DESCRIPTIVE TECHNIQUES 111 



neglective. Perception is incapable of grasping events of 

 more than a moderate degree of complexity, whether the 

 complexity is spatial, temporal, or qualitative. Hence at- 

 tention proceeds by focusing itself upon that core of the 

 perceptual field which is considered to be especially relevant, 

 and by either neglecting the remainder entirely or else 

 merging it into the background of consciousness and at- 

 tending to it only vaguely. In this way simple events, and 

 events of only a moderate complexity, become isolated from 

 their environmental associates and considered as individu- 

 als. It is recognized that the neglect is not necessarily a 

 denial of the existence of the associates but merely a dis- 

 regard of them for the purpose of the problem at hand. 

 One notes, simply, that the complex seems to exist and vary 

 in relative independence of its environmental factors, and 

 one concludes, on this basis, that the complex is neutral 

 to the system in which it is found. "We talk of objects, 

 tables and chairs, as if they were systems neutral to their 

 environments. We shift our furniture from one house to 

 another, and the shape of the table and the comfort of the 

 easy-chair are unaffected by the change of location. We 

 take it for granted because we have found it so. If the 

 softness of an easy-chair varied with the room in which 

 it was placed it is possible that we should not regard it as 

 the completely separate and isolated object we do. We 

 might possibly widen the conception of chair to chair- 

 room. . . . The first function of experimental inquiry is, 

 if possible, to find precisely how little of an environment need 

 be included to render a system neutral." 1 The more refined 

 and controlled activities of science are continuous with the 

 common sense procedures. The concept of an isolated 

 system, which plays so large a part in scientific enquiry, is 

 simply the notion of perceptual object made precise. 



Is isolation a transforming operation? This question 

 cannot, perhaps, be answered in general. There is reason 

 to believe that every event is related to every other event 



1 H. Levy, Universe of Science, pp. 50, 51, 52. 



