2 78 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



is likewise a new creation out of the old materials. The 

 appearance of Personality, therefore, marks a new departure. 

 It is not merely an addition to the universe but involves 

 an organic transformation of it. On this lofty pedestal 

 psychology and philosophy alike place the personal self or 

 Personality; and surely in this apparent anthropomorphism 

 they are right. 



But it is perhaps doubtful whether they have fully 

 appreciated the implications of their action. Neither 

 psychology nor philosophy has made much of the Person- 

 ality except to look upon it as a peg on which to hang the 

 universe. The Personality as a point of reference, the 

 Personality as a great Signpost in the universe appears to 

 them all-important. But in itself, in what it is, in what its 

 uniqueness consists, they have not taken any very pro- 

 found interest. Now in this they seem to me to have missed 

 the real point, and in consequence they have failed to 

 appreciate the real, as distinct from the merely formal 

 importance of the factor of Personality in the universe. 



The treatment that psychology has given to Personality 

 is another instance of this failure to appreciate its real and 

 unique significance. Psychology as a scientific discipline 

 deals with the human mind, not in its individual uniqueness, 

 but in its general character as distinguishing all human 

 beings. The individual within the purview of psychology 

 is the generalised individual, the average individual, not the 

 real individual, but the individual which is the creature of 

 an intellectual abstraction. In its treatment psychology 

 is, of course, only following the general procedure of Science, 

 which is not concerned with the individual as such, but with 

 the common characters of individuals, with the specific 

 type more than the actual individual. Thus if Science deals 

 with a plant or an animal it may be any individual of the 

 particular species under consideration. The individual dif- 

 ferences are generally considered negligible, and one indi- 

 vidual is for purposes of scientific treatment as a rule the 

 same as any other individual. Science is a generalising 

 scheme and must necessarily ignore individual differences. 



