CONSCIOUSNESS AND EXPERIENCE 243 



they aim at arousing such different impulses and at 

 organizing them according to such different pur 

 poses, that the psychology arising in each must 

 show a different temper. 



In this sense, psychology is a political science. 

 While the professed psychologist, in his conscious 

 procedure, may easily cut his subject-matter loose 

 from these practical ties and references, yet the 

 starting point and goal of his course are none the 

 less socially set. In this conviction I venture to 

 introduce to an audience that could hardly be 

 expected to be interested in the technique of psy 

 chology, a technical subject, hoping that the 

 human meaning may yet appear. 



There is at present a strong, apparently a grow 

 ing tendency to conceive of psychology as an ac 

 count of the consciousness of the individual, con 

 sidered as something in and by itself; conscious 

 ness, the assumption virtually runs, being of such 

 an order that it may be analyzed, described, and 

 explained in terms of just itself. The statement, 

 as commonly made, is that psychology is an ac 

 count of consciousness, qua consciousness ; and the 

 phrase is supposed to limit psychology to a certain 

 definite sphere of fact that may receive adequate 

 discussion for scientific purposes, without troubling 

 itself with what lies outside. Now if this concep 

 tion be true, there is no intimate, no important 

 connection of psychology and philosophy at large. 



