PSYCHOLOGY 271 



Reason extends further : it is not concerned with concrete, 

 but with abstract, associations of ideas. 



Both alike emanate from those parts of the cerebral cortex 

 which lie between the four internal sensation centres : both 

 alike are capable of forming concepts, opinions and conclusions. 

 And it is just this difference between the concrete sphere of 

 judgment and the abstract realms of reason that must mark 

 the dividing line between man and beast. An educated dog 

 grasps the idea of a " boot-jack or slipper," and will obey the 

 command to bring the required article. But when Darwin and 

 Haeckel attribute reason to animals (i.e., the power of thinking 

 with abstract ideas), they seem to me to have outrun the ascer- 

 tained facts. 



Man alone is capable of thinking of abstract subjects, though 

 it is undeniable that individual men, and individual races, vary 

 greatly in this respect : the faculty seems entirely wanting in 

 certain savages (e.g., Australian aborigines), who are mentally 

 very nearly akin to the anthropoids. 



According to the observations made by Dr. Thiedemann 

 in Philadelphia on two live chimpanzees, it may be inferred that 

 the anthropoids are capable of consciousness, thought, ideas, 

 feelings, perception, will, design and memory, but that they 

 have no knowledge of their knowledge, no consciousness of 

 their consciousness, no recognition of or meditation upon the 

 real ego. 



Foremost among man's specific characteristics of mind 

 stand the abstract thoughts of life, death, the origin of the 

 universe, etc. 



Curiosity. Although the higher animals cannot be shown 

 to possess reason in its strict sense, yet they have another 

 faculty which serves to enrich their experience just as in man, 

 namely, curiosity. Turkheim ' will hear nothing of curiosity in 

 animals. Why, according to his view, should they have the 

 curiosity to obtain ideas of the relations of certain things to 

 one another? One may reply that curiosity, although some- 

 times dangerous, is in the case of most animals an advantage, 

 because they learn by the experience so acquired to avoid 

 danger. Many animals (ungulates, deer, chamois and other 



1 Turkheim, loc. cit., p. no. 



