August 12, 1922] 



JVL I TURE 



23 1 



Geology awaits the consideration of the Geological 

 Congress which meets this week at Brussels, and some 

 advance has been made in connexion with the bio- 

 logical sciences. 



At a previous meeting of the International Re- 

 search Council it had been provisionally agreed to 

 unite medical and biological sciences ; this decision 

 did not find favour, and the intention now is to 

 -.eparate medicine from Physiology, Zoology, and 

 Botanv. Proposals will be submitted to the countries 

 belonging to the Research Council, and the ultimate 

 formation of this Union will depend on the number 

 of countries willing to join. 



Among other matters dealt with, a proposal sub- 

 mitted by the National Research Council of the 

 United States of America and accepted by the meeting 

 may prove to be an important addition to the respon- 

 sibilities of the Research Council, which hitherto 

 contented itself with the formation of Unions which 

 became practically autonomous as soon as their 

 -tat ut es were approved. As problems in which several 

 Unions were concerned ran a danger of being neglected, 

 the proposal was now made by the United States 

 that the Research Council itself should take such 



problems under its own special protection. Three 

 inquiries were mentioned as likely to fall within 

 this category. One of them had already been con- 

 sidered by the International Astronomical Union, 

 which requested the Research Council to make 

 arrangements for a collaboration of several of the 

 Unions in the study of the correlations between solar 

 and terrestrial phenomena. The second referred to 

 the energy supply of the world (fuel, solar energy, 

 etc.), while a third suggestion dealt with the difficult 

 and complicated question of international patents. 

 The risk of overlapping efforts and the possible fear 

 of interference with the special work of the Unions is 

 avoided by the provision — now coming into force — 

 that the Executive Committee of the Research Council, 

 which hitherto consisted of five members, should be 

 enlarged, each Union nominating an additional 

 member. 



At the concluding meeting the five members of 

 the Executive Committee appointed by the general 

 assembly were elected as follows : M. E. Picard 

 (President), Mr. G. Lecointe and Prof. Vito Volterra 

 (Vice-Presidents), Dr. G. E. Hale, and Sir Arthur 

 Schuster (General Secretary!. 



The Philosophical Congress at Manchester. 



THE special subjects of discussion at the Philo- 

 sophical Congress recently held at Manchester 

 were (i) the nature of history and its differentiation 

 from science, (2) the concept of unconscious mental 

 process and the justification of the term unconscious 

 in psychology, and (3) the philosophical aspects of 

 the principle of relativity, particularly in regard to 

 the problem of sense perception. 



The vice-chancellor of the University of Man- 

 chester, Sir Henry Miers, presided at the opening 

 meeting, when the Bishop of Manchester, Dr. William 

 Temple, gave an inaugural address on " Symbolism 

 as a Basis for Metaphysics." The particular function 

 of philosophy is the interpretation of value. Reality 

 presents itself in grades which rise in a hierarchical 

 order from simple matter to life and mind and spirit. 

 Each higher order is the imposition of a value on 

 the lower on which it is dependent and which then 

 becomes for it a symbol. Thus a flag as a parti- 

 coloured strip of calico is mere matter and yet apart 

 from the value which this matter symbolises it has 

 not even the existence which supports the value. 

 That is to say, though existence is prior to value, in 

 the higher grade the distinction between existence 

 and value disappears. This led to the further position 

 that the universe can only be explained in terms of 

 will. The intellect may be satisfied by a concept 

 of the universe in terms of physical causation, but 

 religious, aesthetic and ethical, and also scientific 

 experience can only be satisfied by proof that it is 

 purposively reasonable and not merely causally 

 intelligible. 



(1) " Are History and Science different kinds of 

 Knowledge ?" was discussed in a symposium bv 

 Mr. R. G. Collingwood, Prof. A. E. Taylor, and Dr. 

 F. C. S. Schiller. The problem is an old one but has 

 acquired new significance in modern thought. History 

 is particular and individual, its events are unique, 

 it is impossible to classify them and induce general 

 laws. Is it then more than a simple chronicle ? 

 On the other hand, science deals with repetitions, 

 its method is experimental, it formulates general 

 lawsj(Which enable 11 s to predict and so to control 

 the future. 



(2) iThe subject of the unconscious aroused the 

 liveliest interest on account of its practical importance 



NO. 2754, VOL. I IO] 



and the question of the methods of psycho-therapy 

 which it involved. Prof. T. H. Pear presided over 

 the discussion and referred to the great loss which 

 psychology had sustained in the death of Dr. W. H. R. 

 Rivers, who had taken part in arranging the programme 

 and had expected to participate in the Congress. 

 The meeting rose in silent tribute. The first sym- 

 posium, " Is the Unconscious a Conception of Value 

 in Psychology ? " was by Mr. G. C. Field, Dr. F. 

 Aveling, and Prof. J. Laird. In the discussion the 

 medical point of view was represented by Dr. Mitchell 

 and Dr. William Brown. The latter gave detailed 

 instances of assumed mental processes which, judged 

 by analogy, are indistinguishable from those of 

 conscious life, the only difference being that the 

 subjects in whom they occur are completely unaware 

 of them. Mr. Leonard Russell on the philosophic 

 side defended the use of the apparently self-contra- 

 dictory term " unconscious consciousness "in a 

 subtle argument directed to show that the paradox 

 is not confined to a particular class of mental pheno- 

 mena but extends to all, for even in what we call 

 conscious process we are never conscious of the 

 consciousness. 



A second symposium on the terms used in the new 

 psychology, " The Relations between Sentiments 

 and Complexes," had six contributors. The first 

 paper was by the late Dr. Rivers, the others were by 

 Dr. Bernard Hart, Mr. A. G. Tansley, Prof. T. H. 

 Pear, Mr. A. F. Shand and Dr. C. S. Myers. The 

 practical issue in this discussion was as to a possible 

 danger in psycho-analysis. Complexes were ac- 

 knowledged to be harmful and psycho-analysis was 

 directed towards dissolving them, but in doing so 

 might there not be risk of dissolving sentiments 

 which were wholly healthy ? 



(3) A discussion between Prof. G. F. Stout and 

 Prof. Alexander on the nature of sense perception 

 was preliminary to a more general discussion on a 

 paper bv Prof. A. X. Whitehead, " The Philosophical 

 Aspects of the Principle of Relativity." The 

 tendency of the new concept was, Dr. Whitehead 

 said, distinctly to support the line of argument of 

 those who followed Berkeley, and yet it was wrong 

 to suppose that Einstein's principle implied or was 

 even ultimately consistent with the full idealist 



