70 



as far as his psychology is concerned, consists of the organism 

 (in particular the brain and nervous system) and the environ- 

 ment of the organism. The modifications of the brain and 

 nervous system are the result of the moulding process of the 

 environment. The nervous system, thus modified, forms the 

 "objective aspect" of what in their "subjective aspect" are 

 "known only as states of consciousness". 1 For example, in 

 speaking of the functions which have heretofore been expressed 

 in physiological language, Spencer informs us that we are to 

 "translate these into psychological language", for "what have 

 been considered as increasingly-complex nervous actions we 

 have now to consider as increasingly-complex mental states". 2 



1. ASSOCIATION. 



In view, therefore, of his doctrine of an external world, 

 Spencer is prepared to develop his theory of the association of 

 ideas. If independence, force, and permanence are seen to 

 apply to the brain and nervous system, which belong to 

 Spencer's external world, the basis for this theory of associa- 

 tion will be apparent. This, as has been indicated, is funda- 

 mentally the same standpoint as that adopted by the earlier 

 Association School. 



John Locke, as is well known, propounded the simple 

 idea theory, adopted the historical plain method, and hinted 

 at association, though with a different purpose than Gay and 

 Hartley after him, who seized upon the association of ideas as 

 the fundamental law of consciousness; a law, however, which 

 was dependent upon physiological conditions. That is to say, 

 nothing ever exists in consciousness that is not traceable to 

 an experience which is dependent upon the processes operating 

 in the nervous system vibrations, according to Hartley, who 

 based his theory on Newton's ether hypothesis: the same 

 standpoint has practically been maintained ever since. Fol- 

 lowing Hartley, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, 

 and Herbert Spencer have been the great exponents of the 

 Association School. It might be well, before proceeding to an 

 examination of the main standpoint of the Associationists, to 

 again indicate, very briefly, the fundamental unity of the three 

 later writers discussed, with the above-mentioned representa- 

 tives of the Association School. 



By Romanes it is claimed that the functioning of the 

 nervous system, "due to the principles of use combined with 

 that of natural selection, " forms the physical basis of the mind ; 



J See p. 39. 



2 " Principles of Psychology" 243. 



