CONSCIOUSNESS AS A VITAL FUNCTION 309 



Under no circumstances may consciousness be 

 treated scientifically as a deus ex machina which acts 

 upon matter from the outside, but only as one of the 

 modes of behavior of matter in motion. There is no 

 alternative view which can be articulated with the 

 body of scientific laws as now known, nor is there any 

 reason for hypothecating any as yet undiscovered 

 principle of relationship of mind and matter which is 

 not congruous with the rest of our knowledge of na- 

 ture. The obvious and simple deduction from the 

 well-known facts of daily life, as well as from all that 

 we know of physiological psychology, is adequate for 

 all scientific purposes: mind is a function of the body. 



If we are to adopt a functional view of conscious- 

 ness, it must be with whole-hearted surrender of 

 cherished metaphysical idols without reservation, and 

 the conscious processes must be accepted as real 

 physiological functions which are knit into the vital 

 fabric in just the same way as are other modes of be- 

 havior of the living substance. 



The biologist reaches this conclusion, I repeat, not 

 by way of metaphysical speculation or traditional 

 philosophical analysis on a priori grounds; it is a 



this awareness, known only introspectively, which comprises the dis- 

 tinctive subject matter of introspective psychology; but one of the major 

 subdivisions of psychology, physiological psychology, is concerned chiefly 

 with the problem of the synthesis of the introspective data with the 

 data of physiology and anatomy, that is, with the redintegration of the 

 biological unity which is dissociated in sophisticated experience as sub- 

 jective and objective. 



