
rience does  not  at  all  run  parallel  with  its  algedonic  tone,  as  the 
accepted  theory  requires. 

The  classical  division  of  psychological  phenomena  into  the 
cognitive,  conative  and  affective  realms  cannot,  on  the  view 
advocated,  be  regarded  as  based  on  the  kind  of  content  into 
which  they  can  be  analyzed.  They  are  distinguished  on  the  side 
of  content  merely  by  the  grouping  of  their  constituent  sensa- 
tions, presentative  or  representative.  Roughly  we  may  say  that  in 
states  which  we  call  affective,  algedonic  sensations,  and  vaguely 
recognized  sensations  of  an  involuntary  muscular  or  organic 
type  are  prominent.  In  those  called  conative,  sensations  either 
presenting  or  standing  for  voluntary  movements  are  most  im- 
portant, while  the  cognitive  states  are  distinguished  by  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  various  sensations  which  mediate  a  knowledge 
of  the  external  world.  But  though  these  differences  hold 
roughly  and  for  many  states,  the  fact  remains  that  no  thorough- 
going distinction  between  these  kinds  of  consciousness  can  be 
made  on  the  basis  of  content  alone.  The  function  of  the  state 
in  question  must  always  be  taken  into  consideration. 

Though  the  discussion  has  been  carried  out  on  the  basis  of 
content  analysis,  the  whole  matter  may  gain  in  clearness  by 
being  restated  from  a  functional  and  genetic  point  of  view  such 
as  that  taken  in  Angell's  Psychology.  The  condition  for  the 
appearance  of  primitive  consciousness  in  the  individual  is  a  lack 
of  ready-made  adjustment  to  environment,  requiring  a  readjust- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  organism.  At  first  this  readjustment 
involves  a  general  discharge  of  nervous  energy  throughout 
the  body,  bringing  about  a  more  or  less  aimless  response  of  the 
whole  organism.  On  the  conscious  side,  since  this  is  a  first  ex- 


SEWS  OR  Y  A  FFE  C  TION  A  ND  EMO  TION.  3  45 

perience  it  is  of  course  an  unanalyzed  experience.  It  is  James' 
*  big  blooming  buzzing  confusion,'  which  is  nevertheless  not 
recognized  as  a  confusion  ;  it  is  an  '  original  continuum,'  homo- 
geneous to  the  experiencer.  If  we  are  to  name  it  in  terms  of 
subsequent  analysis,  it  must  of  course  be  called  an  affective 
state.  It  is  in  fact  the  only  conceivable  state  which  is  pure 
affection.  As  experience  progresses,  responses  to  frequently 
repeated  stimuli  become  organized  in  definite  channels  of  dis- 
charge, while  discrimination  of  content  gradually  breaks  up  the 
homogeneity.  To  the  extent  to  which  responses  become  or- 
ganized and  adapted  to  the  stimuli  which  occasion  them,  they 
cease  to  involve  the  whole  organism,  gradually  lose  the  organic 
and  muscular  factors,  and  consequently  their  affective  tone  dis- 
appears. They  may  finally  become  reduced  to  mere  percep- 
tions with  little  or  no  affective  tone.  But  there  always  remain 
other  situations  for  which  there  is  no  ready-made  response  and 
which  do  therefore  cause  a  vague  stirring  up  of  the  entire 
organism,  i.  £.,  a  strongly  affective  state. 

Thus  it  comes  about  that  within  any  developed  conscious- 
ness we  can  trace  a  series  of  states  from  slight  affective  tone  to 
intense  emotion,  corresponding  to  the  extent  to  which  responses 
to  stimuli  have  become  reduced  to  habitual  reactions.  In  so  far 
as  responses  are  unorganized  by  habit,  they  belong  on  the  con- 
scious side  to  the  unanalyzed  background  of  consciousness  out 
of  which  definite  experience  is  constantly  emerging.  Discrimi- 
nation within  consciousness  means  the  presence  of  organized 
response  on  the  side  of  habit.  The  process  of  the  development 
of  intelligence  is  a  gradual  differentiation  of  the  cognitive  from 
the  matrix  of  the  affective,  coincident  with  a  progressive  de- 
velopment of  habitual  activities.  The  primitive  man  is  a  man 
of  feeling  in  that  he  is  a  man  of  few  discriminations  and  simple 
habits. 

From  the  functional  standpoint,  one  or  two  more  of  the  dis- 
tinctions often  quoted  to  prove  the  disparateness  of  sensation 
and  affection  lose  their  force.  It  is  often  stated  that  whereas 
sensations  become  more  distinct  and  fixed  in  consciousness  with 
repetition,  affections  fade  and  eventually  disappear.  The  fact 
that  affections  fade  and  eventually  disappear  with  repetition  is 
exactly  what  we  must  expect  if  our  account  of  conscious  proc- 


344  HELEN  THOMPSON  WOOLLEY. 

esses  has  been  at  all  correct.  As  we  have  shown,  responses 
which  were  at  first  vague  and  general,  and  consequently  strongly 
affective,  become  organized  in  definite  habitual  channels  of 
discharge,  and  therefore  lose  their  affective  tone.  To  deal 
with  the  matter  completely,  I  should  have  to  add  that  I  do  not 
believe  the  truth  of  the  statement  with  regard  to  the  cognitive 
contents  of  consciousness.  But  that  would  take  me  too  far 
afield. 

A  point  closely  related  to  the  one  just  discussed,  though  not 
identical  with  it,  is  that  the  cognitive  and  affective  contents  of 
experience  are  asserted  to  behave  differently  when  attention  is 
turned  toward  them.  If  attention  is  fixed  upon  a  cognitive  con- 
tent, it  develops  and  grows  richer,  whereas  an  affective  content 
attended  to,  fades  and  disappears.  The  classic  example  is  that 
as  soon  as  one  begins  to  analyze  an  emotion,  the  emotion  is  de- 
stroyed. This  again  is  what  must  be  expected  if  an  affective 
content  is  due  to  the  reflex  response  of  the  whole  organism  to  a 
given  stimulus.  As  long  as  attention  remains  fixed  on  the 
characteristic  stimulus,  for  instance,  the  thing  that  is  making 
us  angry,  the  reflex  response  continues  and  we  remain  angry. 
But  suppose  attention  to  be  turned  to  the  emotion  itself.  We 
begin  to  try  to  analyze  the  various  sensations  involved.  Now 
organic  or  muscular  sensations  are  not  the  normal  stimulus  for 
anger  and  therefore  when  attention  is  turned  toward  them, 
anger  ceases.  The  anomaly  which  met  the  old  theory  in  the 
case  of  physical  pain,  becomes  additional  evidence  for  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  view.  Pain  is  not  due  to  a  reflex  response  of 
the  organism,  but  to  the  direct  stimulation  of  a  sensory  nerve. 
So  long  as  attention  remains  fixed  on  it,  it  behaves  like  other 
cognitive  contents  —  remains  distinct  and  often  increases  in  in- 
tensity. The  way  to  get  rid  of  physical  pain  is  to  turn  attention 
away  from  it,  and  get  it  absorbed  in  something  else. 

Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  come  upon  a  review  of  a 
monograph  by  Rolf  Lagerborg,  Leipzig,  1905,  which  leads  me 
to  think  that  he  has  taken  the  same  ground  that  I  have  here, 
and  has  gone  much  further  in  physiological  explanations.  I 
have,  of  course,  not  seen  the  original.1 

'The  MS.  of  this  paper  was  received  May  31,  '07.  —  ED. 


DISCUSSION. 

AN  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS.1 

I  wish  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  a  course  in  esthetics  for  which  — 
it  seems  to  me —  there  is  a  real  demand.  I  have  given  this  course 
repeatedly  and  am  under  the  impression  that  the  students  who  took  it 
derived  more  benefit  from  it  than  they  would  have  derived  from  a 
course  following  the  old-fashioned  lines,  defining  the  4  beautiful '  and 
the  'sublime'  and  informing  the  student  on  the  historic  development 
of  esthetic  theory  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  up  to  the  year  1907.  I 
present  this  sketch  of  a  course  in  order  to  call  forth  criticism  and 
discussion. 

By  an  experimental  course  I  do  not  mean  a  technical  course  in 
which  the  student  is  taught  how  to  perform  experiments  and  take 
measurements,  but  a  course  in  which  theoretical  knowledge  is  con- 
veyed by  the  help  of  experimental  demonstrations  in  class. 

A  student  who  specializes  in  philosophical  studies  wants,  of  course, 
information  on  the  history  of  esthetic  theory.  Such  information,  how- 
ever, can  be  obtained  as  well  from  reading  books  as  from  listening  to 
a  lecturer.  The  number  of  students  who  want  such  a  course  is  small 
compared  with  the  number  who  find  themselves  again  and  again  puzzled 
by  questions  like  the  following : 

Why  does  Mr.  X  enjoy  this  piece  of  sculpture  which  is  to  me  little 
more  than  a  piece  of  stone  ?  Why  does  Mr.  T  say  that  he  does  not 
care  for  that  picture  with  which  I  decorated  my  study  ?  Why  are 
some  people  able  to  spend  delightful  hours  in  the  galleries  of  a  museum, 
while  to  me  the  most  delightful  moment  during  a  visit  to  a  gallery  is 
the  one  when  I  discover  that  I  am  approaching  the  exit? 

Answers  to  such  questions  cannot  easily  be  found  in  books.  The 
student  who  seeks  these  answers  needs  the  guidance  of  an  instructor. 
And  the  course  which  I  wish  to  describe  attempts  to  help  the  student 
to  find  them  experimentally,  to  derive  them  from  his  own  observations 
made  in  class. 

It  is  plain  that  in  a  course  of  this  kind  one  cannot  require  the 
student  to  have  any  knowledge  of  the  history  of  art,  or  any  familiarity 

1  Read  before  the  joint  meeting  of  the  Western  Philosophical  Association 
and  the  North-Central  section  of  the  American  Psychological  Association, 
Chicago,  March,  1907. 

'     345 


346  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

with  the  technic  of  drawing,  painting,  modeling,  or  carving.  The 
very  students  who  do  not  possess  such  knowledge  and  have  but  little 
time  to  acquire  it,  are  most  likely  to  ask  questions  like  the  above  and 
seek  for  answers.  I  do  require,  however,  that  the  student  shall  pre- 
viously have  taken  a  year's  course  in  general  psychology  covering  the 
whole  field,  from  sense  perceptions  to  emotions,  from  the  ordinary 
activities  of  daily  life  to  the  unusual  actions  of  a  temporarily  or  chron- 
ically abnormal  human  being.  Otherwise  the  course  might  assume 
the  features  of  a  kindergarten  course  instead  of  those  of  a  college 
course ;  and  only  thus  can  time  enough  be  found  to  obtain  experi- 
mentally, within  a  single  semester,  answers  to  the  questions  of  prac- 
tical esthetics,  answers  which  are  to  be  of  permanent  benefit  to  the 
student  in  his  conduct  of  life. 

Such  words  as  'beautiful,  sublime,  ugly'  are  scarcely  ever  used 
during  the  course;  and  their  use  is  discouraged.  The  use  of  such 
words  would  unavoidably  narrow  down,  from  the  start,  the  field  of 
esthetic  inquiry  to  the  limited  area  covered  by  the  meaning  accidentally 
associated  with  them  in  the  student's  mind.  To  illustrate  this,  let  me 
mention  the  case  of  a  student  who  —  at  the  end  of  the  course  in 
question  —  says  that  he  has  never  applied  and  will  never  apply  the 
word  '  beautiful '  to  a  statue  in  the  nude,  but  that  the  course  has  made 
him  comprehend  why  perfectly  decent  people  will  place  such  statues 
in  a  museum  or  use  them  to  decorate  their  homes.  Another  student 
says  that  he  can  never  call  a  Verestchagin  war  scene  anything  but 
disgusting,  but  that  he  has  come  to  understand  why  such  a  painting 
may  properly  find  its  place  in  a  public  or  private  museum  or  library. 

The  most  serious  mistake  which  can  be  made  in  an  experimental 
course  of  instruction  in  any  science  consists  in  overemphasizing  those 
experimental  methods  and  results  which  are  predominant  in  the  recent 
research  literature  of  that  science  or  which  have  been  particularly 
investigated  by  the  individual  instructor  giving  the  course.  Much 
harm  has  been  done  to  psychology  in  general  by  this  mistake  having 
been  made  by  some  men  in  charge  of  psychological  courses.  The 
result  has  been  the  still  wide-spread  belief  of  the  public  that  an  experi- 
mental course  in  psychology  consists  in  discussing  and  performing  all 
manner  of  experiments  in  order  to  test  the  validity  of  the  Weber- 
Fechner  law  —  a  law  which  is  of  but  little  more  concern  to  the  psy- 
chologist than  to  the  representative  of  many  another  science.  I  have 
tried  to  avoid  this  mistake,  to  have  in  mind  the  interest  of  the 
student  rather  than  that  of  a  few  investigators  who  happen  to  be  his 
contemporaries. 


DISCUSSION.  347 

Instead  of  beginning  the  course  with  a  definition  of  *  the  beautiful/ 
or  of  *  the  esthetic  '  or  '  art,'  I  begin  with  a  practical  problem  by  show- 
ing the  student  two  lantern  slides,  representing  actual  scenery,  and 
asking  him  to  answer  the  following  question :  If  you  found  yourself 
momentarily  free  of  all  mental  occupation  and  had  nothing  else  to  do 
in  order  to  while  away  your  time  but  to  inspect  either  the  one  or  the 
other  of  these  pictures,  which  one  would  you  select  for  this  purpose? 
This  is  a  question  which  every  student  immediately  comprehends  and 
feels  entirely  competent  to  answer.  The  pictures  used  for  this 
purpose  are  not  reproductions  of  works  of  art.  I  do  not  wish  to  give 
the  student  from  the  start  the  impression  that  the  esthetic  experience 
is  restricted  to  the  perception  of  artistic  creations.  The  pictures  are 
lantern  slides  from  a  collection  intended  to  serve  the  purpose  of 
instruction  in  geography,  representing  scenery  from  all  parts  of  the 
globe,  some  by  chance  ranking  rather  high  esthetically,  some  ranking 
exceedingly  low.  But  this  variety  of  degree  is  an  advantage  rather 
than  a  disadvantage.  I  have  divided  these  slides  into  two  groups, 
according  as  they  contain  water  in  the  shape  of  ocean,  lake,  river, 
brook,  or  no  water.  The  reason  for  this  division  will  become  clear 
later.  Each  group  contains  about  twelve  or  fifteen  slides. 

I  then  show  the  class  the  pictures  of  one  of  the  above  groups  in 
pairs,  presenting  each  pair  long  enough  for  each  member  of  the  class 
to  answer  the  question  as  to  which  he  would  select  for  looking  at  if 
that  was  his  only  possibility  of  whiling  away  his  time.  The  number 
of  votes  of  the  class  are  then  recorded  in  a  list  containing  as  many 
columns  as  there  are  pictures.  Picture  No.  i  is  first  presented  together 
with  No.  2,  and  the  votes  are  recorded  in  the  proper  columns.  No.  i 
is  then  presented  with  No.  3,  and  so  on  until  No.  i  has  been  shown 
together  with  all  the  other  pictures  of  the  group.  Now  No.  2  is  shown 
together  with  No.  3,  with  No.  4,  etc.  This  takes  of  course  several 
hours.  The  votes  recorded  in  each  column  are  then  added  together. 
The  sums  thus  obtained,  of  which  the  largest  are  many  times  mul- 
tiples of  the  smallest,  can  be  regarded  as  representing  a  measure  of  the 
relative  esthetic  value  of  the  pictures  for  the  group  of  human  beings 
making  up  the  class. 

In  order  to  enable  the  class  to  discuss  the  pictures,  they  must  be 
given  names.  I  do  not  tell  the  class  the  actual  names,  because  these 
would  inevitably  influence  the  judgment,  a  fact  which  agrees  with  a 
statement  recently  made  by  Professor  Lillien  Martin  who  found  that 
even  knowledge  of  the  artist's  name  influences  the  esthetic  judgment 
concerning  a  painting.  Being  told  that  of  two  river  views  one  rep- 


EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

resents  the  Rhine  valley,  the  other  an  unknown  region  in  Canada,  the 
subject  feels  constrained  to  prefer  the  Rhine.  I  therefore  ask  the  class 
to  propose  themselves  suitable  names  by  which  to  refer  to  the  pictures. 

While  it  is  very  important  to  obtain  esthetic  measurements  valid 
for  the  class  as  a  whole,  the  individual  differences  must  not  be  obliter- 
ated. I  therefore  have  each  student-:- in  particular  those  who  cast 
their  votes  with  the  minority  —  write  down  in  his  note  book  a  state- 
ment of  the  fact  that  he  belongs  to  the  majority  or  minority  and  also 
of  the  reasons  —  if  he  is  conscious  of  any  —  why  he  would  select  this 
picture  rather  than  the  other. 

Having  thus  collected  material  for  discussion,  it  is  our  task  to 
explain  the  relative  values  recorded  by  analyzing  out  of  the  pictures 
the  esthetic  factors  influencing  the  judgment.  For  this  analysis  we 
need,  of  course,  some  guidance.  What  could  guide  us  better  than  a 
brief  description  of  the  mental  processes  going  on  in  an  artist  when  he 
creates  a  work  of  art  which  is  to  exert  esthetic  influence  over  others  ? 
I  therefore  study  with  the  class  a  description  of  these  mental  proc- 
esses, and  I  use  the  description  given  by  the  distinguished  German 
sculptor  Hildebrand  in  his  book  The  Problem  of  Form  in  Painting 
and  Sculpture.  Unfortunately,  there  is,  as  yet,  no  English  version  of 
the  book,  and  the  German  edition  is  written  in  a  style  so  difficult  to  read 
that  the  book  cannot  be  given  into  the  students'  hands.  I  therefore 
present  its  contents  in  lectures.  When  I  give  the  course  again,  an 
English  edition  of  the  book  will  be  out. 

I  shall  give  here  a  brief  outline  of  Hildebrand's  book  in  order  to 
make  clear  its  contents  and  to  show  how  these  contents  can  help  the 
student  to  analyze  the  esthetic  experiences  above  referred  to.  There 
has  been  a  good  deal  of  discussion  among  writers  on  esthetics  as  to 
the  question  what  Hildebrand's  esthetic  theory  is  and  how  it  is  related 
to  other  theories.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  book  contains  no  esthetic 
theory  at  all.  Hildebrand  is  the  last  person  in  the  world  who  would 
claim  to  be  a  scientist,  the  promoter  of  a  scientific  theory,  even  in  a 
science  so  closely  related  to  art  as  esthetics.  To  comprehend  his 
book,  to  use  it  to  the  best  advantage,  we  must  regard  it,  not  as  a  the- 
ory of  esthetics,  but  as  the  confessions  of  an  artist  with  respect  to 
his  mode  of  thought  when  he  is  engaged  in  productive  work.  And 
this  very  fact  that  it  is  not  a  theory,  but  a  confession  of  thought, 
makes  the  booklet  extremely  valuable  in  an  experimental  course  on 
esthetics. 

Hildebrand  is  chiefly  a  sculptor;  but  he  asks  us  to  regard  him  not 
merely  as  a  sculptor;  but  as  a  painter  and  architect  as  well,  when 


DISCUSSION.  349 

reading  his  confessions.  He  tells  us  that  when  he  creates  a  work  of 
art  he  is  conscious  of  one  predominant  aim,  and  this  is:  to  make  the 
'work  of  art  clear  and  impressive  as  a  visual  percept.  All  his  vary- 
ing thoughts  during  the  process  of  artistic  production  are  governed  by 
this  universal  aim.  The  aim  has  three  main  aspects:  (i)  The  per- 
ception must  be  a  visual  perception;  (2)  the  perception  must  be 
clear ;  (3)  the  perception  must  be  impressive. 

That  the  purpose  of  painting,  of  sculpture,  or  of  architecture  is 
visual  perception,  would  be  a  superfluous  statement  were  it  not  that 
writers  who  are  not  —  as  Hildebrand  is  —  productive  in  art,  had  actu- 
ally tried  to  convince  us  otherwise.  E.  g.,  A.  Schmarsow  tells  us 
that  4  the  aim  of  the  painter's  art  is  the  representation  of  the  interre- 
lations existing  between  the  things  of  the  world,  i.  £.,  of  the  unity  of 
nature,'  which  obviously  is  the  aim  of  the  scientist,  but  not  at  all  of 
the  artist. 

Hildebrand  tells  us  that  he  cannot  create  the  clearest  and  most  im- 
pressive percepts  in  works  of  art  unless  the  creative  imagination  is 
visual  too ;  and  the  psychologist  will  readily  understand  this,  for  it  is 
no  less  true  in  psychology  than  elsewhere  that  like  begets  like.  Not 
that  other  kinds  of  imagery  are  to  be  excluded :  they  are  as  important 
here  as  elsewhere  in  human  activities.  But  they  have  to  be  translated 
into  visual  imagery  before  they  influence  the  artist's  productive  hands. 
And  when  the  artist  tests  his  own  work  for  its  esthetic  value,  he  tests 
it  by  the  eye,  as  a  visual  percept,  without  any  aid  on  the  part  of  other 
sense  organs.  No  matter  whether  his  work  is  a  painting  or  a  statue 
or  a  building,  its  esthetic  value  is  based  exclusively  on  the  character- 
istics which  it  presents  as  a  visual  percept. 

What,  then,  are  the  requirements  to  be  fulfilled  in  order  to  have  a 
visual  percept  which  is  both  clear  and  impressive?  The  artist  tells  us 
that,  to  have  the  highest  possible  degree  of  clearness,  the  external 
nervous  stimulation  must  be  as  homogeneous  as  possible.  The  psy- 
chologist will  he  ready  to  understand  this.  It  is  but  natural  that,  the 
more  heterogeneous  the  external  stimulations,  the  greater  the  possibil- 
ities for  distraction  of  the  attention,  the  less,  therefore,  the  probability 
of  that  unity  of  mental  activity  which  we  refer  to  by  the  word  clear- 
ness. Now,  everybody  knows  that  even  in  applying  no  other  sense 
organs  to  a  given  situation  than  our  eyes,  the  external  stimulations  are 
not  exclusively  those  of  retinal  sensory  elements,  but  also  —  as  a  rule  — 
certain  stimulations  belonging  to  the  sensory  region  usually  referred  to 
by  the  term  kinesthetic.  This  is  the  case  because,  in  ordinary  vision, 
our  eyes  move,  and  some  of  these  movements,  those  of  convergence 


350  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

and  those  of  accommodation,  resulting  from  the  muscle  fibers  without 
and  within  the  eyeball,  furnish  sensory  stimulations  of  much  impor- 
tance for  the  interpretation  of  the  retinal  image.  But  these  same 
kinesthetic  stimulations,  being  heterogeneous  with  the  purely  visual 
impressions,  are  a  possible  and  probable  source  of  distraction  to  the 
artist's  mind.  He  does  not  test,  therefore,  the  esthetic  value  of  his 
work  by  looking  at  it  from  close  by,  but  by  inspecting  it  from  a  suffi- 
cient distance,  where  convergence  or  accommodation  no  longer  play 
their  r61es  in  the  process  of  perception.  And,  likewise,  the  imagina- 
tion, which  controls  his  hand,  always  consists  in  visual  imagery  repre- 
senting things  as  seen  from  a  distance.  For  the  artist,  then,  all  the 
esthetic  values  of  visual  perception  are  to  be  analyzed  out  of  the 
percept  of  a  distance  picture,  of  a  pure  visual  projection,  as  we  may 
term  it. 

Another  source  of  distraction  to  the  artist's  mind,  interfering  with 
the  requirement  of  the  highest  possible  degree  of  mental  clearness,  is 
the  fact  that  in  ordinary  vision  our  consciousness  does  not  directly  cor- 
respond to  our  retinal  image,  but  is  manufactured  out  of  two  different 
images  having  their  details  more  or  less  displaced  relative  to  each 
other.  Again  the  psychologist  will  readily  understand  the  artist's 
feeling  of  a  lack  of  unity,  of  a  deficiency  in  the  mental  clearness  to  be 
desired,  when  his  consciousness  corresponds,  not  to  the  direct  sensory 
stimulation,  but  to  an  indirectly  stimulated  nervous  process,  made  up 
for  the  occasion  according  to  nervous  habits  well  suited  to  the  prac- 
tical demands  in  the  struggle  for  life,  but  not  adapted  to  the  purpose 
of  a  playful  activity  of  the  mind.  This  lack  of  clearness  is  eliminated 
by  the  artist  in  the  same  manner  as  the  one  just  mentioned,  simply  by 
making  the  visual  projection,  the  distance  picture,  which  is  identical 
for  both  eyes,  the  exclusive  material  of  both  his  productive  and 
receptive  mental  activities. 

Further  conditions,  however,  have  to  be  fulfilled  in  order  to  give 
the  visual  percept  the  highest  possible  degree  of  mental  clearness. 
The  artist  requires  that  the  act  of  forming  a  percept,  a  unitary  group, 
out  of  the  innumerable  sensation  elements  presented  be  made  as  easy 
as  possible  so  that  no  effort  may  be  experienced,  but  the  playful  atti- 
tude of  the  mind  be  preserved.  For  this  purpose  the  horizontal  and 
vertical  directions  in  the  visual  field  must  be  clearly  indicated  by 
familiar  objects  such  as  a  tree  standing  on  level  ground  and  throwing 
a  shadow  upon  it.  Other  means  may  be  used,  of  which  the  artist 
makes  no  direct  mention,  but  which  psychologists  have  begun  to  study 
in  recent  years,  actual  symmetry  of  form,  or,  more  frequently,  a  quasi- 


DISCUSSION.  351 

symmetry  of  attention  values.  Hildebrand,  since  he  does  not  pretend 
to  offer  a  scientific  theory,  makes  no  effort  to  obtain  a  complete  list  of 
the  various  factors  which  can  be  pressed  into  service.  He  is  satisfied 
with  emphasizing  the  mere  necessity  of  clearness  in  the  two  dimensions 
of  the  visual  field,  by  whatever  means  this  clearness  may  be  brought 
about. 

More  important  yet  than  the  manner  in  which  the  objects  are 
arranged  in  two  dimensions  is  their  arrangement  with  respect  to  their 
ability  to  arouse  in  us  —  in  spite  of  our  being  limited  to  the  visual 
projection  —  an  absolutely  clear  and  effortless  perception  of  depth  re- 
lations. Here  we  have  a  large  field  of  esthetic  investigation  in  which 
practically  nothing  has  been  done  thus  far  by  psychologists.  Hilde- 
brand tells  us  that  he  obtains  his  end  chiefly  by  two  means,  by  arrang- 
ing the  various  objects  in  a  comparatively  small  number  of  successive 
planes,  and  by  choosing  the  objects  for  representation  in  the  various 
planes  in  such  a  manner  that  the  observer  cannot  help  reading  off 
their  depth  values  from  the  front  of  the  picture  into  its  depth. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  clearness,  the  so-called  repose  or  unity, 
of  the  perception  must  be  greatly  enhanced  by  the  objects  not  being 
scattered  all  over  the  three-dimensional  space  but  being  found  in  a 
small  number  of  planes,  meaning  by  4  planes,'  of  course,  layers  of  a 
certain  thickness.  If  they  are  arranged  within  these  planes  in  such 
ways  that  each  plane  offers  a  perfectly  clear  two-dimensional  percept, 
there  is  but  one  problem  left,  that  of  uniting  these  planes  in  one  act  of 
perception,  in  order  to  obtain  a  perfectly  clear  percept  of  the  total 
space  with  all  its  contents. 

For  the  purpose  of  uniting  the  planes  Hildebrand's  chief  require- 
ment is  that  the  observer  be  made  to  read  off  the  distance  values  of 
the  planes  in  a  serial  order,  beginning  from  the  front.  Again  there  is 
no  difficulty  in  understanding  this  requirement  on  psychological 
grounds.  Whenever  our  eyes  in  actual  life  sweep  along  a  line  in  the 
direction  of  the  third  dimension,  as  when  we  look  over  our  writing 
desk,  or  over  the  lawn  in  front  of  our  house,  we  practically  without 
exception  fixate  a  near  object  first  and  farther  and  farther  points  of 
interest  in  succession  until  we  have  reached  the  most  distant  point 
visible.  Having  acquired  a  strong  habit  of  this  kind,  it  is  plain  that 
the  ease  of  perception  would  suffer  if,  in  inspecting  a  picture,  the 
imaginary  eye  movement  would  proceed  otherwise,  i.  e.,  if  any  plane 
other  than  the  front  plane  of  the  picture  (in  painting ;  and  no  less  in 
sculpture  or  architecture)  would  attract  our  attention  first,  and  the 
less  distant  plane  or  planes  later.  Here  again  Hildebrand  does  not 


35 2  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

attempt  to  solve  the  psychological  problem,  what  the  conditions  of 
visual  sensation  or  perception  are  which  favor  and  which  are  opposed 
to  this  direction  of  our  reading  off  movement.  He  is  satisfied  with 
emphasizing  the  fact  as  being  of  the  greatest  importance  in  his  own 
creative  thought  and  with  illustrating  it  by  a  few  examples. 

The  third  requirement  is  that  of  impressiveness.  Clearness  obtained 
by  emptiness  of  the  situation  would  have  little,  if  any,  esthetic  value. 
The  spatial  contents  presented  to  the  eye  must  have  a  meaning,  must 
represent  life.  The  artist  tells  us  that  life  does  not  invariably  mean  to 
him  actual  movement;  it  may  mean  merely  possible  movement.  The 
spatial  contents  presented  arouse  in  the  artist  feelings  of  activity  or  of 
character  by  which  activity  is  governed.  And  these  feelings  can  be 
strong,  the  impressiveness  of  the  visual  percept  can  be  great  only  when 
the  spatial  contents  consist  of  objects  which  possess  typical  spatial 
forms,  which  are  types  of  activity  or  character,  for  example  a  sinewy 
hand,  or  a  strong  jaw,  and  when  the  spatial  arrangement  itself  fulfills 
the  requirements  of  clearness  so  that  there  is  mental  energy  enough 
available  to  perceive  the  life  of  the  spatial  contents,  subtracting  the 
energy  necessary  to  perceive  the  total  space.  Life  must  be  represented 
in  the  picture,  but  the  question  what  kind  of  activity,  what  kind  of 
character  this  life  consists  in,  is  regarded  by  Hildebrand  as  a  question 
which  does  not  concern  the  artist  as  artist,  which  concerns  only  the 
individual  as  individual. 

Having  made  the  students  acquainted  with  the  artist's  mode  of 
thought  as  confessed  by  himself  and  just  given  in  outline,  and,  indeed, 
'while  making  them  acquainted  with  these  thoughts,  I  ask  the  students 
to  analyze  out  some  of  the  esthetic  factors  effective  in  our  experiments 
by  trying  to  apply  the  artist's  mode  of  thought  to  the  pictures  which 
we  arranged  in  a  series  according  to  their  esthetic  effectiveness.  The 
students  now  easily  separate  the  individual  factor  from  factors  which  are 
of  universal  application.  One  of  them  is  much  interested  in  a  picture 
because  a  group  of  human  beings  apparently  resting  after  a  day  of 
labor  are  visible  in  the  foreground  and  arouse  a  strong  emotional 
response.  Another  one  prefers  a  picture  because  it  contains  a  hilly 
pasture  reminding  him  of  childhood  days.  Aside  from  such  ihdi- 
vidually  effective  factors  there  are  now  discovered  features  which  are 
of  more  universal  application,  which  exert  a  determining  influence  on 
the  esthetic  judgment  of  all  the  members  of  the  class.  And  it  is  at 
once  admitted  that  the  latter  factors  are  those  which  should  be  studied 
here,  by  this  class,  for  that  we  have  our  individual  preferences  can 
scarcely  be  regarded  as  a  fact  to  be  studied  in  a  course  on  esthetics, 


DISCUSSION.  353 

but,  perhaps,  in  a  course  on  individual  psychology.  It  is  also  admitted 
that  thoughts  of  human  toilers,  of  a  playground  of  our  childhood  days, 
of  a  Madonna  and  Child,  so  far  as  they  are  subjects  of  esthetic  inquiry, 
are  not  exclusively  based  on  visual  perception,  but  may  be  conveyed 
by  poetry  or  prose,  and  must  therefore  be  studied  in  a  further  branch 
of  esthetics,  separate  from  the  problems  which  have  come  thus  far  to 
constitute  our  center  of  interest. 

Why,  then,  is  a  certain  picture  clearer  and  more  impressive  than 
another  picture  and  receives  thus  a  majority  of  the  votes?  Some  of 
the  instances  illustrating  the  rules  of  two-  and  three-dimensional 
arrangement  are  noticed  by  the  students  directly,  others  by  the  help 
of  an  indirect  method  to  be  mentioned  farther  on.  Such  facts  as  real 
symmetry,  or  quasi-symmetry  may  be  observed  directly.  The  effect  of 
the  presence  of  water,  referred  to  above,  may  also  largely  be  grasped 
by  direct  inspection.  Not  that  water  in  itself  is  particularly  pleasing 
to  look  at.  Not  everyone  has  pleasant  associations  derived  from 
swimming  or  boating  or  other  water  sports  or  from  the  pleasant  expe- 
rience of  washing  down  his  food.  But  water  nearly  always  conveys 
a  clear  idea  of  the  horizontal  plane  and  thus  aids  in  the  perception  of 
the  spatial  relations  of  other  things. 

The  indirect  method  referred  to  is  particularly  useful  in  the  study 
of  the  spatial  structure  in  the  direction  of  the  third  dimension,  although 
it  is  entirely  applicable  and  useful  also  for  the  study  of  two-dimen- 
sional arrangement.  The  method  consists  in  cutting  off  from  above 
or  below,  from  the  right  or  the  left,  larger  or  smaller  pieces  of  the 
picture  and  studying  the  new  picture  with  respect  to  the  same  question 
with  which  we  started  the  experiments.  This  cutting  off  is  easily  done 
with  lantern  slides  by  means  of  strips  of  card  board.  We  observe  that 
frequently  the  resulting  picture  seems  preferable  to  the  original.  And 
we  have  little  difficulty  in  observing  that  this  is  the  case  because  of  the 
removal  of  an  object  which  does  not  obey  the  rules  of  arrangement  in 
planes  and  of  reading  off  the  successive  planes  from  the  front  to  the 
back.  We  observe  that  a  picture  which  was  given  a  rather  low  rank 
in  our  experiments  can  thus  often  be  raised  to  an  equal  rank  with  pic- 
tures which  previously  appeared  superior.  Nevertheless,  the  life  and 
character  of  the  piece  of  nature  represented  may  have  remained  prac- 
tically the  same  as  before.  We  can  use  these  observations  as  illustrating 
the  fact  that  in  esthetics  —  if  not  in  general,  at  least  in  esthetics  as 
applied  to  art  —  the  formal  principles  are  of  more  fundamental  im- 
portance than  those  concerning  content,  that  the  mere  fact  that  a  piece 
of  nature,  because  of  some  accidentally  acquired  associations,  pleases 


354  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

someone  is  no  excuse  for  representing  it  in  art,  unless  its  form  makes- 
it  worthy  to  be  represented.  I  do  not  mean,  of  course,  that  without 
this  method  of  cutting  off  pieces  of  the  picture  we  could  not  get  along. 
Indeed,  to  some  pictures  it  cannot  be  successfully  applied.  We  use  then 
the  direct  method  for  the  study  of  the  esthetic  effectiveness  of  the  arch- 
itectonic of  the  picture.  And  here  we  observe  another,  indeed  the 
chief  effect  of  the  presence  of  water  in  a  landscape.  A  water  surface 
easily  breaks  up  the  infinite  number  of  details  into  readily  perceptible 
groups.  And  if  these  groups  happen  to  arrange  themselves  into  larger 
groups,  into  a  few  successive  planes,  and  if  nothing  counteracts,  if 
everything  aids  our  tendency  to  read  off  these  planes  from  the  front  to 
the  back,  the  esthetic  effect  is  great. 

It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  here  all  the  detail  questions  which 
can  be  asked  and  discussed  by  students  and  instructor.  I  wish  to  men- 
tion only  one  kind  of  such  questions,  those  with  respect  to  the  means 
by  which  our  tendency  to  read  off  the  spatial  values  from  the  front  tx> 
the  back  can  be  aided,  and  with  respect  to  the  opposite  effect  which 
must  be  avoided.  Hildebrand  in  his  book  gives  a  few  instances  an- 
swering this  question.  But  many  more  may  be  found  if  we  study 
pictures  as  my  students  do  this  in  class.  J5.  ^.,  if  one  of  the  ob- 
jects of  the  first  plane  is  conspicuous  by  mere  size,  or  color,  or  light 
contrast,  but  otherwise  uninteresting,  it  will  serve  to  attract  our  atten- 
tion at  once  to  the  first  plane  without  unduly  keeping  it  there.  Facts 
like  the  one  just  stated  appear  cut  and  dried  when  stated  in  abstract 
form,  but  readily  become  a  valuable  addition  to  the  student's  store  of 
knowledge  if  he  derives  them  himself  from  immediate  observation, 
applying  the  scientific  laws  which  he  has  previously  acquired  in  a 
course  in  general  psychology. 

Studying  what  I  called  the  impressiveness  of  a  visual  percept  by 
analyzing  landscapes,  the  student  easily  discovers  that  the  impressive- 
ness  of  a  visual  percept  is  something  different  from  what  the  ordinary 
man  happens  to  call  *  beauty.'  The  life  and  character  of  a  landscape 
consist  in  the  amount  of  spatial  elements  arranged  for  ease  of  percep- 
tion. We  may  apply  here  the  traditional  esthetic  term  of  unity  in 
variety.  The  larger  the  number  of  spatial  elements,  in  other  words: 
the  greater  the  spatial  richness  of  the  picture,  the  more  intense  is  its 
life,  the  more  pronounced  its  character.  Whether  the  landscape 
stretches  out  for  many  miles  or  only  a  few  yards,  however,  is  irrele- 
vant, for  the  absolute  size  of  the  spatial  elements  is  a  matter  of  arbi- 
trary choice. 

Turning  now  to  sculpture,  first  to  relief,  then  to  sculpture  in  the 


DISCUSSION.  355 

round,  the  student  readily  comprehends  that  the  esthetic  laws  of  vis- 
ual perception  are  essentially  the  same  here  as  in  drawing  and  paint- 
ing. He  observes  that  all  his  previous  observations  can  be  repeated 
here,  and  he  convinces  himself  of  the  absurdity  of  attributing  to 
sculpture  objective  beauty,  since  sculpture  is  a  thing  to  be  seen,  and 
not  to  be  seen  while  we  are  wandering  around  it,  but  to  be  seen  from 
a  single  point  of  view,  that  point  of  view  from  which  the  artist  con- 
ceived his  visual  image  of  the  picture.  I  need  not  describe  in  detail 
how  I  proceed  in  class  with  regard  to  these  questions  since  I  follow 
rather  closely  the  lines  of  discussion  chosen  by  Hildebrand  in  his  book. 

Thus  far,  no  particular  mention  has  been  made  in  this  course  of  the 
law  of  association  upon  which  so  much  stress  has  been  laid  by  Fech- 
ner.  I  now  give  my  students  some  lectures  on  Fechner's  principles 
of  esthetics  and  let  the  students  discuss  them.  It  is  found  then  that 
these  principles  are  of  much  less  esthetic  importance  than  the  formal 
laws  of  visual  perception  previously  studied.  Much  esthetic  effective- 
ness that  seems  to  be  due  to  association  is  really  due  to  its  influence  on 
form  perception.  For  example,  what  Fechner  says  about  the  associa- 
tions based  on  color,  is  doubtless  true,  but  practically  rather  insignifi- 
cant. Saying  this,  I  do  not  wish  to  give  the  impression  of  believing 
in  color-harmony  or  in  any  other  speculative  principle  of  color  esthet- 
ics. 1  do  not  believe  that  colors  can  be  said  to  harmonize  at  all,  and 
I  give  my  students  here  the  results  of  the  psychological  investigations 
of  recent  years,  which  clearly  show  that  color-harmony  is  a  meaning- 
less term.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  all  the  esthetic  effectiveness  of 
color  must  then  be  based  on  Fechner's  principle  of  association.  On 
the  contrary,  the  great  importance  of  color  is  to  be  found  in  its  unify- 
ing and  separating  effects  by  means  of  which  it  aids  us  immensely  in 
perceiving  the  spatial  contents  of  a  spatial  whole. 

There  is  no  need  of  belittling  the  great  accomplishment  of  Fechner 
in  esthetics.  His  work  is  invaluable  as  a  welcome  reaction  from 
purely  speculative  esthetics  which  was  derived  from  metaphysical 
principles  instead  of  being  based  on  a  study  of  the  laws  of  the  mind 
in  esthetic  perception.  But  it  would  be  a  regrettable  illusion  if  psy- 
chologists thought  that  beyond  the  problems  stated  by  Fechner  none 
were  left  which  offered  themselves  for  an  'experimental  investigation. 
I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  problems  of  form  (in  all  three 
dimensions) ,  which  are  barely  hinted  at  by  Fechner,  are  those  which 
promise  the  most  satisfactory  results  to  the  experimental  investigator. 

The  student  is  now  well  prepared  to  discuss  critically  the  esthetic 
value  of  the  discoveries  made  by  artists  of  recent  times,  particularly 


356  EXPERIMENTAL  COURSE  IN  ESTHETICS. 

those  of  the  impressionistic  school.  I  give  the  class  a  brief  outline  of 
the  theories  in  which  the  artistic  tendencies  of  this  school  are  usually 
described ;  and  by  the  help  of  a  few  typical  examples,  I  let  them  con- 
clude themselves  to  what  extent  these  new  tendencies  can  really  be 
regarded  as  new  discoveries,  to  what  extent  merely  as  further  elabora- 
tions of  principles  well  known  and  employed  by  much  earlier  artists. 
Especially  the  color  theories  as  applied  to  their  technic  by  the  im- 
pressionists are  discussed  here  by  the  class.  And  this  takes  but  little 
time  if  the  members  of  the  class  are  familiar  with  the  physiological 
theories  of  color  vision. 

I  finally  give  my  students  a  survey  of  the  general  esthetic  theories 
as  proposed  by  recent  writers.  It  is  easy  to  show  that  —  in  spite  of 
all  divergence  —  they  agree  in  regarding  the  esthetic  experience  essen- 
tially as  a  playful  attitude  towards  a  situation.  The  more  adapted  the 
situation  is  to  be  responded  to  in  play,  the  higher  its  esthetic  value. 
Such  general  theories  can  be  discussed  with  a  class  more  advantage- 
ously after  the  esthetic  experience  itself,  in  many  variations,  has 
become  a  perfectly  familiar  phenomenon  to  the  student,  than  they  can 
be  taught  while  the  student  still  has  to  guess  what  experience  the  in- 
structor means  when  talking  of  the  beautiful  or  the  esthetic.  If  we 
apply  the  modern  esthetic  theories  to  the  arts  of  painting,  sculpture, 
and  architecture,  we  can  summarize  in  a  few  words  by  saying :  An 
esthetic  experience  is  a  mental  process  of  playing  with  a  visual  percept. 
And  to  make  this  clear  to  the  student  I  have  regarded  as  the  aim  of 

this  course.1 

MAX  MEYER. 
UNIVERSITY  OF  MISSOURI. 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  April  6,  1907. 


N.  S.  VOL.  XIV.  No.  6.  November,  1907. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW. 


APPARENT   CONTROL   OF  THE  POSITION   OF 
THE  VISUAL   FIELD. 

BY  DR.    HARVEY  CARR, 
Pratt  Institute. 

One  of  my  students  reported  that  she  possessed  the  ability  of 
moving  upwards  the  entire  visual  field.  This  translocation  first 
occurred  involuntarily  and  after  noticing  the  phenomenon  the 
subject  found  by  trial  that  it  could  be  repeated  at  will. 

During  several  conferences  and  tests  the  following  account 
was  obtained,  giving  the  essential  facts  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
phenomenon  and  the  circumstances  of  its  occurrence  so  far  as 
the  subject  had  been  able  to  notice  them  :  The  subject  is  afflicted 
with  hysteria.  A  rather  severe  attack  occurred  seven  years  ago 
from  which  she  is  slowly  recovering.  The  involuntary  trans- 
locations  were  first  noted  shortly  after  this  time  and  they  have 
occurred  rather  infrequently  ever  since.  Fatigue  and  a  pro- 
longed fixation  seem  to  be  the  conditions  under  which  they 
occur  involuntarily.  The  phenomenon  can  be  produced  vol- 
untarily at  any  time  and  under  any  circumstances.  The  sub- 
ject has  refrained  from  much  experimentation  for  fear  of 
aggravating  her  mental  condition.  An  object  is  momentarily 
fixated  and  then  slowly  raised  upwards.  The  duration  of 
fixation  necessary  before  movement  can  be  effected  varies  from 
one  to  ten  seconds.  The  rapidity  of  the  movement  varies. 
The  translocation  is  sometimes  slow  and  gradual  and  is  effected 
only  by  continuous  effort ;  at  other  times  the  movement  is  more 
rapid  and  comes  easily.  Fatigue  and  brightness  of  the  visual 
field  decrease  the  time  of  necessary  fixation  and  increase  the 
rapidity  and  ease  of  the  translocation.  The  extent  and  duration 

357 


35 8  HARVEY  CARR. 

of  the  displacement  is  under  complete  control.  The  extent  of 
the  movement  may  be  anywhere  from  one  to  forty  degrees. 
The  field  may  be  held  stationary  at  any  desired  position,  and 
then  be  moved  on  upwards  or  be  brought  back  to  its  original 
position.  The  displacement  has  been  maintained  in  one  posi- 
tion for  five  minutes,  though  the  continuous  strain  necessary  is 
very  fatiguing.  The  exhaustion  due  to  continuous  effort  seems 
to  be  the  only  limitation  of  the  possible  duration  of  the  phenome- 
non. Objects  do  not  become  double  during  the  translocation ; 
they  are  perceived  only  in  their  elevated  position,  although  the 
subject  is  conscious  of  their  original  location,  for  she  can  at  any 
time  point  accurately  in  that  direction.  The  entire  visual  field 
participates  in  the  movement,  and  all  visual  objects  keep  their 
relative  positions  to  each  other.  The  only  noticeable  change  in 
the  character  of  the  visual  objects  is  a  slight  decrease  in  their 
intensity,  though  they  remain  distinct  and  substantial  in  appear- 
ance. When  the  field  is  lowered  to  its  original  position,  the 
visual  objects  receive  an  added  snap  of  reality  the  moment  they 
reach  their  real  position.  It  is  by  this  means  that  the  subject 
knows  when  the  objects  reach  their  true  positions.  Both  the 
upward  and  the  return  movements  are  consciously  real ;  objects 
do  not  merely  appear  now  in  one  place  and  now  in  another,  but 
they  appear  to  move  as  well.  The  objects  do  not  move  rela- 
tively to  the  line  of  sight.  The  object  originally  fixated  remains 
at  the  point  of  fixation  throughout  the  displacement ;  in  other 
words  the  point  of  fixation  participates  in  the  translocatory  move- 
ment. The  visual  field  remains  perpendicular  to  the  line  of 
sight,  as  if  it  were  undergoing  a  vertical  rotation  about  the  head 
as  a  center.  If  a  person  is  in  the  visual  field  his  voice  partici- 
pates in  the  illusion.  In  the  preliminary  tests,  the  subject  was 
requested  to  attempt  other  directions  of  movement  but  she  was 
unsuccessful.  Moreover,  she  was  successful  only  with  binocular 
vision,  and  when  the  eyes  were  in  relatively  unconstrained  posi- 
tions in  the  socket  during  the  original  fixation.  With  monocular 
vision  or  when  the  eyes  were  rotated  far  to  the  periphery,  only 
a  very  slight  and  momentary  displacement  could  be  effected. 

At  first  it  was   supposed   that  the  phenomenon   could  be 
explained  on  the  basis  of  one  of  three  theories :  (i)  The  trans- 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL   FIELD.  359 

location  is  effected  by  some  ocular  innervation  which  does  not 
involve  eye  movement,  but  which  shifts  the  space  reference  of 
the  retinae.  The  phenomenon  would  thus  be  similar  to  the  well- 
known  illusion  due  to  the  paralysis  of  the  external  rectus.  This 
theory  was  put  out  of  consideration  immediately  by  the  very 
obvious  fact  that  the  eyes  do  not  remain  stationary,  but  rotate 
in  the  direction  of,  and  in  proportion  to,  the  visual  illusion.  If 
the  illusion  were  slight  in  extent  one  could  not  be  certain  of  this 
fact,  but  a  movement  of  thirty  degrees  that  may  be  maintained 
for  five  minutes  is  too  obvious  for  the  most  sceptical  observer. 
The  subject  was  asked  to  point  out  the  apparent  location  of  the 
fixated  object,  and  it  always  coincided  with  the  directional  posi- 
tion of  her  eyes.  (2)  The  second  theory  supposes  that  the  eyes 
rotate  with  the  illusion,  the  space  reference  of  the  retinas  remains 
normal,  but  that  a  refractive  change,  a  lateral  or  rotary  move- 
ment of  the  lens,  occurs  whereby  the  rays  from  the  real  posi- 
tions of  the  objects  are  kept  focused  upon  the  same  points  of 
the  retinas  in  spite  of  the  bulbular  or  retinal  rotation.  Such  a 
conception  is  conceivable  though  its  truth  is  not  probable  accord- 
ing to  current  views  of  ocular  physiology.  There  is  some  factual 
support  for  such  a  theory,  because  the  point  of  fixation,  that  por- 
tion of  the  field  corresponding  to  foveal  activity,  is  displaced  and 
the  image  of  the  object  originally  fixated  is  still  located  at  the  point 
of  fixation.  Foveal  positive  and  negative  after-images  were 
induced  and  developed  before  the  translocation.  These  after- 
images representing  foveal  activity  participated  in  the  move- 
ment and  were  still  located  at  the  point  of  fixation.  Although 
the  eye  has  rotated  upwards  forty  degrees  away  from  the  object 
primarily  fixated,  yet  the  image  of  that  object  must  be  due  to 
the  foveal  activity  of  the  retinas,  for  it  is  located  at  the  fixation 
point  and  also  at  the  same  position  in  space  as  a  foveal  after- 
image. This  theory  was  tested  by  making  a  phakoscopic 
examination  of  the  behavior  of  the  refractive  surfaces.  No 
unusual  movements  were  detected.  The  lenticular  images 
behaved  in  reference  to  the  corneal  image  exactly  as  they  did 
during  a  similar  normal  rotation.  No  refractive  changes  were 
in  evidence.  Ophthalmoscopic  tests  were  planned  but  a  more 
satisfactory  theory  was  evolved  before  they  were  carried  out. 


360  HARVEY  CARR. 

(3)  It  may  be  supposed  that  the  illusion  is  due  to  some  disturb- 
ance in  the  sense  of  bodily  position,  which  illusory  disturbance 
is  projected  upon,  or  interpreted  as  belonging  to,  the  objective 
field,  the  inverse  of  the  haunted  swing  illusion,  etc.  There  is 
no  evidence  in  favor  of  this  theory.  The  subject  does  not  feel 
dizzy  in  the  least.  Her  conceptual,  or  ideational,  space  is  not 
affected  ;  she  can  point  out  the  vertical  and  cardinal  positions, 
and  the  real  location  of  the  displaced  objects  although  she  may 
not  see  anything  in  that  direction.  Furthermore,  if  the  theory 
were  true,  it  would  be  necessary  to  assume  some  secondary 
principle,  as  a  refractive  change,  in  order  to  compensate  for 
the  effects  of  the  eye  rotation. 

The  next  conception  evolved  to  be  experimentally  tested 
may  be  roughly  stated  as  follows :  During  the  entire  period  of 
the  displacement,  the  retinae  are  insensitive  to  all  objective  stim- 
ulations, and  that  which  the  subject  sees  is  a  hallucinatory 
positive  after-image  of  the  objects  primarily  perceived.  This 
theory  was  suggested  by  two  facts :  (i)  The  subject  is  an  hys- 
teric, a  temporary  visual  anaesthesia  being  one  of  the  symptoms  ; 
(2)  In  the  preliminary  tests  I  noted  that  she  was  extraordinarily 
susceptible  to  positive  after-images.  A  momentary  glance  at 
an  electric  light  in  daylight  is  sufficient  to  induce  a  positive 
after-image  with  a  duration  of  seven  to  eight  minutes.  This 
conception  proved  to  be  true  in  the  main.  The  tests  were  made 
at  various  times  of  the  day  with  different  conditions  of  illumina- 
tion. Two  series  were  made  at  night  in  a  room  illumined  by  a 
shaded  Welsbach  lamp.  The  remaining  tests  were  made  on 
bright  clear  days  in  a  well-lighted  room  where  the  brightness 
of  the  background  could  be  varied.  The  various  experiments 
will  be  grouped  around  a  series  of  propositions. 

A.  The  translocations  may  be  in  any  direction  and  may  be 
initiated  and  sustained  by  a  movement  of  either  the  eyes,  head, 
or  body. 

At  first  the  movements  had  occurred  in  but  the  one  direction  ; 
at  my  suggestion  the  subject  attempted  other  directions  of  move- 
ment but  was  unsuccessful.  If  the  translocated  visual  field  is 
a  positive  after-image,  it  would  seem  that  any  direction  of  move- 
ment should  be  possible.  With  this  idea  in  mind,  the  subject 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL   FIELD.  361 

was  directed  to  rotate  her  head  slowly  sidewise  during  an  up- 
ward displacement.  She  did  so  and  the  displaced  field  moved 
likewise.  The  field  could  now  be  moved  in  any  direction  by 
either  a  head  or  eye  movement.  After  this  experience,  the  sub- 
ject was  able  to  start  the  displacement  in  any  direction,  the  pre- 
liminary upward  movement  not  being  necessary.  By  turning 
the  head  and  body,  the  field  may  be  rotated  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  objects  originally  perceived  no  longer  stimulate  the 
retina.  This  result  did  not  occur  with  the  first  displacements  of 
forty  degrees.  The  field  may  be  rotated  the  full  360  degrees 
if  desired. 

During  the  preliminary  tests,  displacements  could  not  be  ef- 
fected with  monocular  vision,  nor  when  the  eyes  were  in  con- 
strained positions.  After  several  months  of  experimentation,  the 
attempt  to  secure  displacements  under  these  conditions  was 
repeated  with  successful  results.  The  translocation  was  ef- 
fected, but  not  readily,  and  the  period  of  necessary  fixation  was 
longer  than  in  the  case  of  binocular  vision  with  a  normal  posi- 
tion of  the  eyes. 

B.  All  new  objects  introduced  into  the  field  of  vision  during 
the  displacement  are  not  -perceived. 

This  statement  does  not  mean  that  the  stimulations  do  not 
affect  vision  at  all ;  it  means  that  these  objects  are  not  perceived 
as  objects  with  their  proper  form,  color  and  position  so  as  to  be 
recognized  and  located  in  space.  At  first  the  subject  was  kept 
in  ignorance  of  the  nature  of  the  tests,  and  while  she  occasion- 
ally knew  that  something  had  happened  to  the  visual  field,  she 
did  not  have  the  least  idea  as  to  what  had  caused  the  perceived 
changes.  After  being  informed  as  to  the  nature  of  the  experi- 
ments, she  generally  knew  that  some  object  had  been  intro- 
duced into  the  visual  field  but  she  had  no  idea  as  to  its  nature 
or  location. 

At  night,  she  fixated  a  lighted  candle  near  the  wall  some 
eight  feet  distant.  After  a  displacement  of  fifteen  degrees,  a 
large  bright  yellow  paper  was  thrust  in  front  of  the  candle ;  it 
was  not  perceived.  The  paper  was  now  put  eight  inches  in 
front  of  each  eye  in  succession,  and  then  held  at  the  same  dis- 
tance in  front  of  both  eyes  for  a  couple  of  minutes.  The  paper 


362  HARVEY  CARR. 

was  large  enough  (16  in.  square)  to  intercept  the  entire  visual 
field,  and  a  Welsbach  light  was  so  situated  as  to  shine  directly 
upon  it.  In  neither  case  was  the  paper  seen.  A  long  series 
of  similar  tests  was  performed  in  bright  daylight,  the  objects 
being  introduced  at  different  distances  from  the  eye  and  in  vari- 
ous positions  in  the  visual  field.  A  few  typical  cases  will  be 
described :  After  a  twenty  degree  displacement,  a  book  and  a 
lighted  candle  were  placed  at  the  original  fixation  position. 
The  lighted  candle  was  moved  back  and  forth  a  foot  in  front  of 
her  eyes.  A  bright  paper  screen  was  placed  a  foot  in  front  of 
both  eyes  so  as  to  intercept  the  entire  visual  field.  The  screen 
was  kept  in  this  position  for  two  minutes.  Again,  the  field  was 
displaced  so  that  the  subject's  eyes  were  directed  at  an  electric 
light  some  eight  feet  distant.  This  light  consisted  of  three  six- 
teen-candle  incandescents.  While  the  eyes  were  held  in  this 
position,  the  light  was  turned  on  for  fifteen  seconds.  This  test 
was  repeated  a  dozen  times.  In  one  of  the  tests  the  light  was 
kept  on  for  a  full  three  minutes.  In  none  of  these  cases  were 
the  objects  perceived.  When  the  visual  field  is  moved  more 
than  ninety  degrees,  it  is  projected  against  an  entirely  new 
background  of  objects  and  these  always  remain  invisible. 

C.  Objects  introduced  into  the  visual  field  during  the  dis- 
placement^ although  not  perceived,  may  affect  the  brightness, 
color  tone  and  distance  location  of  the  displaced  images. 

The  effect  varies  with  the  brightness  of  the  field  originally 
fixated,  and  the  intensity,  extent,  and  duration  of  the  stimula- 
tion introduced.  If  the  objects  displaced  be  very  bright,  while 
the  stimulation  introduced  be  of  small  extent  or  of  weak  inten- 
sity, no  effect  is  noticeable.  If  the  field  be  weak  in  intensity, 
and  the  stimulation  introduced  be  intense,  large  and  prolonged, 
a  maximum  effect  results. 

When  the  window  was  displaced  in  bright  daylight  and  a 
book  or  lighted  candle  was  placed  at  the  original  fixation  posi- 
tion at  a  distance  of  ten  feet  from  the  subject,  no  effect  was 
noticed.  When  the  screen  of  bright  yellow  paper  was  passed 
close  in  front  of  her  eyes  so  as  to  intercept  the  vision  of  one  or 
of  both  eyes,  a  very  dim  shadow  appeared  to  pass  over  the  dis- 
tant displaced  field.  When  the  lighted  candle  was  thrust  close 


CONTROL   OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL   FIELD.  363 

in  front  of  her  eyes,  a  marked  pupillary  reflex  was  evident, 
and  a  very  dim  pale  yellow  light  was  suffused  over  the  distant 
field.  The  bright  window  and  a  dull  yellow  wall  were  succes- 
sively displaced  in  the  direction  of  the  electric  lights  ;  this  stim- 
ulation produced  a  pale  yellow  glare  over  the  field,  but  the 
effect  was  much  more  pronounced  in  the  latter  case,  /'.  £.,  with 
the  less  intense  field.  When  the  image  of  the  window  was  dis- 
placed against  the  electric  light,  no  effect  was  noticeable  at 
first ;  after  a  few  moments  the  yellow  light  tinged  the  field 
and  gradually  became  more  intense  as  the  stimulation  was  pro- 
longed. After  a  few  minutes  the  yellow  glare  contracted  from 
the  periphery  and  became  concentrated  in  the  center  of  the 
field.  Probably  in  time  the  lights  would  have  been  perceived 
in  this  case,  but  the  subject  was  not  able  to  prolong  the  test 
over  three  minutes.  A  dull  wall  was  displaced  against  a  black- 
board as  a  background  at  the  distance  of  three  feet  from  the 
observer.  A  lighted  candle  was  held  near  the  blackboard  and 
directly  in  front  of  her  eyes.  At  first  there  appeared  a  dim 
flare  of  yellow  light  which  gradually  contracted  in  size  and 
increased  in  intensity.  After  four  minutes  the  image  of  this 
candle  broke  through  the  displaced  field  and  was  perceived  as 
a  candle.  This  was  the  only  case  in  all  of  the  tests  where  a 
distinct  perception  of  the  object  occurred,  and  even  here  the 
percept  of  the  candle  was  described  as  being  strange,  hazy,  and 
unreal  in  appearance,  and  much  less  intense  than  in  ordinary 
vision.  Furthermore,  in  this  test  the  field  had  been  rotated 
more  than  ninety  degrees,  so  that  the  objects  primarily  fixated 
no  longer  stimulated  the  retinas,  and,  as  shall  be  noted  later, 
the  stimulation  from  the  real  objects  is  effective  in  maintaining 
their  displaced  images  in  consciousness. 

When  the  screen  was  placed  close  before  both  eyes  so  as  to 
intercept  the  entire  visual  field,  some  of  the  displaced  visual 
objects,  after  some  time,  appeared  located  at  the  distance  of 
the  screen  as  though  projected  upon  it.  The  screen  remained 
invisible  and  the  subject  was  ignorant  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
experiment.  In  the  first  test  the  subject  suddenly  reached  out 
her  hand  in  order  to  point  out  the  location  of  the  image,  and 
was  greatly  surprised  when  her  hand  came  in  contact  with  a 


364  HARVEY  CARR. 

real  object  in  that  position.  Only  those  images  foveally  per- 
ceived were  affected  in  this  manner,  and  their  size  was  always 
increased  in  proportion  to  the  nearness  of  their  location.  This 
fact  is  directly  contrary  to  the  usual  results  as  to  the  size  of 
after-images  when  projected  on  backgrounds  of  different  dis- 
tances from  the  observer.  However,  in  the  above  case  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  eyes  remained  adapted  for  the  dis- 
tant position,  instead  of  becoming  converged  upon  the  invis- 
ible screen. 

The  retinal  effectiveness  of  these  new  stimulations  is  genuine. 
The  pupillary  reflex  is  indubitable  proof.  The  screen  though 
not  perceived  influences  the  distance  of  the  displaced  images. 
The  diffused  yellow  glare  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  stimulation 
of  the  lights.  The  subject  was  ignorant  of  the  tests  in  the 
majority  of  the  cases  so  that  the  results  probably  cannot  be  due 
to  conscious  suggestion.  The  absence  of  retinal  effectiveness 
might  be  shammed  by  the  subject,  but  there  could  be  no  decep- 
tion when  retinal  effects  are  present,  unless  she  had  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  the  experiments  to  be  performed. 

D.  The  objects  primarily  fixated,  though  not  -perceived  at 
their  real  -positions,  effectively  influence  in  various  -ways  their 
displaced  images  so  long  as  their  stimulations  can  reach 
the  retina. 

This  influence  may  be  tested  by  displacing  the  field  more 
than  ninety  degrees,  by  covering  one  of  the  objects  with  a 
screen,  by  moving  an  object  in  the  field,  or  by  removing  an 
object  entirely  from  the  range  of  possible  vision. 

i.  A  removal  of  an  object  from  the  range  of  vision  was 
finally  effective  in  all  of  the  experiments.  A  few  cases  will 
illustrate  the  general  nature  of  the  results.  The  electric  lights 
were  fixated  and  displaced  about  twenty  degrees.  Shortly 
afterwards  they  were  turned  off.  The  displaced  image  of  the 
light  immediately  exhibited  a  marked  decrease  in  brightness 
but  remained  visible  during  the  continuance  of  the  test.  The 
writer  stood  in  front  of  the  window  and  was  fixated  by  the  sub- 
ject. After  the  displacement,  he  suddenly  dropped  down  out 
of  the  range  of  vision.  After  a  half  minute  his  displaced  image 
disappeared  entirely  from  sight,  though  the  images  of  the  other 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  365 

objects  in  the  field  remained  in  distinct  view.  The  place  of 
image  was  not  filled  in  by  the  surrounding  visual  content,  t.  e., 
the  bright  light  of  the  window.  Neither  was  the  window  back 
of  his  body  now  perceived.  The  space  was  filled  in  by  a 
homogeneous  light  gray  content,  a  light  shadow  silhouette 
effect.  Upon  rising  up  again  to  the  original  position,  a  rather 
hazy  image  appeared  to  view  but  still  in  its  displaced  position. 
The  subject  was  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  test.  A  book 
was  held  before  the  window  and  fixated.  After  the  displace- 
ment it  was  removed,  and  in  a  short  time  its  image  disappeared. 
The  book  was  now  brought  back  into  the  field  of  vision,  but  it 
was  placed  a  foot  below  its  original  position.  Its  displaced 
image  reappeared,  but  at  a  position  a  foot  below  that  from 
which  it  had  disappeared.  The  test  was  repeated  a  number  of 
times,  the  object  being  introduced  into  the  field  at  various  posi- 
tions relative  to  its  original  location.  The  same  results  obtained  ; 
the  reappearing  image  was  always  displaced  from  the  true  posi- 
tion of  the  object  and  bore  the  same  spatial  relation  to  its  posi- 
tion of  disappearance  as  the  new  location  of  the  real  object  did 
to  its  primary  position.  The  object  was  never  perceived  simul- 
taneously in  the  two  positions.  The  first  image  always  disap- 
peared before  the  second  image  was  seen  in  the  new  position. 
The  reappearing  images  were  much  dimmer  than  their  originals 
and  were  always  perceived  with  some  difficulty.  The  objects 
were  easier  to  perceive  when  brought  back  to  their  original 
position  than  in  the  case  where  they  were  introduced  in  a  new 
position. 

Since  the  existence  of  the  image  of  the  removed  object 
depends  upon  the  presence  or  absence  of  that  object  in  the  field, 
although  the  other  images  in  the  displaced  field  remain  visible, 
it  follows  that  the  objective  stimulations  must  be  effective  in 
maintaining  the  vision  of  their  translocated  images.  Ignorance 
of  the  tests  disposes  of  the  possibility  of  any  sham  or  suggestion. 

The  removal  of  an  intensive  stimulation  from  the  original 
field  thus  produces  a  decrease  of  brightness  in  its  displaced 
image.  If  the  stimulation  is  weak,  its  displaced  image  finally 
disappears.  If  the  object  is  returned  to  the  field,  perception 
occurs  with  difficulty  and  the  new  image  is  much  dimmer  than 


366  HARVEY  CARR. 

the  original  one.  The  new  image  occupies  the  same  relative 
position  in  the  displaced  field  as  the  new  location  of  the  object 
does  in  the  primary  field. 

2.  Movement  of  an  object  in  the  primary  field  may  produce 
a  change  of  location  on  the  part  of  its  image.  If  the  movement 
is  slow,  a  perception  of  motion  may  result. 

At  night  the  writer  stood  in  the  field  of  view.  During  the 
displacement,  the  arm  was  lifted  up  slowly  to  a  horizontal  posi- 
tion. No  movement  was  perceived  at  first.  After  the  arm  had 
moved  about  half  the  distance,  the  subject  noted  its  new  position 
and  then  perceived  it  in  motion  for  the  remainder  of  the  distance. 
The  perception  was  very  vague  and  difficult.  The  arm  seemed 
to  be  a  mere  transparent  shadow,  for  the  subject  could  look 
through  it  and  see  the  visual  objects  past  which  it  moved.  The 
experiment  was  repeated  while  standing  before  a  bright  window. 
No  movement  was  perceived ;  the  arm  was  finally  seen  in  its 
extended  position,  presenting  a  very  shadowy  and  unsubstantial 
appearance,  markedly  different  from  the  remaining  part  of  the 
body.  The  electric  lights  were  fixated  and  displaced  ten  de- 
grees against  a  dull  yellow  wall.  The  light  was  then  set  swing- 
ing, pendular  fashion,  quite  rapidly.  The  arc  of  movement 
was  two  feet  in  extent.  The  displaced  image  of  the  light  was 
described  as  quivering  in  a  vibratory  fashion  as  though  it  were 
rigid  and  had  been  violently  jarred.  In  a  similar  test,  the  light 
was  slowly  moved  backwards  and  forwards  through  an  arc  of 
three  feet.  A  similar  motion  on  the  part  of  its  displaced  image 
was  perceived,  but  its  extent  was  judged  to  be  only  six  inches 
in  length.  This  decrease  in  length  was  not  due  to  the  subject's 
ignorance  of  linear  values,  for  the  extent  of  movement  was  rep- 
resented graphically  after  the  test.  Whether  the  perceived 
motion  was  synchronous  with  the  motion  of  the  light,  or  lagged 
behind  it  an  appreciable  time,  I  do  not  know,  though  the  latter 
condition  probably  obtained.  The  image  of  the  moving  object 
was  never  seen  in  two  positions  simultaneously ;  the  image  in 
the  first  position  disappeared  before  the  moving  object  was  per- 
ceived in  its  second  position. 

These  results  are  genuine,  for  I  attempted  to  induce  such 
movements  by  suggestion,  often  asserting  that  my  arm  was 


CONTROL   OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  367 

being  elevated  and  requesting  the  subject  to  perceive  the  move- 
ment if  possible.  Such  attempts  were  invariably  unsuccessful. 
When  the  field  was  displaced  more  than  ninety  degrees,  the 
movement  of  an  object  produced  no  effect  upon  its  image.  In 
this  case,  the  object  no  longer  stimulated  the  retinas.  Objects 
were  also  moved  after  being  hidden  behind  a  screen ;  this 
movement  effected  no  results  upon  the  displaced  image.  Con- 
sequently suggestion  cannot  explain  the  results. 

3.  The  various  results  obtained  by  the  interception  of  the  orig- 
inal stimulus  by  the  introduction  of  a  screen  are  partly  due  to 
the  new  stimulation  introduced  as  well  as  to  the  removal  of  the 
old  one.     The  results  due  to  the  new  object  have  been  enu- 
merated and  described  in  a  previous  section  (C,  pp.  362  ff.).  Cer- 
tain other  phenomena  occur,  however,  which   are   due  to  the 
removal  of  the  original  stimulus  from  the  retina?.     In  the  tests 
at   night   a  screen  was  interposed  just  in  front  of  the  candle 
originally  fixated.     The  image  of  the  candle  did  not  disappear 
but  flared  out  to  a  large  size  with  an  indeterminate  contour  and 
a  marked  decrease  in  luminosity.     The  image  resumed  its  nor- 
mal appearance  when  the  screen  was  removed.     The  test  was 
repeated  several  times  in  immediate  succession  with  the  same 
results.     The  screen  was  placed  immediately  in  front  of  both 
eyes.     All   visual   objects   in   the   displaced  field  disappeared 
almost  at  once,  but  the  subject  continued  to  see  the  space  be- 
tween the  screen  and  the  distant  wall  as  though  nothing  had 
happened ;  this  space  appeared  light  and  transparent  as  in  nor- 
mal vision.     The   background,  i.  £.,  the  image  of  the  wall, 
merely  faded  away  into  nothingness ;  the  further  limit  of  the 
perceived  empty  space  was  thus  not  blackness  but  a  mere  void. 
After  a  short  time  the  image  of  the  candle  reappeared  at  the 
distance  of  the  screen,  though  all  other  objects  in  the  field  re- 
mained invisible.     When  this  image  of  the  candle  reappeared 
to  view,  vision  of  the  empty  space  beyond  the  screen  was  lost. 
With  strong  illumination  (fixating  the  window  on  a  bright  day), 
a  screen  interposed  just  in  front  of  the  object  of  fixation  pro- 
duced no  noticeable  results  on  the  character  or  continuance  of 
its  image.     When  the  screen  was  placed  immediately  before 
both  eyes  so  as  to  intercept  the  entire  field,  certain  objects  in 


368  HARVEY  CARR. 

the  far  distance  which  were  perceived  through  the  window  dis- 
appeared from  vision  at  once,  but  the  images  of  the  window  and 
surrounding  walls  as  well  as  of  the  intervening  space  remained 
visible  for  nearly  a  minute.  After  this  period  the  small  part  of 
the  window  foveally  perceived  became  located  at  the  distance 
of  the  screen.  The  subject's  attention  was  now  attracted  to 
this,  and  she  did  not  notice  whether  the  remaining  part  of  the 
field  continued  to  be  visible  at  its  distant  position.  However, 
the  empty  space  beyond  the  screen  was  still  perceived  until  the 
end  of  the  experiment. 

The  apparent  results  of  these  tests  may  be  stated  as  follows  : 
When  the  original  stimulation  is  intense  and  a  small  portion  of 
the  field  is  intercepted,  no  effect  upon  the  duration  of  the  dis- 
placed image  is  noticeable.  When  the  stimulation  is  weak  and 
the  whole  field  is  intercepted,  the  displaced  images  disappear 
almost  immediately.  Intermediary  results  can  be  obtained  with 
mean  conditions. 

4.  The  influence  of  the  original  stimulations  may  be  inferred 
from  certain  results  obtained  by  a  displacement  of  more  than 
ninety  degrees.  The  introduction  of  the  electric  lights  before 
the  eyes  produced  more  marked  results  in  case  the  field  was  dis- 
placed to  such  an  extent  that  the  original  objects  perceived  no 
longer  stimulated  the  retinae.  Moreover,  the  results  occurred 
more  quickly  with  such  extreme  rotations  than  they  did  with  a 
small  displacement.  The  object  introduced  into  the  field  was 
perceived  as  an  object  only  in  the  case  of  such  an  extreme 
rotation. 

The  displaced  images  thus  possess  a  greater  resistance  to 
the  influence  of  new  stimuli  so  long  as  the  primary  field  con- 
tinues to  stimulate  the  retinae. 

E.  The  effect  of  an  old  stimulation  is  much  greater  than, 
and  far  different  from ,  that  of  any  new  stimulus  introduced 
during  the  displacement. 

i.  An  old  object  introduced  into  any  part  of  the  field  after  its 
removal  is  perceived  as  an  object  under  conditions  where  the 
introduction  of  a  new  object  would  produce  no  visual  effect 
whatsoever. 

This  general  statement  is  derived  from  a  comparison  of  the 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  369 

results  of  the  tests  described  in  sections  B,  C,  and  D.  The  fol- 
lowing test  was  performed  to  illustrate  the  proposition.  Under 
conditions  of  weak  illumination,  I  stood  in  the  field  of  view  hold- 
ing an  unlighted  candle  in  my  hand.  The  hand  was  fixated 
and  a  ten  degree  displacement  of  the  field  was  secured.  I  now 
moved  out  of  the  range  of  possible  vision  and  lighted  the  candle. 
After  my  displaced  image  had  disappeared  from  view,  I  came 
back  to  the  original  position.  The  image  of  myself  and  candle 
now  reappeared,  but  the  light  was  not  perceived  save  for  the 
dim  and  vague  luminosity  suffusing  the  field.  It  would  be  pos- 
sible to  choose  conditions  under  which  even  this  dim  luminosity 
would  not  occur. 

2.  The  effect  of  a  new  object  tends  to  be  diffused  over  the 
visual  field,  while  the  effect  of  an  old  object  tends  to  be  definite 
and  localized. 

The  first  case  is  illustrated  by  the  diffused  luminosity  of  the 
candle  and  electric  lights.  The  second  statement  is  illustrated 
by  a  number  of  facts.  The  displaced  image  of  the  electric 
lights  decreased  in  intensity  the  moment  the  light  was  turned 
off,  although  no  effect  was  noted  on  the  remaining  part  of  the 
field.  The  removal  or  movement  of  an  object  in  the  primary 
field  produced  visual  effects  which  were  confined  entirely  to  the 
displaced  image  of  that  object.  When  an  old  object  was  brought 
back  into  any  part  of  the  field,  it  was  perceived  as  an  object, 
*".  £.,  its  visual  effects  were  definitely  localized  in  space. 

3.  The  visual  effects  of  a  new  object  are  projected  in  accord- 
ance with  the  normal  laws  of  retinal  space  reference.     The  im- 
age of  an  old  object  re-introduced  into  any  part  of  the  field  is 
perceived  in  a  displaced  position. 

As  illustrations  of  the  first  statement  we  may  cite  the  follow- 
ing tests  :  In  the  case  where  the  candle  introduced  into  the  field 
after  a  displacement  was  perceived  as  a  candle,  it  was  correctly 
localized.  It  was  placed  directly  in  front  of  the  subject's  eyes 
and  it  was  perceived  in  that  position.  In  the  case  where  the 
eyes  were  directed  at  the  electric  lights  for  three  minutes  during 
a  displacement,  the  diffused  luminosity  became  concentrated  in 
a  large  circle  in  the  center  of  the  field  of  vision.  If  this  ring 
of  light  represents  the  stimulation  of  the  lights,  as  has  been 


37°  HARVEY  CARR. 

assumed,  it  was  correctly  localized.  The  second  of  the  above 
statements  represents  the  results  given  in  section  D,  (i)  and  (2). 
F.  This  peculiar  and  abnormal  functional  condition  of  the 
eyes  obtaining  during  the  displacements  may  be  maintained,  de- 
stroyed and  reinstated  at  ivill.  The  condition  is  maintained  or 
reinstated  by  a  mental  Jiat  accompanied  by  an  orbital  strain, 
while  the  condition  is  discontinued  at  any  time  by  a  mental  fiat 
and  a  relaxation  of  the  orbital  strain. 

1.  Maintenance  of  the  displacement.     During  the  various 
tests,  a  careful  observation  was  made  of  the  subject's  motor  atti- 
tudes and  expression  in  initiating  and  maintaining  the  displace- 
ments.    The  body  generally  remained  quiet  but  exhibited  a 
suppressed  tenseness  as  though  the  whole  energy  of  the  body 
was  being  concentrated  upon  the  task  in  hand.     The  breathing 
was  slow,  quiet  and  regular,  but  much  deeper  than  usual.    The 
subject  appeared  slightly  enrapt  or  entranced  as  one  does  with 
extreme  absorption  in  some  observation  involving  steady  fixation. 
The  extreme  concentration  was  due  to  the  facts  that  the  tests 
were  generally  of  some  duration,  the   subject's  attention  was 
directed  to  the  observation  of  all  changes  occurring  in  the  visual 
field,  while  many  of  the  phenomena  were  novel  in  character. 
It  was  found  on  trial  that  the  field  could  be  displaced  and  main- 
tained in  a  given  position  with  a  relaxed  condition  of  the  body 
and  with  normal  breathing.     No  expression  was  noted  other 
than  that  occurring  in  a  case  of  ordinary  fixation.     Introspec- 
tively,  the  only  necessary  conditions  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
displacement  were  a  marked  strain  located  in  the  head  directly 
back  of  the  eyeballs,  and  the  focusing  of  the  attention  upon 
the  images. 

2.  The  discontinuance  of  the  state.     We  found  that  it  was 
not  necessary  to  move  the  field  back  to  its  original  position  in 
order  to  discontinue  the  state.      The  subject  generally  shook 
her  head,  moved  her  eyes,  blinked  several  times  and  relaxed 
her  bodily  tension.     The  subject  was  asked  to  give  an  account 
of  her  method  of  discontinuing  the  state  at  will,  but  was  unable 
to  do  so  with  the  exception  that  she  had  noted  that  it  was  not 
necessary  to  move  the  field  back  to  its  primary  position.      This 
method  was  made  an  object  of  study  in  a  number  of  experi- 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  tfl 

ments.  It  was  found  that  a  sudden  head  or  eye  movement 
generally  caused  the  field  to  disappear  momentarily  during  the 
movement.  The  movements,  blinkings  and  the  bodily  relaxa- 
tion were  not  necessary  to  discontinue  the  phenomenon  though 
they  were  of  some  service.  The  only  necessary  concomitants 
of  the  mental  decision  were  the  release  of  the  attention  from  the 
images,  and  a  relaxation  of  the  orbital  strain  mentioned  above. 
The  displaced  field  does  not  disappear  immediately,  but  fades 
away  gradually.  The  time  necessary  for  the  disappearance  of 
the  images  seemed  to  vary  slightly  in  the  different  tests.  Prob- 
ably, the  time  is  proportional  to  the  intensity  of  the  original 
stimulations.  The  average  duration  necessary  was  from  three 
to  five  seconds.  The  recovery  of  normal  vision  does  not  occur 
immediately  after  the  disappearance  of  the  displaced  images. 
There  is  an  intermediary  period  in  which  the  visual  field  pre- 
sents a  uniform  gray  hazy  appearance.  The  images  of  the  real 
objects  now  before  the  eyes  break  through  this  hazy  mist  and 
gradually  become  distinct.  The  whole  process  involving  the 
disappearance  of  the  displaced  field  and  the  recovery  of  normal 
vision  lasts  from  four  to  seven  seconds. 

3.  The  reinstatement  of  the  displaced  field  after  its  disap- 
pearance. After  normal  vision  has  been  recovered,  the  dis- 
placed field  may  be  brought  back  to  consciousness  at  will  with- 
out the  necessity  of  again  subjecting  the  eyes  to  the  original 
stimulations.  A  mental  decision  involving  a  thought  of  the 
objects  and  the  reinstatement  of  the  orbicular  strain  is  the  only 
condition  necessary  to  effect  this  result.  Merely  thinking  of 
the  objects  is  not  sufficient  to  produce  the  reinstatement.  The 
displaced  field  does  not  come  back  gradually  but  instantane- 
ously. The  subject  had  not  been  aware  of  her  ability  to  recall 
these  positive  after-images  at  will  and  first  attempted  it  at  my 
suggestion.  The  results  were  so  immediate  and  pronounced  as 
to  startle  her.  The  phenomenon  is  best  described  in  the  sub- 
ject's own  words  :  "  No  sooner  had  I  willed  than  the  displaced 
images  burst  upon  me  in  full  bloom  as  though  they  had  been 
hidden  behind  a  screen  and  this  screen  had  been  suddenly  jerked 
away."  With  the  return  of  the  displaced  images,  the  eyes  were 
subjected  to  the  various  tests  described  above  in  order  to  deter- 


372  HARVEY  CARR. 

mine  their  sensitivity.  The  eyes  are  now  in  exactly  the  same 
condition  of  sensitivity  as  they  were  during  the  original  dis- 
placement. This  voluntary  alternation  of  the  abnormal  condi- 
tion of  the  eyes  and  of  normal  vision  may  be  successively  pro- 
duced in  the  same  experiment  apparently  as  many  times  as 
desired.  In  one  experiment  the  field  was  displaced  more  than 
ninety  degrees  and  projected  against  a  background  of  new 
objects.  The  subject  was  directed  to  hold  the  eyes  as  motion- 
less as  possible,  to  allow  the  displaced  field  to  disappear  until 
distinct  vision  of  the  new  background  was  secured,  to  call  back 
the  displaced  field  so  as  to  hide  all  vision  of  the  new  background 
of  objects  and  to  alternate  the  two  states  as  long  as  possible. 
The  two  conditions  were  alternated  six  times  in  succession, 
when  the  subject  was  compelled  to  stop  through  fatigue. 
Apparently,  fatigue  is  the  only  limitation  on  the  possible  dura- 
tion of  the  phenomenon.  In  every  case  normal  vision  was 
effected  gradually  while  the  abnormal  condition  was  reinstated 
immediately. 

G.  The  visual  field  may  be  moved  at  will  in  a  third  dimen- 
sional direction.  The  backward  movement  is  effected  by  an 
1  effortful  feeling  of  expansion '  within  the  eyeball \  while  a  'feel- 
ing of  contraction  and  relaxation  '  in  the  same  locality  accom- 
panies a  forward  direction  of  movement.  During  these  move- 
ments the  same  abnormal  condition  of  sensitivity  obtains  as  in 
the  case  of  the  lateral  displacements^  already  described. 

At  the  time  when  the  lateral  displacements  were  first  noted 
(seven  years  ago),  third  dimensional  movements  of  the  field 
sometimes  occurred  involuntarily,  especially  under  conditions 
of  fatigue  or  of  prolonged  fixation.  By  trial,  it  was  found  that 
these  movements  were  also  subject  to  voluntary  control.  They 
can  be  produced  voluntarily  much  more  easily  and  after  a 
shorter  period  of  fixation  than  can  the  lateral  displacements. 

The  field  cannot  be  moved  forward  to  a  distance  nearer  than 
five  feet  from  the  subject,  but  it  can  be  removed  to  the  apparent 
distance  of  the  horizon.  Within  these  limits,  the  field  can  be 

1The  translocatory  movements  already  described  in  the  previous  sections 
will  be  termed  hereafter  'lateral  displacements,'  in  order  to  distinguish  them 
from  these  third  dimensional  movements. 


CONTROL   OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  373 

moved  and  located  at  will.  The  images  do  not  become  double, 
but  are  blurred  to  some  extent  and  are  rather  confused  in  out- 
line. With  the  backward  direction  of  movement,  the  images 
become  slightly  smaller,  but  the  decrease  in  size  does  not  seem 
to  be  proportionate  to  the  increase  of  distance  according  to  the 
laws  of  perspective.  The  decrease  in  size  seems  to  be  due  to  a 
'  melting  away  of  the  edges '  of  the  various  images.  In  the  re- 
turn movement,  the  field  is  judged  to  have  reached  its  real  posi- 
tion when  the  images  attain  to  their  maximum  distinctness  of 
outline. 

The  movement  can  be  effected  with  monocular  vision,  but 
it  occurs  much  more  readily  with  the  left  eye  than  with  the 
right.  On  the  return  movement  with  the  right  eye,  the  field 
does  not  move  forward  gradually  but  jumps  back  quickly  in  an 
involuntary  manner.  The  images  grow  less  distinct  and  a  trifle 
smaller  with  the  backward  movements.  The  decrease  in  size 
seems  to  be  due  to  a  *  fading  away  of  the  edges.' 

When  the  field  is  moved  backward  toward  the  horizon,  the 
subject  experiences  a  '  feeling  of  expansion '  which  is  located 
inside  of  the  eyeballs  directly  back  of  the  cornea.  The  forward 
movements  are  accompanied  by  a  *  feeling  of  contraction  '  in  the 
same  locality.  The  feeling  of  expansion  is  described  as  effort- 
ful, while  the  contractile  feeling  is  accompanied  by  a  sense  of 
relaxation. 

At  first  it  was  supposed  that  these  depth  movements  were 
entirely  distinct  in  nature  from  the  displacement  phenomenon, 
and  that  they  were  another  instance  of  that  voluntary  control  of 
the  depth  location  of  the  visual  field  possessed  by  Miss  Allen.1 
This  inference  was  not  wholly  correct.  During  a  depth  dis- 
placement, the  visual  field  may  be  displaced  laterally,  or  it  may 
be  moved  in  a  third  dimensional  direction  during  a  lateral  trans- 
location.  During  the  prolonged  tests  on  the  lateral  displace- 
ments, the  subject  often  lost  control  of  the  distance  location  of 
the  displaced  field  and  it  would  suddenly  recede  from  five  to 
ten  feet.  A  series  of  experiments  was  performed  in  order  to 
test  the  sensitivity  of  the  eye  during  the  depth  movements.  If 
anything,  the  eye  is  more  insensitive  during  this  phenomenon 

2  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW,  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  4,  pp.  258-275. 


374  HARVEY  CARR. 

than  it  is  with  the  lateral  displacements.  Various  objects  were 
introduced  into  the  range  of  possible  vision,  but  they  were  not 
perceived,  nor  did  they  affect  the  visual  field  in  any  way.  A 
lighted  candle  held  at  a  distance  of  three  feet  directly  in  front 
of  the  eyes  did  not  even  suffuse  the  distant  field  with  a  luminous 
glow.  When  objects  were  removed  from  the  field,  the  period 
necessary  for  the  disappearance  of  their  images  was  longer  than 
in  the  case  of  the  previous  phenomenon.  The  movement  of  an 
object  in  the  field  was  not  perceived,  though  the  object  was 
finally  seen  in  its  new  position.  Objects  re-introduced  into  the 
field  were  perceived  with  extreme  difficulty  unless  they  were 
brought  back  to  their  original  positions.  In  the  latter  case  the 
image  of  the  object  is  more  intense  and  realistic,  and  it  appears 
to  view  in  less  time  after  the  introduction  of  the  stimulus. 

The  fact,  however,  that  the  moving  visual  field  is  of  the 
nature  of  a  hallucinatory  positive  after-image,  does  not  explain 
the  mechanism  of  its  distance  location.  The  lateral  displace- 
ments are  due  to  head  or  eye  movements,  and  the  depth 
changes  must  likewise  be  attributed  to  some  factors  just  as  in 
the  case  of  the  distance  location  of  any  after-image,  either  pos- 
itive or  negative.  Moreover,  the  changes  must  be  due  to  fac- 
tors over  which  the  subject  has  direct  voluntary  control. 
While  this  phenomenon  is  essentially  different  from  that  exhib- 
ited by  Miss  Allen  so  far  as  the  retinal  sensitivity  is  concerned, 
yet  it  is  possible  that  the  two  cases  are  similar  in  respect  to  the 
mechanism  involved  in  this  voluntary  control  over  the  depth 
location  of  the  visual  imagery.  In  the  case  of  Miss  Allen,  the 
depth  movements  were  conditioned  by  lenticular  adjustments 
which  involved  no  convergent  changes  of  the  eyes.  With  the 
present  subject,  no  convergent  movements  occurred.  This  fact 
supports  the  proposition  previously  enunciated  as  to  the  retinal 
effectiveness  of  the  stimulations  from  a  primary  field,  for  if  the 
eyes  were  totally  free  from  the  influence  of  the  objects  primarily 
fixated,  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  convergence  should  remain 
unaltered  while  the  visual  images  are  subject  to  such  marked 
changes  in  respect  to  depth  location.  As  to  the  presence  of 
lenticular  adjustments,  no  confident  assertions  can  be  made.  I 
was  under  the  impression  that  lens  changes  occurred,  but  the 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  375 

movements  were  so  slight  in  extent  that  I  could  feel  no  absolute 
confidence  in  the  validity  of  the  observations.  The  movements 
were  so  small  that  it  was  impossible  to  detect  whether  a  partic- 
ular kind  of  adjustment  was  invariably  correlated  with  each 
direction  of  image  movement.  The  small  extent  of  the  move- 
ments present,  in  case  the  observed  results  are  valid,  is  expli- 
cable from  the  fact  that  the  possible  extent  of  the  third  dimen- 
sional movements  of  the  visual  field  was  greatly  diminished  in 
the  dim  illumination  necessary  to  a  phakoscopic  examination. 
The  lack  of  clear-cut  definite  results,  as  in  the  case  of  Miss 
Allen,  does  not  disprove  the  lenticular  theory ;  neither  do  the 
observations  furnish  indubitable  proof  that  the  depth  displace- 
ments are  conditioned  by  appropriate  adjustments  of  the  lenses, 
though  they  do  support  that  theory  to  some  extent.  During 
the  displacements  pupillary  changes  occur,  but  they  are  spas- 
modic and  irregular  in  character,  no  definite  change  being 
invariably  correlated  with  each  direction  of  image  movement. 
The  fact  that  the  displaced  images  become  blurred  and  confused 
in  outline  in  the  third  dimensional  movements,  but  do  not  do  so 
during  the  lateral  displacements,  indicates  the  presence  of  lentic- 
ular disturbances  in  the  former  case.  The  presence  of  muscular 
feelings  inside  the  eyeballs  in  the  region  of  the  lens  may  like- 
wise be  interpreted  in  favor  of  the  theory.  On  the  whole  the 
writer  is  disposed  to  believe  that  lenticular  changes  do  occur 
and  condition  the  movements  to  some  extent,  though  they  may 
not  constitute  the  sole  explanation  of  the  phenomenon.  The 
possibility  of  other  conditioning  factors  is  a  matter  of  speculation 
and  any  such  discussion  is  beyond  the  range  of  this  paper. 

The  preceding  account  has  purported  to  be  as  much  as 
possible  a  factual  statement  of  the  various  experimental  results 
with  little  comment  or  theoretical  digression.  Some  peculiar 
aspects  of  the  case  deserve  further  consideration. 

Such  visual  anaesthesias,  wherein  objective  stimulations  are 
retinally  effective  and  may  indirectly  influence  consciousness, 
occur  with  hysteria  and  may  be  induced  by  suggestion.  So 
far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  however,  such  anaesthetic  retinal 
areas  do  not  subserve  any  objectified  visual  consciousness,  as 


376  HARVEY  CARR. 

with  the  present  subject,  unless  hallucinatory  images  are 
induced  by  suggestion.  The  hallucination  and  the  insensi- 
tivity  seem  to  be  a  single  phenomenon  rather  than  two  inde- 
pendent events,  for  they  invariably  occur  together.  This  is 
seen  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no  stage  of  a  total  lack  of  visual 
sense  content  intervening  between  normal  vision  and  the  abnor- 
mal condition.  When  the  displaced  field  is  caused  to  disappear, 
there  is,  it  is  true,  an  intermediary  stage  wherein  the  visual 
field  presents  a  uniform  undifferentiated  appearance.  But  this 
is  not  a  total  blindness,  for  an  objectified  visual  sense  content  is 
present.  When  objects  were  removed  from  the  field  and  their 
displaced  images  were  allowed  to  fade  from  view,  no  gap  was 
left  devoid  of  all  sense  content.  This  close  relation  between 
the  presence  of  the  hallucinatory  field  and  the  insensitivity, 
and  their  relation  to  volition  are  matters  for  discussion.  Three 
theories  may  be  conceived  as  to  the  relations  involved  : 

1.  The  anaesthesia  may  be  assumed  to  be  directly  subject  to 
volitional  control,  while  the  hallucination  is  an  effect  of  the 
anaesthesia.     The  first  relation  is  conceivable  for  such  anaes- 
thesias can  be  induced  by  suggestion,  but  the  second  causal 
nexus  is  hard  to  conceive  and  some  facts'  contradict  the  assump- 
tion of  any  such  invariable  connection.     An  involuntary  semi- 
trance,  involving  a  visual  anaesthesia  and  a  complete  aboulia 
has  frequently  occurred  throughout   the    subject's    life.     This 
visual  anaesthesia  generally  involved    a    complete   loss  of   all 
sense  content,  *'.  £.,  it  did  not  produce  an  hallucination. 

2.  It  may  be  supposed  that  the  two  phenomena  are  indepen- 
dent events  and  are  controlled  by  separate  volitional  processes, 
but,  since  the  two  results  cannot  be  separately  initiated,  it  must 
be  assumed  that  each  event  is  due  to  a  particular  process  within 
the  whole  volitional  act,  but  that  the  two  processes  are  so  asso- 
ciated that  they  cannot  be  even  consciously  separated.     This 
theory  may  be  true  for  all  that  is  known  to  the  contrary,  but  it 
is  needlessly  complex. 

3.  We  may  assume  that  the  hallucination  is  volitionally  con- 
trolled, but  that  the  presence  of  the  hallucinatory  images  is  the 
cause  of  the  anaesthesia.    The  second  relation  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  following  phenomenon  :    Let  the  light  from   a  bright 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  377 

window  be  reflected  into  the  left  eye  by  one's  glasses.  The 
image  of  the  window  is  now  projected  against  the  wall  of  the 
room.  If  the  right  eye  is  closed,  the  wall  back  of  the  projected 
image  remains  invisible  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to  perceive  it.  The 
stimulations  from  the  wall  enter  the  eye  and  reach  the  retina, 
but  vision  is  so  dominated  by  the  image  of  the  bright  window 
that  the  stimulations  from  the  wall  fail  to  influence  it  effectively. 
Likewise,  it  may  be  conceived  that  the  hallucinatory  activities 
so  dominate  the  visual  centers  that  these  latter  are  impervious  to 
the  objective  stimulations.  The  phenomenon  is  thus  a  matter 
of  visual  rivalry.  This  conception  is  supported  by  the  general 
result  enunciated  in  section  C  that  the  visual  effect  of  any  new 
stimulation  introduced  varies  with  its  intensity,  extent,  and  dura- 
tion, and  also  according  to  the  brightness  of  the  primary  field, 
t.  e.,  the  intensity  of  the  hallucinatory  field.  In  the  volition 
her  attention  is  positively  directed  toward  the  visual  images  in 
the  reinstatement  and  maintenance  of  the  hallucination,  and  it 
neglects  them  in  order  to  discontinue  the  state.  This  fact  sup- 
ports the  view  that  volition  deals  directly  with  the  hallucination 
and  that  the  insensitivity  is  a  secondary  by-product.  The  sup- 
position may  be  further  supported  by  the  fact  that  the  stimula- 
tion of  an  old  object  is  more  effective  when  it  is  brought  back 
to  its  original  location  than  when  it  is  introduced  into  the  field 
in  some  new  position.  In  the  former  case  the  image  is  more 
vivid  and  realistic  and  is  perceived  in  a  shorter  time  after  the 
object  is  returned  to  the  field.  This  result  may  be  conceived  as 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  stimulation  in  any  secondary  position 
comes  into  rivalry  with  a  hallucinatory  image  of  some  other 
object. 

There  is  a  real  spatial  translocation  of  the  effects  of  retinal 
stimulation  in  certain  cases.  This  is  illustrated  in  Fig.  i. 
Suppose  that  the  eye  momentarily  fixates  the  object  F>  while  C 
is  perceived  in  indirect  vision.  The  points  f  and  c  are  the 
retinal  areas  stimulated  by  these  objects.  The  eye  is  now 
rotated  upward  until  the  optic  axis  is  directed  toward  F' .  The 
stimulations  from  the  objects  F  and  C  now  meet  the  retina  at 
the  points  b  and  a  respectively,  while  the  images  of  those 
objects  are  perceived  in  the  positions  F'  and  O '.  These  periph- 


HARVEY  CARR. 

eral  stimulations  at  a  and  b  influence  the  brightness,  duration, 
location  and  existence  of  the  visual  images  F'  and  C'  which 
should  normally  correspond  to  the  retinal  activity  of  the  areas 
f  and  c  respectively.  It  is  as  if  the  effects  of  the  stimulations 
of  a  and  b  were  transferred  to  the  points  c  and  f  respectively. 
What  is  true  of  these  two  stimulated  areas  is  also  true  for  all 
retinal  points.  Thus  every  retinal  area,  c  for  example,  trans- 
fers the  effects  of  its  own  stimulation  to  another  area  d,  and  in 


FIG.  i.  F  and  C,  objects  in  the  field  of  vision ;  Ff  and  O ',  displaced 
images  of  the  objects  F  and  C  after  the  eye  rotation ;  n,  nodal  point;  o,  center 
of  rotation  ;  /,  fovea  ;  f-o-n-F',  optic  axis  after  the  rotation  ;  a,  b,  c,  d,  retinal 
points. 

return  it  receives  the  effects  of  the  stimulation  of  the  area  a. 
However  this  apparent  *  transference '  of  the  stimulation  of  one 
area  to  a  second  retinal  area  occurs  only  for  '  primary  stimula- 
tions/ /.  e.y  only  for  those  objects  occupying  the  original  field 
of  vision.  In  the  case  of  *  secondary  stimulations'  —  those 
resulting  from  new  objects  introduced  into  the  field  of  vision 
after  the  displacement — there  is  at  first  an  apparent  retinal 
*  diffusion ' ;  the  results  of  the  stimulation  are  diffused  so  as  to 
tinge  appropriately  the  entire  visual  field.  This  diffusion  is 
minimized  in  extent  in  proportion  to  the  duration  and  intensity 
of  the  secondary  stimulation. 

As  to  the  nature  and  mechanism  of  this  *  transference '  and 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL   FIELD.  379 

<  diffusion '  several  possibilities  are  open.  It  may  be  supposed 
that  the  retinal  space  reference  has  been  altered.  Ordinarily 
the  image  corresponding  to  the  stimulation  of  a  point  b  on  the 
retina  is  localized  along  a  line  running  through  this  point  and 
the  nodal  point  «,  but  this  spatial  reference  of  the  retina  may  be 
altered  in  certain  conditions,  e.  £*.,  the  partial  paralysis  of  an 
eye  muscle.  This  conception  is  disproved  by  the  fact  that  the 
retina  localizes  normally  in  the  case  of  a  prolonged  and  inten- 
sive secondary  stimulation,  although  the  transference  of  the 
primary  stimulations  still  obtains.  While  the  conception  might 
explain  the  *  transference  phenomenon,'  yet  it  is  inadequate  to 
account  for  the  '  diffusion  of  secondary  stimulations.' 

The  phenomena  may  be  supposed  to  be  either  retinal  or 
central  affairs.  In  fact,  they  have  been  couched  above  in 
retinal  terms,  but  this  was  done  merely  for  descriptive  and  not 
explanatory  purposes.  Analogous  results  have  been  obtained 
in  experimental  psychology.  The  irradiation  phenomenon, 
simultaneous  contrast,  etc.,  indicate  that  in  normal  experiences 
the  conscious  effects  of  any  retinal  stimulation  are  not  confined 
wholly  to  the  corresponding  part  of  the  visual  field,  but  it  is  not 
known  whether  this  diffusion  of  results  is  centrally  or  retinally 
conditioned.  The  question  is  further  involved  with  the  general 
problem  of  the  seat  of  hallucinatory  activities,  as  to  which  there 
is  no  unanimity  of  opinion.  Consequently,  there  is  no  positive 
evidence  to  be  derived  from  other  sources  in  favor  of  either  con- 
ception. So  far  as  anatomical  possibilities  are  concerned  a 
central  location  is  preferable.  The  fact  of  voluntary  control 
over  the  existence  and  duration  of  the  transference  is  more  ex- 
plicable in  central  terms.  A  statement  of  the  facts,  however, 
in  either  retinal  or  central  terms  would  do  little  but  localize  the 
phenomenon.  The  mechanism  and  raison  d'etre  of  the  process 
would  still  remain  unintelligible. 

The  conception  which  seems  most  satisfactory  to  the  writer 
involves  several  propositions :  (i)  For  all  points  #,  3,  c  on  the 
retina  there  are  corresponding  cortical  areas  A,  B>  C.  The 
habitual  pathway  of  a  retinal  impulse  from  any  point  is  to  its 
corresponding  cortical  area  (Fig.  2).  The  course  of  any  im- 
pulse may  be  varied  under  certain  conditions.  It  is  not  neces- 


380  HARVEY  CARR. 

sary  to  assume  that  the  spatial  arrangement  of  the  cortical  areas 
is  in  any  way  similar  to  that  of  their  corresponding  retinal  points 
although  they  have  been  represented  in  that  manner  in  the  figure 
(2).  The  hallucinatory  images  of  the  displaced  field  are  due 


FIG.  2.  a,  b,  ct  retinal  points  ;  A,  B,  C,  cortical  areas  corresponding 
respectively  to  a,  d,  c :  Y,  X,  Z,  displaced  images  due  to  activity  of  A,  B ,  C, 
respectively  ;  Z>,  subcortical  center. 

mainly  to  cortical  activities,  and  (3)  these  cortical  activities  are 
so  intensive  and  dominating  that  they  interfere  with  the  habitual 
behavior  of  the  incoming  retinal  impulses.  These  impulses  be- 
come blocked  at  the  subcortical  center  D. 

We  will  suppose  that  the  eye  perceives  three  objects,  X,  T 
and  Z,  corresponding  to  the  three  neural  processes  represented 
in  the  figure.  The  images  of  these  objects  are  now  displaced 
by  an  eye  movement,  and  a  new  object,  V,  is  introduced  into  the 
field  so  as  to  stimulate  the  retina  at  b.  This  retinal  impulse  is 
checked  at  D,  and  hence  a  diffusion  of  the  impulse  occurs.  If 
the  stimulation  is  weak,  the  effects  are  drafted  off  to  lower 
centers  without  conscious  effect.  A  greater  intensity  of  stimu- 
lation gives  a  diffused  effect  over  the  entire  visual  areas.  In 
case  the  stimulation  is  very  intense  and  prolonged,  the  retinal 
impulse  becomes  strong  enough  to  supplant  some  one  of  the 
cortical  activities.  The  impulse  will  traverse  the  line  of  least 
resistance,  and  this  will  be  along  the  habitual  pathway  b-D-B. 
The  object  Fwill  thus  be  localized  in  a  normal  manner.  The 
displacement  of  the  images  T  and  Z  and  the  correct  localization 
of  the  new  object  V  are  thus  possible. 

As  a  result  of  the  eye  movement,  the  object  JTnow  stimu- 
lates the  retina  at  c  instead  of  at  a.  This  retinal  impulse 
becomes  blocked  at  D  because  of  the  cortical  activity  of  C 
involved  in  the  displaced  image  Z.  This  impulse  will  finally 


CONTROL    OF  POSITION  OF  VISUAL  FIELD.  381 

break  through  the  hallucinatory  field  at  the  point  of  least  resist- 
ance. With  primary  stimulations  this  point  of  least  resistance 
is  not  along  the  habitual  pathway  D-C,  but  it  is  at  the 
cortical  area  A  involved  in  the  displaced  image  Y.  This  area 
A,  being  strongly  excited  centrally,  forms  an  apperceptive 
center  highly  susceptible  to  an  appropriate  stimulation.  The 
impulse  from  c  is  transferred  to  A  by  the  subcortical  center  D. 
This  theory  assumes  that  a  psycho-cortical  activity  will  block 
an  habitual  path  to  impulses  which  would  arouse  qualitative  dis- 
similar responses  in  that  center,  while  it  will  markedly  increase 
the  susceptibility  of  that  area  to  appropriate  impulses.  This 
conception  involves  no  new  doctrine,  for  the  same  principle  is 
used  to  explain  the  selective  character  of  apperceptive  attention  ; 
central  activities  increase  the  mind's  sensitivity  to  stimulations 
of  an  appropriate  character  but  decrease  its  susceptibility  to  all 
other  stimulations.  Thus  it  is  not  necessary  to  posit  the  exist- 
ence of  a  subconscious  mind  in  order  to  explain  the  subject's 
ability  to  react  differently  to  the  two  kinds  of  stimulations. 

The  volitional  control  over  the  existence  and  duration  of  the 
hallucinatory  images  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  for  generally  such 
experiences  possess  all  of  the  involuntary  characteristics  of  per- 
cepts. What  causal  relation  the  orbital  strain  bears  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  abnormal  state  is  a  subject  concerning  which  it  is 
idle  to  speculate.  It  is  also  rather  curious  that  this  abnormal 
condition  does  not  seem  to  be  subject  to  suggestion  in  any  way, 
although  it  is  so  susceptible  to  volitional  influences. 

The  subject  of  these  experiences  was  under  the  writer's 
observation  for  six  months  and  the  experimental  work  covered 
a  period  of  three  months.  Owing  to  the  subject's  susceptibility 
to  fatigue,  it  was  impossible  in  this  time  to  investigate  the  phe- 
nomenon as  thoroughly  as  desired.  The  case  deserves  further 
study,  as  many  interesting  problems  came  up  during  the  experi- 
ments whose  solution  would  certainly  give  a  more  compre- 
hensive insight  into  the  phenomenon. 

The  subject  comes  of  a  well-to-do  and  cultured  family. 
She  is  an  only  child  and  was  reared  in  comparative  isolation 
from  those  of  her  own  age.  She  has  been  much  addicted  to  day 
dreaming  and  she  possesses  an  artistic,  idealistic  and  sensitive 


382  HARVEY  CARR. 

temperament.  Her  physical  health  has  always  been  good.  She 
is  physically  well-developed,  and  her  appearance  gives  every 
indication  of  healthful  bodily  functioning.  She  has  been  sub- 
ject all  her  life  to  short  attacks  involving  visual  anaesthesia  and 
aboulia.  These  attacks  are  congenital  on  the  mother's  side  of 
the  family.  She  has  often  experienced  other  seizures  involving 
faintness  and  extreme  physical  weakness,  with  the  presence  of 
only  a  dim  vague  consciousness.  These  attacks  often  leave  the 
subject  in  a  very  weak  condition  for  some  hours.  Shortly  before 
the  phenomenon  described  in  this  paper  was  first  noticed,  she 
experienced  a  more  profound  attack  resulting  in  some  permanent 
amnesias.  The  complete  loss  of  auditory  musical  memory 
incapacitated  her  for  her  vocation  as  a  music  teacher.  Her 
retentiveness  for  academic  subjects  was  much  impaired.  She 
is  now  extremely  susceptible  to  fatigue.  Her  case  was  diag- 
nosed by  a  competent  nervous  specialist  who  found  that  she  was 
unable  to  converge  upon  objects  at  a  distance  of  less  than  eight 
feet.  She  has  been  using  a  set  of  prisms  to  strengthen  the  in- 
ternal recti  muscles  and  finds  that  their  constant  use  has  had  a 
beneficial  effect  upon  her  mental  ability.1 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  October  15,  1907. 


CONCERNING  ANIMAL  PERCEPTION. 

BY  PROFESSOR  GEORGE  H.  MEAD, 
University  of  Chicago. 

1  wish  to   call   attention  to   a  phase  of  animal  psychology 
which  has  received,  it  seems  to  me,  but  inadequate  treatment. 
This  inadequacy  is   evident  not  only  in  the  general  psycholo- 
gies, but  also  in  special  experimental  investigations  of  animal 
intelligence.     The  difficulty  gathers  about  the  doctrine  of  per- 
ception, and  is  due  in  part  to  the  incomplete  character  of  the 
theory  of  perception  in  human  psychology,  and  in  part  to  a  fail- 
ure to  analyze  sufficiently  the  conditions  of  possible  perception 
in  lower  animal  forms. 

Can  we  draw  a  line  between  perception  and  higher  cogni- 
tive processes,  leaving  below  the  line  a  cognition  which  is  not 
rational  though  intelligent,  such  as  characterizes  the  adaptations 
of  a  crab  or  a  rat,  and  placing  above  the  line  all  the  conscious- 
ness of  relation  which  makes  human  intelligence  rational?  Do 
our  own  predominately  perceptive  processes,  such  as  those  of 
rapidly  climbing  a  steep,  rocky  cliff,  or  playing  a  game  of 
tennis,  where  we  are  seemingly  unconscious  of  anything  except 
the  physical  environment  and  our  reactions  thereto,  differ  qual- 
itatively from  the  more  abstract  processes  in  which  we  con- 
sciously deal  in  symbols  and  isolate  the  relations  of  things  ? 

If  these  discursive  processes  are  mere  developments  of  con- 
tents which  are  implicitly  present  in  perceptual  consciousness, 
is  there  any  definite  line  which  can  be  drawn  between  the 
intelligence  of  man  and  that  of  the  lower  forms,  unless  we  deny 
them  the  form  of  consciousness  which  we  call  perceptual  in  our- 
selves? Hobhouse,1  for  example,  assumes  that  the  cat,  the 
dog  and  the  monkey,  which  he  observed,  apprehend  perceptual 
relations,  which  enabled  them  to  learn  by  experience,  without 
the  ability  to  isolate  the  relations  as  elements  in  thought. 

Stout 2  would  grant  to  the  chick  that  learns  to  reject  a  cin- 

*Mind  in  Evolution,  p.  117. 

2  Manual  of  Psychology,  pp.  84  ff. 

383 


384  GEORGE  H.  MEAD. 

nabar  caterpillar,  an  «  apprehension  of  meaning  or  significance, 
which  would  come  to  the  same  thing.  On  the  other  hand, 
Thorndyke l  explains  such  learning  by  experience  on  the  part 
of  lower  animals  through  the  association  of  an  *  impulse '  with  a 
stimulus,  which  seems  to  imply  a  qualitatively  different  state  of 
consciousness  from  that  which  would  ordinarily  be  called  per- 
ceptual in  human  experience.  He  undertakes  to  illustrate  this 
by  phases  of  human  consciousness  in  which  even  perception 
would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  This  latter  illustration  indi- 
cates a  possibility  of  discrimination  which  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  but  inadequately  recognized.  In  learning  to  play  billiards 
or  tennis,  we  are  moving  in  a  perceptual  world,  but  the  process 
of  improvement  takes  place  largely  below  even  the  perceptual 
level.  We  make  certain  movements  which  are  more  successful 
than  others,  and  these  persist.  We  are  largely  conscious  only 
of  the  selection  which  has  already  begun.  We  emphasize  this 
and  control  to  some  extent  the  conditions  under  which  the  selec- 
tion takes  place,  but  the  actual  assumption  of  the  better  attitude, 
the  actual  selection  of  the  stroke,  lies  below  even  this  level  of 
consciousness.  Thorndyke  calls  this  selection  a  process  of 
stamping  in  by  the  pleasure  coming  with  success.  This  ex- 
planation, however,  calls  for  its  own  explanation  and  ascribes 
active  control  to  states  of  pleasure  and  pain,  which  is  by  no 
means  proved  and  opens  up  another  field  of  dubious  animal 
psychology.  Thorndyke  calls  the  process  of  improvement  an 
association  of  an  impulse  and  a  stimulus,  which  lies  quite  out- 
side of  associations  of  ideas.  The  phrase  is  perhaps  a  vague 
one,  that  calls  for  further  specification,  but  it  answers  to  a  large 
number  of  instances  which  are  commonly  conceived  of  as  per- 
ceptions by  the  animal  psychologists,  although  it  is  to  be  pre- 
sumed that  Thorndyke  himself  assumes  that  these  animals  move 
in  a  perceptual  world.  The  instances  to  which  I  refer  may  be 
well  illustrated  by  the  action  of  the  chick  in  rejecting  the  cin- 
nabar caterpillar  or  the  orange-peel.  Is  there  a  revival  of  the 
past  experiences  which  leads  the  chick  to  reject  these  disagree- 
able objects ;  or  may  we  assume  that  the  impulse  to  reject  has 
become  associated  with  this  particular  stimulus,  without  any  in- 
tervening redintegrated  psychoses? 

1 '  Animal  Intelligence,'  PSY.  REV.  MON.  SUPPI,.,  Vol.  II.,  No.  4,  pp.  65  ff. 


CONCERNING  ANIMAL  PERCEPTION.  385 

This  question  is  closely  allied  to  that  which  arises  with 
reference  to  the  plasticity  of  the  young  form  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  acquires  the  specific  habits  which  are  not  found  per- 
formed in  its  nervous  system.  A  chick  learns  to  make  use  of 
the  impulse  to  hide  when  a  hawk  sails  overhead.  A  young  fox 
learns  to  run  away  from  the  odor  of  man.  The  process  of  hid- 
ing and  running  away  are  indeed  performed  in  these  young 
animals.  It  is  the  association  of  the  instinctive  action  with 
determinate  stimuli  which  is  acquired.  What  seems  to  take 
place  is  this :  The  animal  tastes  a  disagreeable  morsel  when  it 
instinctively  strikes  at  a  moving  object  before  it.  The  action 
of  the  flavor  of  the  morsel  upon  the  organs  of  taste  sets  free  an 
equally  instinctive  reaction  of  rejecting  the  morsel.  At  the 
same  time,  the  chick  eyes  the  caterpillar  under  the  excitement 
of  the  disagreeable  experience.  Now  the  caterpillar  hereafter 
to  be  avoided  must  be  different  from  a  mere  moving  object  such 
as  would  have  called  forth  the  reaction  of  pecking.  It  is  fair 
to  assume  that  the  condition  for  this  discrimination  made  by  the 
chick  lies  in  the  different  reaction  which  it  has  called  forth. 
The  mere  redintegration  of  the  experience  would  not  protect 
the  chick.  Either  the  chick  would  peck  again,  since  presum- 
ably the  same  bad  taste  and  same  rejection  would  follow, 
simply  reinforced  by  the  revival  of  the  past  experience,  and 
this  would  bring  about  no  improvement  in  adaptation ;  or  else 
the  past  experience  would  be  revived  with  the  appearance  of 
the  old  stimulus.  This  stimulus  was  not  a  caterpillar  with  cer- 
tain markings,  but  a  moving  object  within  reach.  The  revival 
of  the  experience  with  this  generalized  stimulus  to  which,  as 
Lloyd  Morgan's  experiments  show,  the  chick  reacts,  would 
lead  to  the  rejection,  not  of  cinnabar  caterpillars  alone,  but  of 
all  moving  objects  within  reach.  The  ability  to  distinguish 
between  stimuli  which  had  been  identical  in  their  value  before, 
arises  together  with  the  new  reaction,  that  of  rejection.  The 
meaning  of  the  plasticity  of  the  young  form  seems  to  be  that 
there  exist  in  the  form  instinctive  reactions  which  have  not  as 
yet  determined  external  stimuli.  Through  the  experience  of 
the  animal  the  appropriate  stimuli  are  determined.  One  condi- 
tion, at  any  rate,  is  found  in  the  new  visual  or  olfactory  expe- 


386  GEORGE  H.  MEAD. 

rience  which  arises  when,  for  any  reason,  this  new  reaction 
takes  place.  A  dog's  shrinking  from  the  sight  of  the  whip 
involves  not  simply  the  revival  of  the  painful  experience  of  the 
flogging ;  it  involves  his  reacting  to  characteristicts  in  the  sight 
of  the  whip  which  led  to  no  reaction  at  first.  It  is  not  then  so 
much  the  association  of  an  old  visual  or  olfactory  experience 
with  the  .impulse,  as  the  arising  of  a  new  visual  or  olfactory 
experience  which  now  becomes  the  stimulus  for  the  particular 
impulse  or  reaction.  If  there  be  association  of  ideal  contents, 
it  is  between  this  new  visual  or  olfactory  experience  and  the  old 
experience  which  had  not  as  yet  been  discriminated ;  of  this 
association,  Mr.  Thorndyke  remarks,1  we  have  little  or  no  evi- 
dence. What  we  must  assume,  in  what  is  implied  above,  is 
that  the  animal  gets  the  new  visual  or  olfactory  experience 
because  it  is  carrying  out  a  new  reaction ;  that  the  ground  for 
discrimination  in  sensation  lies  in  the  difference  of  reaction  to 
that  which  is  sensed,  an  assumption  that  is  reinforced  by  the 
recognition  that  the  process  of  sensing  is  controlled  and  directed 
by  the  reaction  to  the  stimulus. 

Now  what  is  implied  in  perception  is  the  association  of  the 
new  sensory  experience  with  the  old.  If  the  chick  perceives  a 
caterpillar  as  a  *  thing,'  he  may  associate  the  former  experience 
of  pecking  at  a  thing  with  the  new  experience  of  rejecting  the 
peculiarly  marked  thing.  But  evidence  for  such  an  association 
in  the  case  of  the  chick  certainly  is  lacking.  What  has  appeared 
in  its  conduct  is  a  new  stimulus  of  a  visual  character  for  a  per- 
formed reaction,  which  up  to  this  and  other  like  experiences  had 
no  determined  visual  stimulus. 

The  question  then  arises,  what  are  the  conditions  for  the 
appearance  of  this  permanent  core  to  which  varying  sensory 
elements  may  be  associated?  It  is  impossible  to  appeal  directly 
to  the  introspective  analysis  of  human  perception.  We  cannot 
get  inside  the  consciousness  of  the  lower  forms.  It  is,  however, 
possible  to  find  in  our  own  experience  of  physical  objects  what 
constitutes  this  core  which  endows  it  with  its  Thinghood,  and 
investigate  the  conduct  and  sensory  equipment  of  these  forms, 
with  a  view  to  determining  whether  their  experience  can  also 
contain  this  identical  core  to  which  varying  phases  of  the  same 

lLoc.  tit. 


CONCERNING  ANIMAL  PERCEPTION.  387 

object  can  be  referred.  Stout1  finds  this  core  in  what  he  terms 
'  manipulation,'  understanding  by  this  any  contact  experiences 
which  arise  as  the  result  of  visual  stimuli,  such  as  the  hearing, 
scratching,  pulling,  shoving,  as  well  as  our  actual  handling  of 
what  we  see.  This  he  illustrates  by  the  visual  experience  of  a 
hole  to  which  an  animal  is  fleeing  and  which  answers  to  an 
experience  of  contact,  that  enables  the  animal  to  determine 
whether  the  opening  is  passable. 

If  this  distinction  be  carried  out  somewhat  further,  we  find 
that  the  sensory  experiences  of  animal  life  may  be  divided  into 
two  categories :  those  that  come  through  what  may  be  called 
the  distance  sense  organs,  the  visual,  olfactory  and  auditory 
senses,  and  those  that  come  through  the  contact  sensations. 
The  distinction  suggested  by  Stout's  use  of  the  term  «  manipula- 
tion '  is  that  intelligent  conduct,  when  it  reaches  the  stage  of 
perception,  implies  a  reference  of  what  comes  through  the  dis- 
tance sensations  to  contact  sensation.  There  is  perhaps  nothing 
inherent  in  contact  experiences  which  accounts  for  their  being 
the  substantial  element  in  perception  —  that  to  which,  so  far  as 
physical,  i.  £.,  perceptual,  experience  goes,  all  other  experience 
is  referred.  Visual  discriminations  are  much  finer  and  more 
accurate  than  those  of  manipulation.  The  auditory  and  olfactory 
experience  are  richer  in  emotional  valuations.  But  it  remains 
true  that  our  perception  of  physical  objects  always  refers  color, 
sound,  odor,  to  a  possibly  handled  substrate,  a  fact  which  was 
of  course  long  ago  recognized  in  the  distinction  between  the  so- 
called  primary  and  secondary  senses. 

The  ground  of  this  is  readily  found  in  the  nature  of  animal 
conduct,  which,  in  so  far  as  it  is  overt  can  be  resolved  into  move- 
ments, stimulated  by  the  distance  senses,  ending  up  in  the  attain- 
ment or  avoidance  of  certain  contacts.  Overt  food,  protective, 
reproductive,  fighting  processes,  all  are  made  up  of  such  move- 
ments toward  or  away  from  possible  contacts,  and  the  success 
of  the  conduct  depends  upon  the  accuracy  with  which  the  dis- 
tance stimulation  leads  up  to  appropriate  contacts.  Consciously 
intelligent  conduct  within  the  perceptual  field  lies  in  the  estimate 
of  the  sort  of  contact  to  which  distance  sensory  stimulates  the 
animal  form,  that  is  the  conscious  reference  of  experience  result- 
lLoc.  cit.,  pp.  326  ff. 


388  GEORGE  H.  MEAD. 

ing  from  the  stimulation  of  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  olfactory  tracts, 
even  the  skin,  by  the  movement  of  the  air,  etc.,  to  the  contacts 
which  this  stimulation  tends  to  bring  about. 

The  vast  importance  of  the  human  hand  for  perception 
becomes  evident  when  we  recognize  how  it  answers  to  the  eye, 
especially  among  the  distance  senses.  The  development  of 
space  perception  follow  in  normal  individuals  upon  the  interac- 
tion of  the  eye  and  the  hand,  and  this  interaction  works  a  con- 
tinual meeting  of  the  discriminations  of  the  eye  by  those  of  the 
skin,  mediated  through  the  manipulating  hand.  It  is  this  con- 
tact experience  which  gives  the  identical  core  to  which  the 
contents  coming  from  the  distance  senses  are  referred  in  the  so- 
called  process  of  complication.  It  is  this  core  which  answers 
to  varying  experiences  while  it  remains  the  same.  It  is  this 
core  which  is  a  conditio  sine  qua  non  of  our  perception  of  phys- 
ical objects.  Of  course  this  content  of  contact  experience  is 
supplied  by  the  process  of  association  or  complication  out  of 
past  experience  in  most  of  our  perceptions.  The  objects  about 
us  look  hard  or  soft,  large  or  small.  But  the  reference  is 
always  there. 

There  are  two  respects  in  which  the  contact  experiences  of 
lower  animal  forms  are  inferior  to  those  of  man  for  the  purposes 
of  perception.  The  organs  of  manipulation  are  not  as  well 
adapted  in  form  and  function  for  manipulation  itself,  and,  in 
the  second  place,  the  contact  experiences  of  lower  animals  are, 
to  a  large  extent,  determined,  not  by  the  process  of  manipula- 
tion, but  are  so  immediately  a  part  of  eating,  fighting,  repose, 
etc.,  that  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  a  consciousness  of  a  *  thing' 
can  be  segregated  from  these  instinctive  activities. 

To  develop  this  second  point  a  little  further,  we  need  only 
to  recall  what  has  been  brought  out  by  Dewey1  and  Stout2  that 
perception  involves  a  continued  control  of  such  an  organ  as  that 
of  vision  by  such  an  organ  as  that  of  the  hand,  and  vice  versa. 
We  look  because  we  handle,  and  we  are  able  to  handle  because 
we  look.  Attention  consists  in  this  mutual  relationship  of  con- 
trol between  the  processes  of  stimulation  and  response,  each 
directing  the  other.  But  while  this  control  is  essential  to  per- 
ception, perception  itself  is  neither  eating,  fighting,  nor  any 
-1  PSYCHOI,.  REVIEW,  III.,  p.  359.  2  Loc.  cit. 


CONCERNING  ANIMAL  PERCEPTION.  389 

other  of  the  organic  activities  which  commence  overtly  with 
stimulation  and  end  with  the  response.  On  the  contrary,  per- 
ception lies  within  these  activities,  and  represents  a  part  of  the 
mechanism  by  which  these  activities  are  carried  out  in  highly 
organized  forms.  Perception  is  a  process  of  mediation  within 
the  act ;  and  that  form  of  mediation  by  which  the  possible  con- 
tact value  of  the  distance  stimulation  appears  with  that  stimula- 
tion, in  other  words,  a  mediation  by  which  we  are  conscious  of 
physical  things.  The  actual  eating,  fighting  or  resting,  etc., 
are  not  mediations  within  the  act,  but  the  culminations  of  the 
acts  themselves.  We  could  not  perceive  bread  as  a  physical 
thing  if  that  cognitive  state  grew  out  of  the  presentation  of  the 
mastication  and  taste  which  constitute  eating.  We  perceive 
what  we  masticate,  what  we  taste,  etc.,  except  in  so  far  as  we 
may  perceive,  through  their  movements,  our  various  organs,  as 
things. 

The  great  importance  of  the  human  hand  for  perception  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  essentially  mediatory  within  the  organic 
acts  out  of  which  the  physiological  process  of  life  is  made  up. 
The  presentation  of  a  physical  thing  which  must  be  made  up 
out  of  the  contacts  necessary  to  the  actual  processes  of  eating 
or  those  of  locomotion  cannot  offer  as  fruitful  a  field  for  the 
growth  of  perception  as  those  which  are  based  upon  the  medi- 
ations of  the  hand  within  the  act.  And  the  contents  of  contact 
experience  which  a  mouth  or  the  paws  can  present  must  be 
very  inadequate,  for  just  that  function  of  correspondence  be- 
tween the  elements  of  the  retinal  and  the  tactual  experience  out 
of  which  the  physical  world  of  normal  perception  arises. 

To  assume  that  a  chick  can  find  in  the  contact  of  its  bill 
together  with  those  of  its  feet  the  materials  that  answer  to  the 
perception  of  a  physical  thing  is  almost  inconceivable.  Even 
the  cat  and  the  dog  must  find  in  their  paws  or  mouths,  fash- 
ioned seemingly  for  the  purposes,  not  of  '  feeling  things,'  but 
of  locomotion  or  tearing  and  masticating,  but  a  minimum  of 
that  material  which  goes  into  the  structure  of  our  perceptions. 
In  the  case  of  the  monkey  the  question  arises  whether  the  func- 
tion of  locomotion  is  so  dominant  in  use  of  the  so-called  hands 
that  that  of  *  feeling  '  can  be  isolated  out  of  the  monkey's  con- 
tact experiences  to  build  up  perception. 


39°  GEORGE  H.  MEAD. 

Finally,  to  recur  to  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  doctrine 
of  perception  referred  to  at  the  opening  of  this  paper,  the  assump- 
tion of  a  perception  of  things,  that  is,  of  what  is  mediatory  in 
experience,  carries  with  it  the  essence  certainly  of  reasoning, 
i.  £.,the  conscious  use  of  something  —  a  certain  type  of  experi- 
enc.e  —  for  something  else,  another  type  of  experience.  Every 
perceived  thing  is  in  so  far  as  perceived  a  recognized  means  to 
possible  ends,  and  there  can  be  no  hard  and  fast  line  drawn 
between  such  perceptual  consciousness  and  the  more  abstracted 
processes  of  so-called  reasoning.  Any  form  that  perceives  is 
in  so  far  carrying  on  a  process  of  conscious  mediation  within  its 
act  and  conscious  mediation  is  ratiocination.1 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  September  18,  1907.  —  KD. 


A   STUDY   IN  VERTICAL   SYMMETRY. 

BY  ELEANOR  HARRIS   ROWLAND. 

It  is  obvious  to  anyone  who  looks  at  a  series  of  pictures, 
landscapes  especially,  giving  particular  attention  to  the  position 
of  the  horizon  line,  that  he  usually  finds  that  line  just  above  or 
just  below  the  center,  seldom  at  the  extreme  boundaries  of  the 
picture  and  almost  never  at  the  center  itself.  The  question 
naturally  arises,  Is  there  any  reason  for  this  uniformity  of 
choice  and  would  the  same  conditions  and  demands  hold  good 
if  reduced  to  the  simplicity  of  an  experiment  ?  The  following 
is  an  account  of  an  inquiry  into  the  choices  made  by  eleven  ob- 
servers of  divisions  of  a  rectangular  space,  and  an  analysis  of 
their  methods  of  apperception. 

To  test  the  question  the  following  apparatus  was  used :  A 
black,  rectangular  picture-frame,  with  an  opening  33  by  25  cm. 
had  a  black  background  placed  behind,  with  light  gray  fore- 
grounds of  graded  widths  placed  before  it. 

In  the  second  series  the  background  was  gray  and  the  fore- 
grounds were  black.  These  foregrounds  were  numbered  from 
I.  to  XI.  No.  VI.  measured  12^  cm.  filling  exactly  half  the 
opening  while  the  others  graded  both  ways  at  intervals  of  2  cm. 

The  method  of  procedure  was  to  start  with  the  widest  gray 
foreground  and  to  exhibit  all  the  sizes  down  to  the  narrowest,, 
and  back  again,  against  the  black  background.  Then  the  ob- 
server was  asked  to  tell  where  she  liked  to  have  the  dividing 
line  come,  and,  if  possible,  to  tell  why  she  liked  it  that  way. 
The  same  question  was  asked  with  the  second  series. 

Out  of  eleven  observers  in  Series  I.,  four  preferred  to  see 
the  dividing  line  just  below  the  center,  or  the  No.  V.  card; 
two  wanted  the  division  just  above  the  center,  or  the  No.  VII. 
card;  two  chose  IV.,  while  VIII.,  IX.  and  III.  were  each 
chosen  by  one  person.  In  Series  II.  three  observers  chose  No. 
V.,  two  preferred  IV.,  two  VII.  and  two  IX.,  while  III.  and 
XI.  had  each  one  vote. 

391 


392  ELEANOR   HARRIS  ROWLAND. 

The  largest  group,  then,  preferred  a  division  just  below  the 
central  line ;  another  group  preferred  varying  points  slightly 
above  the  central  line,  while  choices  of  the  extreme  divisions  of 
II.  and  III.  or  X.  and  XI.  were  rare  and  those  for  equal  divi- 
sion entirely  absent. 

The  attention  of  the  observers  was  called  to  this  fact,  and 
they  were  asked  why  they  did  not  choose  the  central  division. 
The  almost  uniform  answer  was,  that  when  it  was  divided 
evenly  they  did  not  *  see  it  as  a  picture/  it  was  *  too  flat  and 
uninteresting.' 

This  testimony  brought  several  things  to  light :  (i)  That 
with  no  comment  on  the  part  of  the  experimenter  they  had  been 
taking  the  empty  cards  *  as  pictures ' ;  (2)  that  the  very  unequal 
division  resisted  their  efforts  to  see  it  as  a  picture  and  therefore 
it  was  not  chosen ;  (3)  that  with  the  equally  divided  space  it 
apparently  did  not  occur  to  them  to  *  see  it  as  a  picture '  at  all. 
Just  as  the  slightly  unequal  spaces  had  naturally  become  land- 
scapes, snow-scenes  or  sea-views,  so  did  the  equally  divided 
space  simply  look  like  two  equal  cards.  This  change  of  apper- 
ception for  the  equal  division  was  uniform,  although  none  could 
give  a  reason  why  she  had  changed  except  that  the  equal  cards 
*  didn't  look  like  anything.' 

The  next  questions  put  to  them  were  : 

1.  Can  you  see  the  equally  divided  space,  and  the  very  un- 
equal divisions  as  pictures  and  those  formerly  seen  as  pictures, 
as  cards  —  that  is,  can  the  apperception  be  varied  at  will? 

2.  Is  there  any  difference  between  the  two  modes  of  per- 
ceiving, except  the  presence  or  absence  of  associations? 

3.  Does  your  feeling-tone  vary  with  this  change  of  apper- 
ception ? 

4.  Do  you  find  it  more  difficult  to  vary  your  perception  one 
way  than  the  other? 

5.  Exactly  what  do   you   consciously  do  to  change  your 
apperception? 

The  answers  to  some  of  the  questions  were  uniform,  but  the 
introspection  varied  in  others.  All  of  the  obervsers  found  that 
they  could  vary  their  apperception  at  will,  and  that  such  varia- 
tion not  only  supplied  or  deprived  the  cards  of  associative  value, 


A    STUDY  IN  VERTICAL   SYMMETRY.  393 

but  made  them  look  deep  or  Jlat.  When  seen  as  a  picture  the 
background  retreated,  more  or  less  according  to  the  division 
(their  favorite  division  usually  had  the  greatest  depth  of  any) 
but  when  seen  simply  as  cards,  the  background  moved  front  or 
the  foreground  back,  to  make  a  plane  surface. 

Their  feeling-tone  varied  with  this  change  of  view,  so  that 
three  liked  the  equal  division,  if  they  forgot  it  was  equal  and 
saw  it  as  something  else. 

Most  of  them  had  more  difficulty  in  changing  the  appercep- 
tion for  the  very  unequal  divisions,  but  with  practice  they  could 
also  modify  these  at  will. 

The  most  interesting  introspection  came  however  on  the  last 
question,  where  despite  their  difference  in  expression,  there  was 
some  agreement  as  to  their  difference  in  fixation  point  in  the 
two  cases. 

When  looking  at  the  cards  as  at  a  picture,  the  attention  was 
more  centered,  either  on  the  dividing  horizontal  line  or  exactly 
above  or  below  it,  but  always  on  the  median  axis.  They  looked 
from  this  point  to  other  parts  of  the  surface,  but  always  turned 
back  to  the  same  central  point.  When,  however,  they  looked 
at  the  divided  space  simply  as  cardboards,  it  at  once  became 
flat  and  unaccented.  One  observer  said  that  she  saw  it  much 
more  impartially,  looking  not  only  at  the  median  axis  or  the 
division  line,  but  also  around  the  edges  and  the  frame.  An- 
other, when  seeing  it  without  picture  associations,  described  her 
attention  as  following  several  parallel  lines  across  the  space, 
the  division  line  or  the  central  axis  being  no  more  important 
than  the  others.  Another  looked  up  and  down  impartially 
along  vertical  lines,  never  resting  at  the  center.  Several  ob- 
servers spoke  of  seeing  the  edges  of  the  cards  in  the  flat  apper- 
ception, which  they  had  not  noticed  when  seeing  the  cards  as 
pictures.  One  observer  felt  that  her  fixation  for  the  picture  ap- 
perception was  at  a  point  in  the  middle  of  the  division  line, 
behind  the  card,  as  if  she  were  looking  at  a  distant  point,  but 
the  simple  card  perception  meant  aimless  travelling  along  the 
division  line  over  the  surface  and  edges. 

It  would  seem  from  these  introspections  from  eleven  regular 
observers  (and  essentially  similar  results  were  obtained  from  a 


394  ELEANOR  HARRIS  ROWLAND. 

class  of  forty  all  observing  at  once)  that  a  rectangular  space 
divided  into  equal  halves  by  a  horizontal  line,  tends  to  be  taken 
as  flat,  as  free  from  varied  associations  and  without  strong  cen- 
tral accent,  and  it  has  thereby  very  little  the  *  picture '  charac- 
ter. On  the  other  hand,  the  slightly  unequal  division  lends 
itself  to  apperception  of  depth,  and  consequently  to  associations 
and  to  being  taken  as  a  picture.  Doubtless  the  observers  were 
influenced  in  their  association  by  the  fact  that  most  pictures  have 
the  latter  type  of  division,  but  the  question  still  remains — Why 
do  they? 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection,  that  two  observers  liked 
the  equal  division  very  much,  but  did  not  want  it  framed.  That 
is,  their  attention  not  being  bound  to  a  central  point,  wandered 
at  large  over  the  surface,  and  felt  cramped  by  the  frame.  This 
suggests  a  possible  reason  why  we  do  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
frame  geometrical  designs,  however  satisfactory  they  may  be 
in  themselves.  In  geometric  designs,  which  are  usually 
strongly  symmetrical,  both  bilaterally  and  vertically,  however 
much  a  central  point  may  be  indicated,  we  do  not  take  it  as  a 
center  of  interest.  Our  attention  is  more  or  less  impartial,  it 
extends  with  equal  interest  to  the  edges,  and  is  better  satisfied 
by  a  repetition  of  itself  than  by  a  frame.  Its  out-going  activity 
demands  continuance  of  its  design,  while  the  in-going  tendency 
of  the  picture  requires  exactly  the  reverse.1 

1  The  MS.  of  this  article  was  received  June  30,  1907. — ED. 


LOGICAL  COMMUNITY  AND  THE  DIFFERENCE  OF 
DISCERNIBLES. 

BY  PROFESSOR  J.  MARK  BALDWIN, 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

In  certain  of  our  discussions1  we  have  reached  positions 
which  involve  the  recognition  of  the  intent  of  judgment  to 
hold  for  more  than  one  individual.  We  have  given  to  this  aspect 
of  meaning  the  name  of  '  community/  We  may  now  gather 
together  the  positions  taken  up  in  various  connections,  and  show 
certain  of  their  larger  bearings. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  appears  that  the  process  ordinarily 
known  as  generalization  in  logic  is  one  in  which  a  common 
meaning  arises,  that  is,  a  meaning  in  community.    The  general 
meaning  not  only  applies  to  each  of  the  particulars  under  it, 
but  it  also  holds  for  different  individuals.     The  general-particu- 
lar relationship  remains  the  same  whether  the  different  cases 
that  serve  as  particulars  be  observed  by  one  individual  or  by 
many.     This  case  is  the  one  covered  in  logic  by  the  theory  of 
*  extension.'      Certain  variations  upon  it  arise  when  we  take 
explicitly  the  point  of  view  of  the  community  of  the  meaning. 

2.  Second,  we  find    certain  peculiarities    attaching  to  the 
meaning  rendered    as   *  singular/      When   only  one    object  is 
meant,  such  an  object  can  be  made  subject-matter   of   judg- 
ment only  from  the  point  of  view  of  community,  not  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  extension  of  the  objective  class  —  although 
this  is  the  construction   given  it  by  formal  logic,  which  con- 
siders it  a  universal  of  a  class  of  one  !    A  single  object  can  be 
generalized  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  process  that  in 
some  manner  distinguishes  in  it  different  instances  or  particu- 
lars.    This  occurs  in  two  ways,  both  of  which  show  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of   recognizing  the  character  of   community  in 
logic. 

xln   Thought  and  Things,   or  Genetic  Logic,  Vol.  II.,    "Experimental 
IvOgic,"  of  which  this  article  constitutes  a  section  (in  Chap.  xiv.). 

395 


396  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

The  first  of  these  is  that  in  which  the  one  single  object  is 
actually  experienced  by  different  -persons,  as  for  instance,  the 
*  falling'  of  a  star.  If  we  disregard  those  aspects  of  meaning 
wherein  the  single  object  may  also  be  one  of  a  class  —  then  there 
is  left  over  only  that  aspect  wherein  it  is  a  single  object  to  dif- 
ferent persons.  We  have  elsewhere  shown  how  by  processes  of 
4  secondary  conversion ' *  between  different  minds  this  meaning 
arises.  The  point  to  consider  here  is  this  :  such  a  meaning  can 
become  logical  —  in  the  sense  of  having  different  cases  to  serve 
as  basis  of  generalization  —  only  if  different  experiences  of  one 
object  can  play  the  role  of  experiences  of  different  objects  :  that 
is,  only  if  comvmmity  of  experience  takes  the  place  of  extensive 
quantity.  The  experiences  of  different  minds  furnish  the  differ- 
ences which  become  particulars  under  a  general.  The  identity 
of  a  singular  —  say,  for  example,  the  identity  of  the  shooting  star 
seen  by  different  observers  —  can  be  rendered  in  a  judgment  only 
through  the  generalization  of  the  appearances  to  these  observers, 
whereby  the  event  is  pronounced  the  same  for  all  of  them.  This 
is  a  movement  in  community,  or  in  a  mode  that  preserves  the 
force  of  community. 

We  may  say,  therefore,  at  this  point,  that,  but  for  the 
aspect  of  community  attaching  to  judgment,  the  logical  render- 
ing of  a  singular  -would  be  impossible. 

The  other  case  of  the  rendering  of  a  singular,  seeing  its 
great  importance,  may  be  placed  under  a  separate  heading. 

3.  A  third  case  is  that  of  the  meaning  attaching  to  a  single 
object  when  experienced  by  a  single  person  only ;  in  what  sense 
can  such  a  meaning  be  rendered  in  terms  of  general  and  par- 
ticular, and  so  become  subject-matter  of  judgment? 

Here  also  it  is  evident  that  there  is  no  general  meaning  in 
extensive  quantity.  The  meaning  is  a  singular  because  of  the 
mark  or  group  of  marks  which  prevent  its  generalization  with 
other  objects  in  a  class.  How  then  can  we  judge  such  an  object 
the  same,  and  expect  others,  if  and  when  they  do  experience 
it,  to  agree  with  us?  —  or  not  experiencing  it,  still  to  accept  our 
report  of  it? 

Here  again  we  have  an  evident  resort  to  community.     If  we 

1  See  Thought  and  Things,  Vol.  I.,  Chap,  iv.,  \  5. 


THE  DIFFERENCE   OF  DISCERNIBLES.  397 

consider  the  generalization  in  the  instance  just  discussed  above 
—  that  of  one  object  seen  by  different  observers  —  to  proceed 
upon  differences  in  experiences,  the  object  being  found  identical 
through  the  differences  of  its  appearances  to  the  different  ob- 
servers, then  the  recognition  of  community  gives  us  the  same 
result  here.  Judgment  in  community  renders  meaning  as  hold- 
ing for  different  personal  acts  of  judgment;  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  case  are  met  as  well,  and  in  precisely  the  same 
way,  when  recurrent  experiences  of  one  person  are  substituted 
for  different  experiences  of  more  than  one.  There  arises  what 
we  may  well  call  a  *  general  of  recurrence.'  In  both  cases, 
the  generalization  proceeds  upon  the  commonness  of  the  various 
constructions  of  the  meaning,  whether  these  be  experiences  in 
one  mind  or  in  many.  The  process  whereby  the  meaning  of 
*  sameness '  attaches  to  an  object  is  the  same  whether  the  recur- 
rences of  the  meaning  thus  identified  as  the  same  be  in  one  mind 
or  in  more  ;  for  there  is  either  actual  reference,1  or  the  presupposi- 
tion of  it,  from  one  experience  to  another  in  both  cases  alike. 
We  reach,  then,  the  striking  result  that  a  judgment  of  singular 
identity  is  one  that  may  arise  by  the  generalization  of  successive 
experiences  in  one  mind,  and  this  generalization  is  read  in  com- 
munity as  equally  valid  for  other  minds.  That  is,  we  again 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  a  judgment  of  singular  identity  is 
possible  on  the  basis  of  a  single  person's  recurrent  experience ; 
and  that  it  is  a  judgment  in  community,  having  the  force  of  com- 
monness for  all  thinkers  alike.  But  for  the  character  of  com- 
munity, however,  such  a  judgment  would  be  impossible;  for 
there  is  no  guarantee,  apart  from  the  intent  of  community,  that 
the  individual's  identification  of  the  object  through  recurrent 
experiences  is  socially  available. 

The  cases  now  interpreted  show  clearly  just  what  the  intent 
of  community  really  is.  It  is  the  implication,  in  the  rendering 
of  an  identical  meaning  by  any  one  person,  of  other  persons' 
judgment  whoever  they  may  be.  It  rests  upon  the  fact,  which 
we  have  studied  in  detail,  that  such  a  judgment  of  identity  is 
one  of  recurrent2  experiences,  whether  the  objects  experienced 

1  Reference  of  the  sort  called  'conversion'  in  my  Vol.  I;  see  the  last  noteabove. 
2 '  Recurrent, '  that  is,  in  the  general  sense  of  duplicated  or  plural,  not 
necessarily  successive. 


/.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

be  one  or  many,  and  whether  the  observers  is  one  or  many. 
The  intent  of  community  therefore  is  essential  to  judgment  and 
is  independent  of  variations  in  the  other  characters,  especially 
of  variations  in  extension. 

This  result  appears  in  an  interesting  light  when  we  view  the 
three  cases  mentioned  in  the  reverse  order.  If  we  take  a  judg- 
ment of  a  single  individual's  recurrent  experience  of  one  object 
as  given,  we  may  ask  what  it  involves  besides  his  personal 
belief.  The  first  additional  element  of  the  meaning  is  found  to 
be  that  this  person  expects  his  judgment  to  be  confirmed  by  any 
one  else  who  may  experience  the  object.  That  is,  the  community 
intent  is  one  that  allows  the  substitution  of  another's  personal 
experiences  for  one's  own,  or  the  intercalation  of  that  person's 
experience  in  the  series  of  one's  own  as  in  all  respects  equivalent 
to  one's  own.  This  carries  over  the  meaning  to  the  case  men- 
tioned second  above  —  that  of  an  object  experienced  by  different 
observers. 

Another  implication  then  appears.  Whenever  occasions 
arise  in  which  a  judgment  of  identity  in  recurrence  fails  to 
establish  itself,  the  experiences  are  read  as  different  objects; 
that  is,  a  generalization  in  extension  takes  place,  whether  or  no 
there  actually  be  more  objects  than  one.  The  individual  re- 
marks, *  I  did  not  recognize  you  —  I  took  you  for  a  different 
man.'  This  is  precisely  the  same  result  as  if  different  individ- 
uals had  disagreed  in  their  several  reports  of  the  one  object. 
The  judgment  such  individuals  would  reach  after  conference  is 
that  there  are  two  objects  of  the  same  class,  and  this  is  the 
result  the  one  person  reaches  on  the  basis  of  recurrence.  The 
step  now  taken  is  that  whereby  the  single  individual's  treatment 
of  recurrent  experiences  of  one  object  is  logically  equivalent  to 
the  ordinary  generalization  by  one  or  more  persons  of  different 
particular  objects.  But  this  holds  entirely  and  only  within  the 
mode  of  community,  since  objectively  there  is  but  the  one 
object. 

We  here  come  upon  a  principle  which  may  be  formulated 
alongside  a  celebrated  historical  dictum,  the  *  identity,  or 
sameness,  of  indiscernibles.'  While  usually  associated  with 
the  name  of  Leibnitz,  on  account  of  his  use  of  it  in  his  theory  of 


THE  DIFFERENCE   OF  DISCERNIBLES.  399 

*  monads/  it  has  been  formulated  in  somewhat  different  senses 
by  various  thinkers.1  We  might  describe  it  in  Hegelian  terms 
as  the  principle  of  the  *  oneness  of  the  many,'  and  set  over 
against  it  a  principle  to  be  called  the  «  difference  of  discernibles  ' 
or  the  '  manyness  of  the  one.'  In  the  terms  of  our  present 
analysis,  the  *  identity  of  indiscernibles  '  means  in  principle 
that  in  the  absence  of  discernible  difference  two  or  more  ob- 
jects are  judged  to  be  one  and  the  same  in  recurrent  experi- 
ence. It  is  evident  that  we  have  here  the  process  of  individu- 
ating as  one,  objects  which  do  not  give  experience  of  difference. 
This  is,  therefore,  just  the  case  we  have  pointed  out  as  gener- 
alization in  community  and  not  in  extension.  The  experiences 
may  be  anybody's  or  everybody's ;  they  are  rendered  in  a  judg- 
ment of  singular  identity.  The  experiences  of  different  objects 
are  really  equivalent  to  those  resulting  from  the  recurrence  of 
one. 

The  same  movement  is  capable,  on  our  principles,  of  pre- 
cisely the  reverse  reading  —  the  reading  formulated  in  the 
phrase  *  difference  of  discernibles.'  A  single  object  is  ren- 
dered, by  reason  of  differences  discerned  in  its  several  appear- 
ances, as  more  than  one.  The  experience  passes  from  that  form 
in  which  a  single  object  is  found  to  recur  to  one  mind,  and  also 
from  that  in  which  it  appears  as  one  to  different  minds,  to  that 
in  which  its  several  cases  have  marks  of  difference  which  forbid 
the  individuation  as  one  object. 

The  principle  of  *  identity  of  indiscernibles,'  when  psycho- 
logically interpreted,  expresses  the  movement  in  community 
whereby  like  experiences  of  more  than  one  object  may  yield  an 
object  identified  as  one  ;  while  that  of  the  '  difference  of  discern- 
ibles '  expresses  the  movement  also  in  community  whereby 
unlike  experiences  of  one  object  may  lead  to  its  determination 
as  more  than  one.2 

Leibnitz,  Monadologie,  9,  and  Nouveaux  essais,  II.,  chap.  27,  $  i  ff.  For 
citations  from  other  authors  see  Eisler,  Worterbuch  d.  philos.  Begriffe^  Art. 
Identitatis  indiscernibilium. 

2  The  epistemological  bearings  of  these  principles  are  reserved  for  treat- 
ment in  the  later  volume.  Here  it  may  be  suggested,  however,  that  all  gen- 
eralization illustrates  the  « identity  of  indiscernibles  '  and  all  singularization 
illustrates  the  '  difference  of  discernibles.'  For  generalization  summarizes  the 


400  j.  MARK  BALDWIN. 

In  brief,  any  judgment,  by  reason  of  its  community  of  intent, 
may  be  read  in  any  one  of  three  ways :  as  meaning  (i)  more 
than  one  object,  appearing  to  one  person  or  many  ;  (2)  one  object 
only,  appearing  to  one  person  or  many ;  or  (3)  one  object 
only,  appearing  to  one  person  only.  The  process  of  generali- 
zation as  such,  considered  as  a  summarizing  of  likenesses  in 
recurrent  experience,  can  in  nowise  determine  which  of  these 
three  the  actual  meaning  is  to  be.  A  paranoiac  declares  that 
everybody  is  persecuting  him,  because  he  generalizes  recurrent 
experiences  as  all  fit  to  excite  his  fear  of  others ;  he  is  working 
under  the  principle  of  *  identity  of  indiscernibles.'  At  the  other 
extreme  we  may  cite  the  individual  we  call  '  subjective,'  who 
sees  always  in  our  conduct,  however  uniformly  kind,  new  and 
varied  signs  of  change.  He  in  turn  is  magnifying  the  *  differ- 
ence of  discernibles.'  The  actual  force  in  any  case  of  normal 
judgment  is  determined  by  the  control  factor,  the  coefficients  of 
fact  which  limit  the  meaning.  The  paranoiac's  constructions  do 
not  allow  the  control  that  the  actual  differences  in  his  attendants' 
action  should  secure ;  the  uniform  tide  of  his  fear  obliterates 
these  differences.  Nor  are  those  of  the  *  subjective '  man  con- 
trolled in  the  larger  meaning  of  kindliness  that  pervades  the 
variety  of  our  acts.  In  his  case,  the  pebbles  of  variety  choke 
the  tide  of  sameness.  Both  are  abnormal  in  that  the  actual 
facts  do  not  get  in  their  proper  work.1 

aspects  of  meaning  in  which  objects  are  indistinguishable  or  identical,  and  singu- 
larization  fixes  those  aspects  in  which  each  object  is  discernibly  different  from 
all  others.  We  now  see  that  this  latter  process,  the  logical  rendering  of  the 
singular,  explicitly  requires  the  intent  of  community,  a  result  which  shows  the 
radical  role  played  by  the  common  or  social  factor  in  all  the  processes  of  thought. 
1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  are  forms  of  speech  in  which  meanings 
based  on  the  recurrent  appearances  of  objects  are  recognized,  whether  such  ap- 
pearances are  to  one  person  or  many.  Propositions  in  which  the  predicate  is 
modified  by  the  words  '  sometimes,'  'often,'  'always,'  etc.,  may  embody  this 
meaning.  '  This  woman  is  always  vain  '  is  a  universal  in  appearance  ;  it  is  quanti- 
fied in  community ;  just  as  '  women  are  always  vain,'  equivalent  to  '  all  women  are 
vain,'  has  universal  quantity  in  extension.  Propositions  in  '  sometimes '  are  par- 
ticular in  community  (as  '  this  woman  is  sometimes  vain  ')  or  in  extension  (as 
4  women  are  sometimes  vain'),  or  in  both  (as  'some  women  are  sometimes  vain'). 
This  sort  of  proposition  rendering  variety  of  appearances,  which  change  with  time 
and  circumstance,  has  been  said  by  certain  logicians  to  have  multiple  quantifica- 
tion (see  Johnson  in  Mind,  1902,  on  'The  Logical  Calculus,'  and  Keynes, 
Formal  Logic,  sect.  70).  The  name  is  a  good  one,  since  the  two  aspects  of 


THE  DIFFERENCE  OF  DISCERNIBLES.        401 

I  have  also  found  reason,  in  the  detailed  discussions  from 
which  this  statement  is  extracted,  to  distinguish  two  modes 
within  the  meaning  of  community.  Community  '  for  whom  '  — 
the  intent  of  a  judgment  to  hold  for  many  individuals  as  for  one 
—  is  correlated  with  community  *  by  whom  '  —  the  further  in- 
tent to  suggest  that  the  meaning  may  not  be  universally  preva- 
lent or  catholic  as  a  fact,  but  may  be  actually  held  by  a  certain 
number  only.  It  is  evident  that  what  has  been  said  in  the  dis- 
cussion above  about  generalization  in  community,  holds,  in  the 
first  instance,  of  community  *  for  whom.'  The  question  may 
be  asked  whether  the  other  sort  of  community,  that  of  catho- 
licity, the  relative  commonness  of  the  content  as  actually  held 
in  different  minds,  has  any  logical  role. 

There  are  meanings,  and  of  course  forms  of  speech  fitted  to 
express  them>  which  not  only  recognize  the  recurrence  of  ap- 
pearances, as  basis  of  the  predication  made,  but  also  the  limi- 
tation of  these  appearances  to  a  restricted  number  of  persons. 
For  example,  the  propositions  *  there  are  observations  that  indi- 
cate that  Mars  is  inhabited,'  and  '  Mr.  Lowell  holds  that  Mars  is 
inhabited/  have  both  these  shades  of  meaning.  The  reference 
to  a  plurality  of  observers  may  indeed  be  the  more  emphatic  ele- 
ment as  in  the  proposition,  '  as  to  the  truth  of  evolution  there  is 
wide  agreement  among  biologists.'  Of  course,  every  one  would 
admit  that  such  meanings  can  be  expressed,  it  is  a  very  differ- 
ent thing  to  say  that  such  an  intent  is  always  present  in  the 
judgment.  But  if  we  are  right  in  holding  that  a  problematical 
shading  of  meaning  attaches  to  all  judgments  when  they  are 
actually  current ;  that  all  judgment  intends  personal  belief, 
which  is  expressed  in  order  to  silence  doubt  or  extend  convic- 
tion ;  in  short,  that  all  judgment  has  an  experimental  and  in- 
strumental force  —  then  here  in  this  mode  of  community  we 
should  find  its  variations.  Probably,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 

meaning  do  both  render  quantity ;  but  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the  quantification 
due  to  recurrent  appearances  of  one  object  can  be  brought  under  the  ordinary 
logical  doctrine  of  quantity  in  extension.  If  we  recognize,  however,  the  recur- 
rent appearances  of  one  object  to  one  mind  or  more  as  psychologically  equiva- 
lent to  the  recognitian  of  a  plurality  of  different  objects,  for  the  purposes  of 
generalization,  then  in  this  movement  which  gives  what  I  call  'community '  the 
additional  mode  of  quantity  arises. 


402  /.  MARK  BALD  WIN. 

majority  of  cultivated  people,  if  asked  whether  evolution  is  true, 
would  say  in  effect, '  yes,  most  of  the  best  biologists  accept  it/ 
The  ground  of  personal  acceptance  here  seems  to  be  relative 
prevalence  and  the  explicit  recognition  of  this  in  such  a  judg- 
ment as  that  last  cited,  brings  out  the  presupposition  of  the  mode 
of  community  *  by  whom  '  in  the  simple  judgment  of  truth. 
Often  the  conditions  of  the  appearance  of  the  object  or  event 
to  which  the  proposition  refers  require  a  meaning  in  catholicity. 
4  Shooting  stars  are  often  red,' *  sea-serpents  have  no  fins,'  'the 
moon  is  made  of  green  cheese/  are  propositions  that  require 
this  presupposition.  They  mean  to  report  a  certain  degree  of 
prevalence  of  the  opinion,  observation,  or  belief,  which  the 
proposition  renders,  as  well  as  to  cite  a  number  of  illustrative 
cases  or  appearances.  These  variations  in  prevalence  or  rela- 
tive catholicity  constitute  a  further  sort  of  quantification. 

The  implication  made  in  respect  to  prevalence  varies  from 
the  singularity  of  the  opinion  or  judgment  rendered  as  private, 
to  the  universality  of  an  appeal,  let  us  say,  to  the  catholicity  of 
«  common  sense.'  Between  these  lies  the  particular  quantity 
of  a  proposition  which  renders  the  common  judgment  of  a  limited 
group. 

The  three  modes  of  quantity  therefore  that  may  attach 
to  judgments  are  (i)  quantity  in  extension  (as  in  '  men  are 
sometimes  irritable '),  (2)  quantity  in  community  *  for  whom '  or 
'community  of  appearance'  (as  in  'John  is  sometimes  irri- 
table ')  and  (3)  quantity  in  community  '  by  whom  '  or  in  catholicity 
(as  in  «  we  all  find  John  irritable '). 


Psychological  review 


(ol 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY