SECTION J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 



THE PATTERNS OF EXPERIENCE 



ADDRESS BY 



A. W. WOLTERS, 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Only two years ago our lamented Past-President, Dr. Shepherd Dawson, 

 gave an admirable summary of the contributions which psychology is 

 making to the life of the modern world. As I considered the choice of 

 a subject for this address I concluded that it was too early to cover that 

 ground again, and I decided that it was consistent with the duties of a 

 President of Section J to put forward certain of his own reflections, 

 which are related to and, indeed, largely stimulated by contributions to 

 the sectional programme of the previous year. While thinking over the 

 Aberdeen address it occurred to me that any comprehensive review of 

 psychological progress is bound to skim rather lightly over many matters 

 which are highly controversial. These controversies, and the conflict 

 of authorities, provide a ready weapon for the critics of psychology, of 

 whom there are still too many who base their objections upon ignorance 

 and prejudice. May I spend a moment of my time in a short, active 

 defence of my colleagues ? 



Every natural science has as many vigorous controversies as psychology. 

 The only difference is that since our science has so far had neither the 

 time nor the number of workers to acquire so great a content of established 

 fact as the other disciplines, the student finds himself facing controversies 

 at a very early stage. But controversy is the breath of life to science. 

 Is it not the case that every scholar loses interest in a topic as soon as it is 

 settled ? They who value knowledge so highly, value still more highly 

 the process of coming to know. Appearing in public as the high priests 

 of knowledge, they worship privately at the shrine of the unknown. 

 Behind my metaphor lies the distinction between science and the scientific 

 text-book. Science grows by discussions, which the outside world calls 

 disputes. So let us not be ashamed of our civil wars, though the smoke 

 of battle may hide from the general public the solid progress which is being 

 made. Now, it is a fair deduction from this, I think, that those who 

 surrender themselves too completely to a ' school ' are wilfully fettering 

 their minds. It is impertinence to suggest that the distinguished workers 

 along any one line can be entirely wrong, and it is obvious that they cannot 

 all be right. So a judicious and critical selection from opposing theories 

 is a reasonable attitude. No doubt, however, members of each and every 

 school of thought will find stinging retorts to this eclectic speaker. I 

 freely grant that eclecticism can be carried too far, and that its results 

 are of little worth unless pulled together by a personal point of view. I 

 propose, then, to put my own point of view again, and to take as my texts 

 two papers read before the Section last year at Norwich. My regard 



