462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the word "consciousness" is often loosely used and has a variety of 

 meanings. More commonly it is used in one of two meanings. It 

 means first " the mind's awareness of its own processes/" or " the imme- 

 diate knowledge which the mind has of its sensations and thoughts."* 

 In this sense it is a kind of subject-object consciousness and involves 

 distinction, contrast, polarity, and may have arisen in the process of 

 evolution in the stress and tension experienced by an organism in 

 adjusting itself to new and adverse situations." In the second sense, 

 however, " consciousness is identified with mind, and ' conscious ' with 

 * mental.' "* Mind and consciousness mean the same thing. To be 

 conscious is just to have a mental process. Now it is in this second 

 sense, as we are told, that the word is correctly used in psychology.' 



It would seem then that we have merely a new word for the old 

 thing, for it is clearly stated that the word " consciousness " when cor- 

 rectly used means just the same as the word " mind " and to be con- 

 scious is to have a mental or psychical experience. Consciousness is 

 just a comprehensive word to designate all sorts of " psychical " proc- 

 esses, such as thoughts, feelings, volitions, impulses, pains and pleasures. 

 Xow the word " psychical " is wholly orthodox in modern psychology. 

 It is sometimes used in a broader sense than the word " mental " and is 

 expressly applied to any phenomenon which is subject matter of the 

 science. But the English word "soul," corresponding to the Greek 

 i/^X^ is the noun correlative with the adjective " psychical." Con- 

 sciousness, therefore, when "correctly" used, is not the consciousness 

 indicated by the etymology of the word nor the subject-object con- 

 sciousness of Locke, Dugald Stewart and historical psychology, but just 

 a new word, a S3monym for soul, having an old form and another 

 meaning. 



Now the reason why a new word was needed is simply this. The 

 words " soul " and " mind," owing to their metaphysical and theolog- 

 ical associations, have become obnoxious. The word " soul " in par- 

 ticular suggests something over and above our mere inner experiences, 

 some " substance," which may perhaps leave the body and be " im- 

 mortal." Interest in " immortality " has waned and the notion of 

 " substance " adds nothing to our notion of psychological phenomena. 

 Hence, owing to quite fortuitous reasons, the good old Saxon word 

 " soul," which has indeed a much more spotless history than the word 

 " consciousness," has been sacrificed. This perhaps was inevitable, but 

 it is unfortunate that l^he new word is one having rightfully another 



•Titchener, "A Text Book of Psychology," p. 17. 



* Dugald Stewart, quoted by Titchener, loc. oit. 



•Compare Bawden, "The Psychological Theory of Evolution," Jourt%al of 

 Comparative Neurology, Vol. XL, No. 3, p. 263. 

 •Titchener, op. cit., p, 18. 



* Idem. 



