TO BRAIN MECHANISMS AND LEARNING 



experimental psychology tmds in his discoveries the guiding principle 

 that will link up the numerous observations already niade and put investi- 

 gators on the way to new fruitful discoveries. 



'Every educated man', Pisarev continued, 'must make himself familiar 

 with the ideas of this thinker and, therefore, I think it fitting and useful to 

 give our readers a clear and fairly detailed exposition of the new theory. 

 In it, readers will find the rigorous precision of an exact science, the 

 boundless breadth of philosophical generalization and, finally, the 

 superior and irreplaceable beauty which is the mark of vigorous and 

 healthy human thought. Darwin, Lyell and thinkers like them are the 

 philosophers, the poets, the aestheticians of our time. When human reason, 

 in the person of its most brilliant representatives, has succeeded in rising 

 to a height from which it can survey the basic laws of universal life, we 

 ordinary people, unable to be creative in the realm of thought, owe it to 

 our own human dignity to raise ourselves at least enough to be able to 

 understand the leading brilliant minds, to appreciate their great achieve- 

 ments, to love them as the ornament and pride of our race; to live in 

 thought in the bright and boundless realm that they open for every 

 thinking being. We are wealthy and powerful through the works of these 

 great men.' 



A second early influence upon Pavldv was provided by the writings of 

 Sechenov (1935). Later in his career, Pavlov referred (1928) to the begin- 

 ning study of higher nervous activity with the objective techniques of 

 conditional reflex physiology: 'The most important motive for my 

 decision, even though an unconscious one, arose out of the impression 

 made upon me during my youth by the monograph of I. M. Sechenov, 

 the Father of Russian physiology, entitled Cerebral Reflexes and published 

 in 1863. The influence of thoughts which are strong by virtue of their 

 novelty and truth, especially when they act during youth, remains deep 

 and permanent, even though concealed. In this book, a brilliant attempt 

 was made, altogether extraordinary for that time, to represent our 

 subjective world from the standpoint of neurophysiology.' 



In a report on objective study of higher nervous activity in 191 3, 

 Pavlov (1928) began: 'With full justice, Charles Darwin must be counted 

 as the founder and instigator of the contemporary comparative study of 

 the higher vital phenomena of animals; for, as is known to every educated 

 person, through his highly original support of the idea of evolution, he 

 fertilized the whole mentahty of mankind, especially in the field of 

 biology. The hypothesis of the origin of man from animals gave a great 

 impetus to the study of the higher phenomena of animal life. The answer 



