AUTHOR 8 ABSTRACT OF THIS PAPER ISSUED 

 BT THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC SERVICE, AUGUST 11 



THE LOGETIC CHARACTER OF GROWTH 1 



C. U. ARIENS KAPPERS 



Amsterdam 



TWO FIGURES 



That growth is wonderfully logical in its results, as a rule, 

 has often struck biological students. This has led me to raise 

 the questions: Is there perhaps a connection between what we 

 call logical reasoning and the logic of growth? May the rules 

 of logical reasoning be analogous to those in the logic of growth? 



This question has been raised before 2 in the following form: 

 May introspection be considered not only as a psychological 

 method (nobody will doubt that), but also as a biological one? 

 In other words: Have peculiarities which we experience in our 

 psychic life a general biological significance, and if so, to what 

 extent? 



The answer to this question will not always be the same, and 

 in general it may be said that great circumspection is necessary 

 here, and that, though there may be common points of agree- 

 ment, the characteristic nature of the rational functions, of the 

 instinctive actions, and of the somatic development should not be 

 lost sight of. 



Hence, when, in 1870, Hering delivered his lecture in Vienna, 

 "On Memory as a General Function of Organized Matter," he 

 rightly began with the following very true words: 



When the naturalist leaves the workshop of his limited special re- 

 searches, and ventures on an excursion into the domain of philosophi- 

 cal speculations, where he hopes to find the solution of those great prob- 

 lems for the sake of which he devotes his days to solving the small 



1 Read before the Sixteenth Dutch Congress for Natural and Medical 

 Sciences. The Hague. 



2 See, for instance, C. J. Herrick, Introspection as a biological method, Jour. 

 Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, vol. 12, 1915. 



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