FUNDAMENTAL FACTS n 



physiologists and psychologists consider the purpose- 

 fulness of the psychic action as the essential element. 

 If an animal or an organ reacts as a rational man 

 would do under the same circumstances, these authors 

 declare that we are dealing with a phenomenon of 

 consciousness. In this way many reflexes, the in- 

 stincts especially, are looked upon as psychic func- 

 tions. Consciousness has been ascribed even to the 

 spinal cord, because many of its functions are pur- 

 poseful. We shall see in the following chapters 

 that many of these reactions are merely tropisms 

 which may occur in exactly the same form in plants. 

 Plants must therefore have a psychic life, and, follow- 

 ing the argument, we must ascribe it to machines 

 also, for the tropisms depend only on simple mechan- 

 ical arrangements. In the last analysis, then, we 

 would arrive at molecules and atoms endowed with 

 mental qualities. 



We can dispose of this view by the mere fact that 

 the phenomena of embryological development and of 

 organisation in general show a degree of purposeful- 

 ness which may even surpass that of any reflex or 

 instinctive or conscious act. And yet we do not 

 consider the phenomena of development to be depend- 

 ent upon consciousness. 



On the other hand, physiologists who have appre- 

 ciated the untenable character of such metaphysical 

 speculations have held that the only alternative is 

 to drop the search for the mechanisms underlying 

 consciousness and study exclusively the results of 



