Mental Processes in Man, 317 



symbolic world that common sense is unable to shake off 

 the conviction that this is the only possible world, and 

 exists as such independently of mental processes. The 

 world of phenomena is the world in which we, as conscious 

 beings,' live and move. No one denies it. But it is none 

 the less a symbolic world; none the less a world which 

 mind has constructed in the sense that it is an^inalienable 

 factor in its being. 



Each of us, when we perceive an object, repeats and 

 summarizes the constructive process which it has been the 

 end of mental evolution to compass. "Hence it is that, at 

 the bidding of a simple impression,, percepts or constructs 

 take origin and shape in the mind. In taking possession 

 of this faculty in the early years of life, we are entering 

 upon a rich ancestral heritage. But if what I have been 

 urging has truth, what we call objects are human con- 

 structs, and cannot by any manipulation be converted into 

 anything else. 



I will now take another and more complex case of 

 construction, which will bring out some other facts about 

 what I have termed " constructs." I hear in the street a 

 piercing howl, which suggests a dog in pain. Eising from 

 my seat and going to the window, I see a white terrier 

 with a black patch over the left eye limping down the road 

 on three legs. Now, what was the nature of the construct 

 framed at the bidding of the piercing howl? A dog in 

 pain. But what dog ? The nature of the howl suggested 

 a small dog ; but there was nothing further to particularize 

 him. The construct was, therefore, exceedingly vague and 

 ill defined, and was not rendered definite and particular 

 till I went to the window, and saw that it was a white 

 terrier with a black patch over the eye. The howl, more- 

 over, suggested certain activities of the dog. The construct 

 was not merely a passive, inanimate object, like the orange, 

 but an object capable of performing, and actually perform- 

 ing, certain actions. Here, again, we can only say that it 

 is through experience that special activities are associated 

 with certain objects. Just as the construct orange is 



