COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



tation, heredity and adaptation. The problem 

 of psychology is to formulate the laws of Asso- 

 ciation, — the order in which certain relations 

 among environing phenomena give rise to cer- 

 tain corresponding relations among our states 

 of consciousness. And while the theorems of 

 objective science in general are based upon the 

 observation of objective phenomena, whether 

 external or internal to the organism, the theo- 

 rems of psychology are based not only upon the 

 observation of objective phenomena, but also 

 upon the observation of subjective states. 



In view of these results, we see how hope- 

 lessly Comte went astray. Rejecting all intro- 

 spection as metaphysical and delusive, he would 

 have had us confine our inquiries to the suc- 

 cession of those nervous phenomena which are 

 the invariable concomitants of feelings, ignoring 

 the fact that without introspective observation 

 we can never even ascertain that there is any 

 invariable concomitance between the feelings 

 and the nervous phenomena. He would have 

 us solve a problem in which two factors are con- 

 cerned, by investigating only one factor. 



In giving his reasons for thus rejecting all 

 observation of consciousness, Comte reveals his 

 inability (upon which I have already frequently 

 remarked) to distinguish between psychology 

 and metaphysics. He insists that psycholo- 

 gic inquiry, as hitherto conducted, has not re- 

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