PAPERS OX PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 476 



construct and transform what he finds into similarity 

 to his artistic ideal. The artist is creative, and true cre- 

 ation starts with the ideal which it aims to embody in a 

 concrete form. Artistic creation can be explained only 

 by assuming that the psychical life has ideal tendencies. 



We may proceed to study the percept from the stand- 

 point of its mechanism. We may say that it is the pro- 

 duct of sensory experiences, which leave retention traces 

 in varying degrees of complexity. When subsequently 

 any one of the particular stimuli that figured in the orig- 

 inal is experienced, it tends to reproduce the whole com- 

 plex of previous experience. There is, however, another 

 aspect to perception. It has an important function for 

 the organism. At any time when a stimulus is exper- 

 ienced the organism anticipates the experiences asso- 

 ciated with it, thus enabling the organism to make favor- 

 able adjustments to consequences which it anticipates. 

 In the strict sense of the term the percept is an ideal 

 construction, perhaps never an adequate construction, 

 for the organization of sensuous experiences, and func- 

 tions as a plan for action. 



The higher forms of thought disclose more clearly 

 their teleological aspects. Thinking starts with a felt 

 need. The thinker recognizes the need of something not 

 possessed. The possession of the longed for becomes 

 the pressing problem. The solution of the problem con- 

 sists in the dramatic rehearsal of all possible suggestions 

 and the final adoption of the suggestion which carries 

 with it the best evidence of its adequacy. In a genuine 

 thought activity the problem is a new one and the solu- 

 tion also must be novel. It always requires a readjust- 

 ment of the mechanism of the past with reference to a 

 future or ideal contingency. 



I think a study of the facts we have fragment aril y 

 pointed out thus far lead us to assume that the psychical 

 is a life proceeding to organize its experiences into a 

 consistent and harmonious character. It not only pre 

 serves the memories of the past but also makes a fore- 

 cast of the things that are yet to come. It is impelled 

 by the conviction of a causal interrelationship of all phe- 

 nomena of experience and is impelled to recognize that 



