The ' Platform ' of Determination 245 



for example, that sane intelligent thinking over the data of 

 the knowledge which one has already acquired involves 

 some sort of coordination of the sensory and motor areas. 

 This coordination is a matter of growth by integration. 

 Variations to be fruitful — whatever be the tests of survi- 

 val — must be variations in the functioning of this system. 

 Suppose the visual centre rebel and lose its coordination 

 with the motor, or suppose the hearing centre fail of its 

 blood supply, and so drop away from the system ; such 

 changes would be gross accidents, temporary inhibitions or 

 diseases, not variations to be selected for the upbuilding 

 and enriching of the system. To be this, brain changes 

 would have to take place in the delicately adjusted pro- 

 cesses which constitute the essential coordination in ques- 

 tion. I take this case, because, as will appear later, it sug- 

 gests what is to my mind the real mechanism of selective 

 thinking — coordination of data in the attention, a motor 

 function. 



§ 4. The ' Platform * of Determination 



So far it has seemed that in each case thought-variations 

 must be all at a certain level if any of them are to be 

 available for selection at that level. We may go a step 

 further in the way of defining what is meant by * level,' or 

 ' platform ' of systematic determination. 



It is just of the nature of knowledge to be an organiza- 

 tion, a structure, a system. There is no such thing as 

 mere * acquaintance with ' anything ; there is always — to 

 abuse James' antithesis ! — more or less ' knowledge-about.' 

 And the growth of thought is the enlargement of the 



* knowledge-about ' by the union of partial with partial 



* knowledges-about ' in a constantly wider and fuller system 



