52 C. U. ARIENS KAPPERS 



ones, he is accompanied by the secret fears of those whom he leaves 

 behind at the work-table of special research, and he is received with 

 justifiable distrust by those whom he salutes as the denizens of the 



empire of speculation Thus he is in danger of losing 



with the former and of not gaining with the latter. 



These words are very true, but still this danger did not make 

 him refrain from expressing his thoughts on a subject that we all 

 as biologists both love and fear — natural philosophy in the 

 widest sense of the term. 



That this same danger threatens me, who not only consider 

 memory, but also association and attention (concentration) as 

 general functions of organized matter, is clear. It was therefore, 

 not without some hesitation, that I sent this paper to the editor 

 of The Journal of Comparative Neurology. Its title sounds a 

 little bold in the ears of most biologists. 



I also thought it better at first to change 'logetic' in its title 

 into 'logical.' Since, however, we are accustomed to consider 

 logic, reason, as something that is peculiar to conscious thinking, 

 and there will be question here of a general principle of life, 

 which, with other faculties but according to similar laws, also 

 operates outside conscious thinking, I have preferred to use the 

 w 7 ord 'logetic' to indicate a broader idea of 'logos', formerly used 

 to give expression to something that is more than that small part 

 of reason of w r hich we become conscious in our 'logical' thinking. 



I do not want to be misunderstood. I do not mean to say that 

 logical 'thinking' accompanies the somatic development, nor that 

 a tissue differentiation of the same form that obtains in the soma 

 accompanies the building up of our spiritual life. No spirituali- 

 zation of the somatic, therefore, nor a materialization of the spir- 

 itual. I only want to point out that one and the same principle 

 of life, w r hich Aristotle called 'psyche,' 3 with other faculties, but 

 ruling with similar conformities, is peculiar to both, and leads in 

 both to results which are different in effect, but which agree in 



3 So this is a psycho in ;i much wider sense than it has been used in the word 

 'psychology.' Cf. Hammond, Aristotle's Psychology. A Treatise on the Prin- 

 ciple of Life. De Anima, book 1, chapter 5, Alinca 31: "parts of the soul are all 

 found in every one of these bodily divisions and they are of like with each other 

 and with the out ire soul." 



