Psycliic Integration J815 



(h) The Organism an Origimd Datum in All J'rohltms of 



Psychic Life 



Another preliminary remark of liigJi importance concerns 

 the question of what, precisely, it is with which we have to 

 do — of what we start from and what is ever in sirrht, in the 

 discussion. Our fidelity to the organism, iivin<r in its natural 

 setting, as the foremost ohjective reality in this treatise, 

 prevents us ah initio from heing satisfied with a JJodv, and 

 a Mind or Soul, as these have figured from time innnemorial 

 in discourse about the higher animals, particularly ahout 

 man. 



If in all the world there is such a thing as objective 

 truth, what we start with and have ever to deal with in 

 studying psychic phenomena, just as in studying all other 

 phenomena -of animals, are individual objects or l)o(lies of 

 very particular construction and activity. And by no })os- 

 sibility can consistent thought and statement avoid acknowl- 

 edging that that vast assemblage of acts and other manifes- 

 tations which are called psychical are yet only })art and 

 parcel of the still vaster assemblage of acts and manifesta- 

 tions presented by the very same living objects, that is, by or- 

 ganisms. Our occupation will be basally with (in object, some 

 particular organism, having innumerable attiM})utes, which 

 being classified fall rather roughly into two great groups, 

 one of which we name physical or material and tlu- other 

 psychical or spiritual. For short, the physical or material 

 group is called the Body, while the j)sychical or spiritual 

 group is called the Soul or ]\rind. 



Our discussion, then, will luvci- lose sight of tlu' fact that 

 the acts with which we deal arc- acts of the organism and not 

 of any of its parts merely, wlutjui- IIksi- be concei\i(i as 

 material or psychical. No matter how far particular acts 

 may be dependent upon, and so explicable by. particular 

 parts, this dependence can not in reality i)e the whole story. 



