408 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



of nature may be appropriately replaced by the laws of facts, the only 

 laws that any ideal whatever can intelligently appeal to. Gifted men are, 

 however, devoting their time and wits to debating questions which would 

 not exist save for the survival of three primitive ideas — God, the soul, the 

 universe. The ideas of God and the universe were united in pantheism to 

 give the idea of the absolute, and from the idea of the soul was derived 

 the concept of mental states which yielded the idealistic conception of 

 consciousness. Modern technical observation does not substantiate any 

 claim to existential validity for these ideas. Their persistence, therefore, 

 in disguised forms, as the presuppositions of problems which men feel 

 obliged to discuss, is a burden for intelligence in the study of philosophy. 

 That part of anthropology which is devoted to the study of origins ought 

 to be the means of liberating many from the perplexities of artificial 

 problems. Disguised theological reminiscence should not continue to be 

 an obstacle to thoroughgoing empiricism. 

 The Section then adjourned. 



R. S. WOODWORTH, 



Secretary. 



BUSINESS MEETING. 

 March 7, 1910. 



The Academy met at 8:15 p. m. at the American Museum of Natural 

 History, Vice-President George F. Kunz presiding in the absence of 

 President Kemp. 



The minutes of the last business meeting were read and approved. 



The following candidate for active membership in the Academy, recom- 

 mended by Council, was duly elected : 



Rev. J. L. Zabriskie, 28 Regent Place, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



The Recording Secretary then brought forward an amendment to the 

 Constitution, making the fourth sentence of Article II read, "Correspond- 

 ing and Honorary Members shall be chosen from among persons who have 

 attained distinction in some branch of science." 



On motion, the above amendment, having been proposed in due form 

 at a preceding meeting of the Academy, was unanimously adopted. 

 The Academy then adjourned. 



Edmund Otis Hovey, 



Recording Secretary. 



