CONSCIOUSNESS AND EXPERIENCE 265 



psychology and philosophy. Two conceptions 

 hang together. The opinion that psychology is an 

 account only and finally of states of consciousness, 

 and therefore can throw no light upon the objects 

 with which philosophy deals, is twin to the doctrine 

 that the whole conscious life of the individual is 

 not organic to the world. The philosophic basis 

 and scope of this doctrine lie beyond examination 

 here. But even in passing one cannot avoid re 

 marking that the doctrine is almost never consist 

 ently held ; the doctrine logically carried out leads 

 so directly to intellectual and moral scepticism that 

 the theory usually prefers to work in the dark 

 background as a disposition and temper of thought 

 rather than to make a frank statement of itself. 

 Even in the half-hearted expositions of the process 

 of human experience as something merely annexed 

 to the reality of the universe, we are brought face 

 to face to the consideration with which we set out : 

 the dependence of theories of the individual upon 

 the position at a given time of the individual prac 

 tical and social. The doctrine of the acci 

 dental, futile, transitory significance of the indi 

 vidual s experience as compared with eternal real 

 ities ; the notion that at best the individual is simply 

 realizing for and in himself what already has fixed 

 completeness in itself is congruous only with a 

 certain intellectual and political scheme and must 

 modify itself as that shifts. When such re- 



