CHAPTER XI 



THE KNOWLEDGE OF CONCRETE OBJECTS 



i. So far, the results of experiment indicate that the 

 higher animals can learn, not merely by the mechanical 

 repetition of experiences, but by careful attention to one 

 or more instances, the number being really irrelevant, 

 provided that attention is once seized. Further they 

 appear to learn by the perception of concrete facts in their 

 relations, /.*., in their order as experienced. This order 

 they are capable of " reproducing," in the sense that they 

 can apply the results of perception to guide their future 

 action. This does not mean that they are aware of 

 relations as such, or order as such, or qualities as such, 

 but that they are aware of the concrete whole, which the 

 qualities in their relations build up ; and that when the 

 whole is familiar to them, they can proceed inferentially, 

 from the part or state which they see, to the part or state 

 which they do not see. This view is corroborated by 

 certain general considerations and by evidence outside the 

 region of experiment. 



a. Class Inferences. 



The more intelligent animals not merely learn to react 

 appropriately to a certain kind of sense stimulus, but from 

 knowledge of one concrete and perhaps highly complex 

 object, they learn to deal suitably with another object of 

 the same class. Thus, a dog that is accustomed to one 

 house readily familiarises himself with another. In the 

 course of some observations which I made on the power 



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