Editorial. 385 



the mental life of animals."' Claparede believes in the legitimacy 

 of comparative psychology for the present, as is clear from the 

 follow^ing, but he suggests that physiology may some time fill the 

 demands which are now made upon the science of mind. "Is 

 comparative psychology legitimate t Yes, as much so as is human 

 psychology. When the physiologist shall have reared beside psy- 

 chology a brain physiology, I mean a true physiology not the psy- 

 chological copy which they present to us under' that name, — a 

 physiology capable ot speaking alone, without failing if psychology 

 does not whisper to it word by word what it ought to say, — we 

 shall see then whether there is any advantage in the suppression of 

 human psychology and, therefore, of comparative psychology. But 

 we are not there yet."- It is not clear why psychology should be 

 suppressed by the progress of physiology; rather might we expect 

 it to be extended and developed. 



But what is the value of comparative psychology .? Granted 

 its legitimacy, how does it justify its existence .^ 



In experience we have a vast assemblage of inferences concern- 

 ing conscious states beyond ourselves — this is the material of the 

 science of comparative psychology, just as another portion of the 

 experience of the self is the material of physics, another of physiol- 

 ogy, another of astronomy. From this point of view comparative 

 psychology is a part of the psychology of the self. The pertinent 

 question is. Can the chemist justify his inferences concerning the 

 existence of matter more satisfactorily than the comparative psy- 

 chologist can justify his inferences concerning consciousness in 

 other organisms .^ We have nothing to gam, much to lose, by deny- 

 . ing the legitimacy of our inferences. As scientists it is our busi- 

 ness to investigate their bases, the materials upon which the infer- 

 » ences rest. The comparative psychologist seeks to discover the 

 developmental history of consciousness. To say at the outset that 

 there is no such history, or that we can never know anything about 

 it is, to put it mildly, unscientific. We may rest assured that com- 

 parative psychology will not survive in the struggle for existence 

 c mong the natural sciences unless it justifies its existence by the 

 perfecting of man's ability to adjust himself to his social environ- 



'Claparede, E. The Consciousness of Animals. Translated from the French by \Vm. Harper 

 Davis. The International Quarterly. Vol. 8, p. 313. 1903. 



^Claparede, E. La Psychologie comparee est-elle legitime ? Archives de psychologic. Vol. 5, 

 p. 35. 1905. 



