1914] BEHAVIORIST VIEWS IT." 5 



On these two points, all psychologists, however extreme their differences in 

 other regards, are found to agree."^^ 



Not Watson himself could be more outspoken or more severe! 

 But we need not go back to Comte and the thirties ; we need go only 

 to Cournot and the year 185 1. After a sharp criticism of intro- 

 spection, Cournot writes : 



" So we see that the most useful observations on the intellectual and 

 moral nature of man, observations gathered not by philosophers disposed to 

 theories and systems, but by men gifted with the true spirit of observation 

 and prepared to grasp the practical side of things, — by moralists, historians, 

 men of affairs, legislators, instructors of youth, — have not as a rule been 

 the fruit of a solitary contemplation and an internal study of the facts of 

 consciousness, but far rather the result of an attentive study of the behavior 

 (conduite) of men placed in various situations, subjected to passions and 

 influences of all sorts.''^* 



Here we are hardly without the circle of those " fifty-odd years " 

 which Watson believes — how mistakenly ! — have been " devoted to 

 the study of states of consciousness."^^ It would not be difficult to 

 cross that line ;^'^ but it is unnecessary. My point is that Watson's 

 behaviorism is neither so revolutionary nor so modern as a reader 

 unversed in history might be led to imagine ; and that as psychology 

 has weathered similar proposals in the past, — and, I hope and think, 

 has benefited by the storm, — so also it may weather and be benefited 

 by this latest trial of its staunchness.^''' 



^3 A. Comte, " Cours de philosophic positive," III., 1838, 774 ff. ; the trans- 

 lation of H. Martineau ("The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte," 1856, 

 383 f.) is here inadequate. The polemic against introspection will be found 

 in " Cours," I., 1830, 34 ff. 



i*A. A. Cournot, " Essai sur les fondements de nos connaissances," etc., 

 II., 1851, 319. 



15 A, 174. I have shown in my " Experimental Psychology " that the ex- 

 perimental period falls into fairly well-marked sub-periods. 



16 I have especially in mind Lange's chapter on " Scientific Psychology " 

 (1866) and Maudsley's on the "Method of the Study of Mind" (1867 and 

 later). 



1^ " Should human psychologists fail to look with favor upon our over- 

 tures and refuse to modify their position," Watson writes, " the behaviorists 

 will be driven to using human beings as subjects and to employ methods of 

 investigation which are exactly comparable to those now employed in the 

 animal work" (^,159). The "overtures" seem to consist in the familiar 

 " Ducky, ducky, come and be killed ! " But, that apart, why should anything 



