Sketch of an Organismal Theory of Consciousness 883 



world, in entering upon the present discussion I must em- 

 phasize this more than ever and must call attention to the 

 particular character of this importance in our present un- 

 dertaking. 



The natural history method of viewing organic beings is 

 per se the comprehensive method, one of its best mottos 

 being, as we have repeatedly seen, "neglect nothing." That 

 knowledge of organisms separates itself sharply into de- 

 partments is no deterrent to the naturalist against utilizing 

 any knowledge he may come upon that will contribute to his 

 main aim that of understanding organisms. Who or what 

 shall restrain me from observing and carefully thinking 

 about any fact of my own being which promises to help me 

 on my road to such understanding? The foremost zoolo- 

 gists, of modern times especially, have amply recognized and 

 freely used this principle so far as all physical and some of 

 the lower psychical attributes are concerned. But w T hen it 

 comes to man's higher psychical attributes, zoologists have 

 usually said, sometimes expressly, sometimes tacitly, that 

 these belong to a wholly different realm, a realm with which 

 we have little or nothing to do. And their position of 

 "hands off' as touching man's higher psychic life, has re- 

 ceived the readier, fuller sanction in that it has accorded 

 well with the prevalent views and practices of those students, 

 anthropologists, economists, sociologists, and ethicists who 

 have made these higher reaches of human life their special 

 fields of inquiry. But the course of nature can not be per- 

 manently thwarted. Such an attempt to wrench human life 

 asunder is bound to fail finally. In the several subdivisions 

 of biology, normal advance has tended to stay the wrenching 

 process, comparative psychology being notable in this ten- 

 dency. 



The opposition to such organic disunion consistently 

 maintained throughout this book reaches its culmination in 

 these chapters on psychic integration. In what follows we 



