2 TITCHENER— " PSYCHOLOGY AS THE [April 3. 



Instead, however, of calling psychology with Ward the " science 

 of experience regarded objectively from the individualistic stand- 

 point," or with Avenarius the " science of experience in general, so 

 far as experience depends upon System C," or with Kiilpe the 

 "science of the facts of experience in their dependency upon ex- 

 periencing individuals," or something of that sort, we are accus- 

 tomed to speak of it as the " science of mind." No harm would be 

 done, if we and our readers always remembered what " mind," as 

 used in a scientific context, must mean. Harm begins at once when 

 we forget that scientific meaning, and start out from the common- 

 sense or traditional significance of the word; when we equate 

 "mind" with "consciousness," which we take as the equivalent of 

 " awareness," and when we set off a group of " conscious phenom- 

 ena" as the peculiar subject-matter of psychology. I do not think 

 that modern psychologists can fairly be charged with neglect of their 

 duty to correct these errors ; it seems to me, on the contrary, that 

 our leaders are painfully careful to set their house in logical order. 

 But habits of speech are inveterate, and common sense is extra- 

 ordinarily tenacious of life : small wonder, then, that misunder- 

 standings should arise. It is, for example, a misunderstanding that 

 has prompted the polemical paragraphs of Watson's recent articles 

 on what, I suppose, we must be content to call Behaviorism. - 



This doctrine, as set forth by Watson, has two sides, positive and 

 negative. On the positive side, psychology is required to exchange 

 its individualistic standpoint for the universalistic ; it is to be " a 

 purely objective experimental branch of natural science " in the 

 sense in which physics and chemistry are natural sciences.^ It is to 

 concern itself solely with the changes set up, by way of receiving 

 organ and nervous system, in muscle and gland.* It is differentiated 

 from its sister sciences of life partly by its special point of view, 

 partly by the goal which it strives to attain. The changes which it 



2 J. B. Watson, " Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," Psych. Rev., 

 XX., 1913, 158 ff. (to be referred to in the future as A) ; " Image and Aflfec- 

 tion in Behavior," Jour. Phil. Psych. Set. Meth., X., 1913, 421 flf. (to be re- 

 ferred to in the future as B). 



3^, 158, 176 f. 



* B, A27 f . 



