BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



placing environmental influences as the major determi- 

 nation. The "behavioristic" position (in Watson's nar- 

 rower sense) has staked everything on environment. 

 Apparently the argument is based on the "conditioning" 

 of the original "conditioned reflex," as exemplified in the 

 Pavlov salivation response in the dog, in which, after 

 salivation is induced both by the presence of food and so 

 arbitrary a stimulus as the sound of a gong, the physiologi- 

 cal reaction is set off for a time by the sound alone — an 

 interesting observation, but one with limited application. 

 Another support is found in the small number of built-in 

 reflexes in the human infant, ready to function at birth, 

 and the ease with which a stimulus may be directed to one 

 form of response (fondling) as opposed to another (shrink- 

 ing). Whether an infant fears or fondles a dog can fairly 

 well be directed if one starts right; and the same is true in 

 terms of fearing snakes and mice. All this is familiar and 

 finds its explanation in the genetic unfoldment of the 

 reaction paths. Yet upon this slight foundation has been 

 reared the monumental structure of a psychology that 

 assimilates all learning to "conditioning," ignores original 

 bent and limitations, and magnifies training to a command- 

 ing influence in disregard of specific endowment. 



The confusions and ignorings involved in this position 

 are too many to be exposed in a sentence; they illustrate to 

 what glaring contradictions a strict environmentalism 

 would lead. As a fact the trainability and plasticity of the 

 central nervous system — increasingly noticeable as the 

 higher centers or patterns of integration are involved — 

 bring it about that we humans are singularly free from 

 "conditioning," and in that freedom lies the clue to our 

 learning power. Occasionally, perhaps frequently, we may 

 succumb and may even shape the fortunes of habit to our 

 service; but all that is incidental to the "unconditioned" 

 areas of the productive, flexible mental life. What writer 



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