528 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



will, in a future volume, form one of the appropriate 

 links which join science to philosophy — which lead us on 

 from exact to speculative thought. At present I have 

 to refer to another and very extensive field of research, 

 into which the natural as well as the speculative 

 philosopher have been led from opposite sides, and which 

 especially affords a hopeful prospect for an enlargement 

 of the psycho-physical view of nature. If the natural 

 philosopher cannot consistently and fairly enter into the 

 mysteries of an inner consciousness from which his 

 opponent — the speculative philosopher- — starts, he may 

 perhaps do so l^y a roundabout way or a side-door. 



As I stated above, the inner world, the psychosis, 

 which intermittently accompanies the neurosis, the epi- 



attention of psychologists in all the 

 three counti-ies, it became custom- 

 ary to introduce purely psycholog- 

 ical treatises by an exiDosition of 

 the psycho-physical relations, in- 

 troducing into psychology chapters 

 from phj^siology. The consequence 

 of this has been that modern works 

 on psychology have grown to in- 

 ordinate length, and frequently ex- 

 hibit a dual aspect and method. 

 Quite recently it has therefore been 

 insisted on that psychology can be 

 written either from the physio- 

 logical or from the purely psycho- 

 logical point of view. A good ex- 

 ample of the latter is Prof. G. F. 

 Stout's ' Analytic Psychology ' (2 

 vols., 1896). "Physiological re- 

 sults," he says (vol. i. p. 37), "are 

 likely to be valuable onlj' in pro- 

 portion as they are controlled and 

 criticised by psychological analysis. 

 This holds good apart from con- 

 sideration of such metaphysical 

 questions as whether the brain- 

 process is the sole real agency, and 

 consciousness a mere function, or 

 consequence, or epi • phenomenon ; 



or whether consciousness is the 

 reality of which the correlated 

 brain-process is a phenomenon, or 

 whether they are two asi>ects of 

 the same fact. Whatever may be 

 our attitude to such questions, the 

 psychologist has still his own work 

 to do on his own lines ; and for the 

 sake of physiology itself, so far as 

 it entertains the hope of throwing 

 light on the mechanism of brain - 

 processes, he must attempt to do 

 it. It is idle to require psj'chol- 

 ogy to wait for the progress of 

 physiology. Such a demand is 

 logically parallel to a demand that 

 historj' or biography, or the prac- 

 tical estimate of character and 

 anticipation of men's actions in 

 ordinary life, shall come to a stand- 

 still until they have a sufficient 

 physiological basis. On this view, 

 Carlyle should have abstained 

 from writing his ' French Revol- 

 ution,' because he did not know 

 what precise configuration and 

 motion of brain particles deter- 

 mined the actions of the mob who 

 stormed the Bastille." 



