6 TITCHENER— " PSYCHOLOGY AS THE [April 3. 



The second general impression that I record is that of the logical 

 irrelevance of Watson's programme to what is currently called psy- 

 chology. For suppose that that programme were carried out to its 

 last detail: how would introspective psychology be affected? Why, 

 those who were interested in the method and results of introspection 

 would simply start out where Watson had left off; the universalistic 

 psychology being completed, it would be in order for the individual- 

 istic to be begun. A shift of standpoint over against the world of 

 experience means the appearance of a new subject-matter, or (more 

 strictly) of a new aspect of the common subject-matter; and any 

 one aspect has the same claim to scientific consideration as any other ; 

 nor is there in science a Congregation of the Index to allow this and 

 to forbid that. The behaviorist may, if he will, ignore " conscious- 

 ness in a psychological sense " ; he may use consciousness as a tool 

 without making it "a special object of observation"; there is none 

 to say him nay ; but why should not some one who is not a behavior- 

 ist scrutinize what he has ignored, and try to find out empirically of 

 what materials this particular tool is made? Logically, so far as I 

 can see, behaviorism is irrelevant to introspective psychology. 

 Materially, I believe that psychology will be furthered by it, since 

 increased knowledge of the bodily mechanisms, of anything that 

 pertains to Avenarius' System C, means greater stability of certain 

 parts of the system of psychology. Neither logically nor materially 

 can behaviorism " replace " psychology. 



Impressions, however, must give way to closer argument : we 

 must view Watson's articles at shorter range. And we shall, per- 

 haps, make most progress if we begin with his pronouncements re- 

 garding the failure of experimental psychology. 



Psychology, we are told, has failed signally, during the fifty-odd 

 years of its existence, to make good its claim as a natural science. 

 Its present condition is chaotic. The chances are that such ques- 



tliat the "human psychologist" does or fails to do "drive" the behaviorist 

 to do anything? I hope that Watson will find the opportunity to employ 

 human subjects; I hope that he will find them (he will pardon the word) 

 intelligent; I shall be honestly interested in his results. 



