MEASUREMENTS 201 



can measure nor have any reasonable hope of being able 

 to. Any discussion of our right to believe in, or assume, 

 either an external world or a personal self would be entirely 

 beside the point ; all that is required for the purposes of 

 this essay is that, rightly or wrongly, we do actually make 

 the above attributions. It is true that before we can know 

 anything about subjective phenomena we must regard 

 them as objects, and that, when regarded in that light, 

 they cease to correspond with the actual personal experiences 

 of the individual ; but, none the less, they retain their 

 distinctions against objects of thought which are attributed 

 to the external world ; and that distinction is not merely 

 one of attribution ; there is, beyond that, the important 

 practical distinction of being or not being susceptible of 

 measurement. Or if, as I am inclined to think, it should 

 be conceded that the temporal duration of mental states 

 admits of objective measurement, the results, for reasons 

 already given, are of no value, either in theory or in practice. 

 There is one group of ideas which escapes a classification 

 based on popular attribution. The parts and organic pro 

 cesses of the body, and especially the nervous system, 

 are sometimes identified with, and at others opposed to, 

 the self. In common opinion the body is usually regarded 

 as a partner with the soul in the individual personality, 

 and destined, in some form or other, to share its immortality. 

 When the body is hot, we say that we are hot, and the attribu 

 tion, whether right or wrong, is distinctly subjective. Con 

 temporary psychology describes the self as a highly complex 

 manifold, made up of the body and its parts, of thoughts, 

 and of feelings, and tells us that the boundaries of the self 

 are the surface of the body. 1 By some the connotation 

 has been so widely extended as to include our children and 

 our clothes, and all our intimate belongings. 2 On the other 

 hand, the distinction between the body and the soul is 

 universally recognized in popular opinion, and only the 

 latter is regarded as the true self. One is mortal, the other 



1 Avenarius in Miinsterberg, Grundzuge, 23. 



2 James Horwicz, quoted by W. James, Psych, i. 326. 



