130 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



though it thus points beyond itself, and though its logical 

 value therefore is wholly relative, yet, as we have seen, the 

 concept is for our minds something definite on its own 

 account. It is represented by a word. It forms the 

 content of a distinct mental state. As such it can be dealt 

 with, and under certain conditions legitimately dealt with, 

 as though, so to say, it existed upon its own account, that 

 is to say, without reference to the experience which gives 

 it validity. It can be brought into relation with other 

 concepts, and by this correlation a new synthesis may be 

 formed, or as the result of a comparison, a new analysis 

 may be achieved, the existence of distinguishable elements 

 in the concept being for the first time discovered. By the 

 interrelation of concept and concept, thought, in fact, moves 

 in a world of its own and may even go on to create fresh 

 worlds. Let us see under what conditions the process is 

 legitimate and to what fallacies it is liable. For this pur- 

 pose we must consider a little more closely how the mind 

 operates with its concepts. We have spoken of synthesis 

 and analysis, of combining and breaking up contents. But 

 these phrases can only be applied to the work of thought 

 in general on two understandings. First, we must under- 

 stand that they express the logic rather than the psychology 

 of the process. If a given concept A may be described as 

 being formed of elements B and C, it does not necessarily 

 mean that B and C came before the mind one after another, 

 that then they were somehow laid hold of together, pieced 

 into one and so made into C. This would be at best a 

 very rough and mechanical, and at worst a quite misleading 

 description of the mental process. The phrase really 

 means that the concept A is a whole constituted by or 

 resolvable into elements B and C, that we started with these 

 elements and that we have arrived, no matter by what 

 precise mental process, at the whole. We have thus 

 effected a synthesis. If, conversely, we had begun with the 

 whole and arrived at certain elements, factors or relations 

 involved in it, this would be an analysis. Secondly, we 

 must understand that the term synthesis may be used to 

 cover very different cases. In some elements may be 

 combined without modifying one another. If I mentally 



