THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CORE: MASTER FACULTY 119 



agents of nature V^ and through them we understand why, 

 among possible 'faculties', certain ones are 'masters' in certain 1 



cases and not in others. i 



Because they exist as 'abstracts', we come to know universals 

 by a process of 'abstraction'. ^o Some of our 'general ideas' cor- ] 



respond to, are copies of, real things; others, like mathematical ' 



ideas, are models, whose objects are possible, rather than actual. 

 We construct the latter as preliminary outlines which, though only ! 



approximations of reality, 'have a relation with things' "^i and, if 

 properly derived, may be made to agree with them; some become 

 the ideals by which we regulate our conduct and make our judg- 1 



ments concerning Utility, Beauty, and Good. A footnote here 

 refers the reader to The Philosophy of Art and The Ideal in Art, and 

 the issues raised by this discussion, as well as the concluding 

 chapter on 'The Explanatory Reason of Things', must be post- 

 poned till we consider the general problem of the relations between 

 type analysis and judgment in Taine (Chapters XI-XII). 



Three Meanings of Master Faculty 



Now, perhaps, we are in a better position to understand what 

 Taine intended by his concept of Master Faculty. As with Race, 

 Environment, and Time, so here too a few words are used to 

 cover an extremely complex and diverse set of ideas. At least three 

 usages can be readily distinguished: the first is a kind of neutral 

 connotation in which the concept, if not always the phrase, is 

 applied to things as well; the other two refer to people, considered 

 first as individuals and then in social groups. 



Thus, when Taine writes of art as making predominant an 

 'essential character', he is using a neutral term which can be, and 

 as a matter of fact is, applied to both living and non-living things. "^ 2 

 The 'character' of a person consists of his powers or 'faculties', and 

 what is 'essential' in him is his 'Master' faculty. Though it may 

 sound fanciful to describe such ideas as that of a leaf in botany or 

 of 'electrical action' in chemistry or of gravity in physics'^ ^ as their 

 respective 'master faculties', that is the frame of reference within 

 which Taine is operating, and such a usage is not incompatible 

 with his general pantheistic tendency. 



However, the specific term which is applicable to human beings 

 is the psychological 'faculty', and in that connection, as we have 

 already seen, the term is used with reference either to an individual 

 or to a 'people', race, or nation. When Taine says that a certain 



