ORGANIC MOVEMENTS 73 



answering reactions, or still better, individualised answering 

 reactions, that actions seem to be beyond the reach of 

 mechanical explanation. 



A few words may not be out of place with regard to the 

 different possible kinds of " individuality " that stimuli and 

 effects in acting may acquire. The individualised effects 

 of action, as will easily be understood, may be composed 

 according to order in time exclusively, like a phrase in a 

 conversation or a melody, or according to time and space, 

 like all objects of art or handicraft. The individualised 

 stimuli may belong to the two classes just mentioned, but 

 there is also a third class which is composed specifically 

 only with regard to space : the perfect object of art or 

 handicraft as a stimulus belongs here, and so does any 

 typical object, any " Gegenstand." Also this last class of 

 stimuli possesses an individual wholeness, as a table or a dog, 

 for instance. We meet here the problem we met already 

 when dealing with the problematic stimuli of instincts. 

 The dog, " this dog," " my dog " is " the same '' stimulus, 

 seen from any side or at any angle whatever : it always is 

 recognised as " the same," though the actual retina image 

 differs in every case. It is absolutely impossible to under- 

 stand this fact on the assumption of any kind of preformed 

 material recipient in the brain, corresponding to the stimulus 

 in question, 1 even if we intentionally neglect the fact that 

 the material recipient would have been created ~by the 

 stimulus in the individual's life : a recipient for the dog 

 seen from the side would not suffice for identifying the 

 dog from behind ! In fact to speak psychologically 



1 Such an attempt has lately been made by von Uexkuell (Zcitschr. f. 

 Biol. 50, 1907). 



