CHAPTER III 



RATIONALISTIC VIEWS OF PSYCHOLOGY, REASON AND 



INSTINCT 



After having accumulated /r?f/j-, as a basis of know- 

 ledge, and then co-ordinated them according to their 

 various relationships, and so classified them scientifically , 

 we endeavour to trace out the natural laws or the in- 

 variable orders of sequences. 



In so doing one observes not only distinct causes and 

 their effects ; but definite objects secured by the various 

 forces at work. This is called Reason in Man. 



When we look for evidences of reason in Nature, 

 other than man, such being acts done with some appar- 

 ently special motive and not merely automatic repetitions 

 only, we find it exemplified through the whole of the 

 organic world, not only in animals but in plants. As 

 reasoning in animals has been denied by some, it is as 

 well to give an instance recorded by Romanes which that 

 observer regards as distinctly proving reason in a dog. 

 His definition is that " for an action to be rational it must 

 be performed with conscious deliberation, or with thought- 

 ful adaptations oi means to ends ". 



" I drove with the dog from its country home, as a 

 present to a friend who lived in a town some ten miles 

 distant. Several weeks afterwards I again drove to visit 

 this friend, and when my horses were being harnessed for 

 the return journey the terrier must have reasoned from 



(232) 



