Emergence and Variability 425 



also from the arrangement of matter. Moreover, as we know, it hap- 

 pens that properties, which appear and disappear in synthesis and analysis, 

 cannot be considered as simple addition or pure subtraction of properties 

 of the constituent bodies. Thus, for example, the properties of oxygen 

 and hydrogen do not account for the properties of water, which result, 

 nevertheless, from combining them. 



*' I do not intend to go into those difficult yet fundamental prob- 

 lems about the relative properties of combined or combining bodies; they 

 will find their proper place elsewhere. I shall here only repeat that phe- 

 nomena merely express the relations of bodies, whence it follows that, 

 by dissociating the parts of a whole, we must make phenomena cease, 

 if only because we destroy the relations. It follows, also, in physiology 

 that analysis, which teaches us the properties of isolated elementary parts, 

 can never give us more than a most incomplete ideal synthesis; just as 

 knowing a solitary man would not bring us knowledge of all the insti- 

 tutions which result from man's association, and which can reveal them- 

 selves only through social life. In a word, when we unite physiological 

 elements, properties appear which were imperceptible in the separate ele- 

 ments. We must therefore always proceed experimentally in vital synthe- 

 sis, because quite characteristic phenomena may result from more and 

 more complex union or association of organized elements. All this proves 

 that these elements, though distinct and self-dependent, do not there- 

 fore play the part of simple associates; their union expresses more than 

 addition of their separate properties. I am persuaded that the obstacles 

 surrounding the experimental study of psychological phenomena are 

 largely due to difficulties of this kind; for despite their marvelous char- 

 acter and the delicacy of their manifestations, I find it impossible not to 

 include cerebral phenomena, like all other phenomena of living bodies, in 

 the laws of scientfic determinatism." ^ 



Emergence and Variability 



The child alone is a different being from the child in 

 school, or in his own gang, or among strangers: in each situa- 

 tion there emerges something distinctive. Every person has 

 had the experience of feeling himself affected in distinct 

 ways by various other persons. It is not merely that each 



^ From translation by H. C. Greene, Introduction to the Study of 

 Experimental Medicine (pp. 90-91), New York, 1927. 



