CHAPTER XIV 

 LIFE AND MIND^ 



BEFORE we proceed to treat of physical 

 life as the continuous establishment of 

 subjective relations that are in corre- 

 spondence with environing objective relations, 

 we must dispose of certain questions which have 

 been raised by Comte and his disciples concern- 

 ing the right of psychology to be regarded as an 

 independent science. Part of Comte's plan for 

 the renovation of philosophy was the rescuing 

 of psychology from the exclusive control of 

 metaphysicians. The manner in which he pro- 

 posed to accomplish the rescue is only too 

 briefly described ; he simply denied in toto the 

 claims of psychology to be regarded as an in- 

 dependent science. According to Comte there 

 can be no science, worthy of the name, founded 

 upon the observation and comparison of states 

 of consciousness ; and psychology must there- 

 fore be studied as a part of biology, by the aid 

 solely of the methods used in biology. That 

 is, the study of mind must be reduced to the 

 study of nervous phenomena simply. It is easy 

 ^ [See Introduction, § 20.] 

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