Sketch of an Orf/auismnJ Throrif of Con.^rinn.siu.ss .'527 



from the standpoint of hio-clicniistrv, and plivsiolocry, }uid 

 also from that of ])hih)s()j)hv In Ww traditional sense, tliat 

 demonstration is not only far away, hut is attainahlc, if at 

 all, only by surmoiintinn- \cvy formidahlc difficult its. So I 

 reassure the dubious reader that all I am elaimimr is that 

 my two propositions a})()ut the nature of consciousness to- 

 gether constitute a legitimate scientific liypothesis. 



Personality and Elevientary Chemical Substances 



With both the physico-chemical aspect and the psychical 

 aspect of our hypothesis now before us more fully and 

 sharply than they have been hitherto we will examine an ob- 

 jection to it which I apprehend will be the most serious the 

 hypothesis will meet; namely' that to the proposition that 

 each individual organism has the value in a chemical sense 

 of an elementary substance. And since this objection will 

 probably be more intolerant and stubborn from the side of 

 physics and chemistry than from that of natural history and 

 psychology I will adjust my remarks with reference to the 

 opposition as thus anticipated. 



The considerations I am going to present might have been, 

 in strict expository coherence, presented as a part of my 

 discussion of the uniqueness of the individual consciousness 

 as marked by its necessary privacy and its difference from 

 all other individual consciousness. What we are now to 

 emphasize is the fundamentality of objective as contrastetl 

 ■with subjective personality of sucli highly develo])ed animals 

 as song birds, domesticable animals, and civilized man. 



A complete definition of ''personality'" is not obligatory 

 for our purpose. Only this much need be said about the 

 meaning we shall give the word: First, we deny the right 

 claimed by some authors to make personality purely j)sy- 

 chical, or spiritual — a thing of the "inner," or '*dee])er'* 

 self; "Self" that is, in a thorough-going subjectivistic sense. 



