MENTALITY AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS 



The metaphysical attributes of living organisms 

 have been given various designations such as 

 spirit, soul, mind, intelligence, and self-conscious- 

 ness. Since the present treatise deals primarily 

 with the chemical structure of living matter, we 

 shall consider these metaphysical attributes only 

 in so far as they are related to protoplasmic be- 

 havior and shall designate them as " mentality' ' 

 or " self-consciousness/ ' without attempting to 

 answer the question whether there can be asso- 

 ciated with the physical organism a separate 

 metaphysical entity. 



Mentality and self-consciousness must be re- 

 garded as manifestations of certain functional 

 activities of living matter and not as fluids, vibra- 

 tions, or other self-contained entities because 

 there is no satisfactory evidence to show that the 

 mind can reach out and act beyond those chemical 

 structures in which it originates, or that it has 

 continuity of existence in any form whatever after 

 the death of the individual. 



It is generally thought that mentality and self- 

 consciousness are possessed by only certain of the 

 higher animals, but when we observe the ener- 

 getic and persistent movements of some of the 



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