CONSCIOUSNESS AND EXPERIENCE 245 



something so distinct as to be capable of treatment 

 without involving larger issues. In this inquiry 

 we take as representative some such account of the 

 science as this: Psychology deals with conscious 

 ness &quot; as such &quot; in its various modes and processes. 

 It aims at an isolation of each such as will permit 

 accurate description: at statement of its place in 

 the serial order such as will enable us to state the 

 laws by which one calls another into being, or as 

 will give the natural history of its origin, matur 

 ing, and dissolution. It is both analytic and syn 

 thetic analytic in that it resolves each state into 

 its constituent elements; synthetic in that it dis 

 covers the processes by which these elements com 

 bine into complex wholes and series. It leaves 

 alone it shuts out questions concerning the 

 validity, the objective import of these modifica 

 tions : of their value in conveying truth, in effect 

 ing goodness, in constituting beauty. For it is 

 just with such questions of worth, of validity, that 

 philosophy has to do. 



Some such view as this is held by the great 

 majority of working psychologists to-day. A va 

 riety of reasons have conspired to bring about 

 general acceptance. Such a view seems to enroll 

 one in the ranks of the scientific men rather than 

 of the metaphysicians and there are those who 

 distrust the metaphysicians. Others desire to take 

 problems piecemeal and in detail, avoiding that ex- 



