310 The Unity of the Organism 



Vol. 1) will recognize the difference between such introspec- 

 tive experimentation as that here indicated, and that so il- 

 luminatingly described by James as tried on himself. While 

 James's undertaking was to give an account of the thought 

 and other processes in consciousness as he could observe them 

 in himself, what I want to accomplish requires me to get rid 

 of, to ignore as far as possible, the very things which James 

 was studying. I want to find whether any "content of con- 

 sciousness" remains after thought and the other usual men- 

 tal contents are out of the reckoning. I believe, however, 

 that James opens the way to such an hypothesis as mine. 

 Thus in a footnote we read, "The sense of my bodily exist- 

 ence, however obscurely recognized as such, may then be the 

 absolute original of my conscious selfhood, tlie fundamental 

 perception that / am. All appropriations may be made to 

 it hy a Thought not at the moment immediately cognized by 

 itself. Whether these are not only logical possibilities but 

 actual facts is something not yet dogmatically decided in 

 the text."^ 



Except for a little misgiving arising from uncertainty as 

 to the exact meaning of "Thought" in this quotation, I be- 

 lieve my hypothesis does what James says his text leaves un- 

 decided. 



This foot-note of James's may serve as a switch key to 

 shift the current of our discussion from the psycho-con- 

 scious phase of life through the psycho-physical to the purely 

 physico-chemical phase. The course along which this shifting 

 will run can be designated thus : full-fledged intellect ( al- 

 ready examined), instinct, emotion, bio-physico-chemical or- 

 ganization. 



Instinct and Physical Organization 



The discussion from which we have just turned of the 

 relation between "inner" and "outer," between "subjective" 



