CHAPTER IX 



The Physiology of Consciousness 



IT may seem desirable to develop shortly what was said 

 in the last chapter on the subject of psychology. It 

 is a common and useful trick of the theologian to assert 

 that the physico-chemical view of "mental" action is 

 rapidly decaying. Such writers greet with enthusiasm 

 any popular and ignorant reaction, even though a similar 

 movement, if it militated against the loose hypothetical 

 explanations they favour, would be greeted with contempt. 

 Instead of yielding ground to the religious philosopher, those 

 who advocate so-called " materialism " are daily taking 

 positions from the introspectionists, and nothing but ignor- 

 ance of physiological advance permits them to believe 

 otherwise. The warfare in the body as construction 

 proceeds has its true analogues in the modification of theory. 

 It is true that certain leaders of thought have been carried 

 away by their instincts, but this is due to the fact that 

 many men of the highest eminence are only partially 

 educated. To think on the lines of one science alone is to 

 remain at the mercy of uncorrected traditional ideas in 

 many departments of thought. Such lack real mental 

 immunity. It therefore follows that not every man 

 of science has the scientific mind which takes for 

 granted the possibility of arranging all phenomena 



whatsoever in ultimate order. With the region be- 



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