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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1054 



that a study of behavior is all that we have 

 aside from an uncertain amount of discus- 

 sion as to how closely or remotely the hu- 

 man mind can find a parallel behind the 

 actions of the lower forms. Similar is the 

 problem raised by the assertions of the re- 

 cently prominent group of philosophers 

 who insist that consciousness is non-exist- 

 ent — at the most an illusion. For them 

 psychology as the science of consciousness 

 has ceased to exist. While fashions in philos- 

 ophy change too often for the psychologist 

 to attempt to square his definitions with all 

 of them, it is nevertheless interesting to 

 see that psychology defined as behavior is 

 quite as applicable to the philosopher with- 

 out a mind as to the rest of intelligent 

 creation. His responses to stimulation, his 

 perceptions as they modify his actions, his 

 memory and capacity for reasoning with 

 varying degrees of accuracy under differ- 

 ent conditions, even the conditions that led 

 to his denying that he was conscious, could 

 be studied with some degree of satisfaction. 

 Antecedent acts and experience could be 

 shown to give rise to the various actions, 

 and would go far toward explaining them. 

 But it does not follow that because much 

 of the material in the text-books and much 

 that the common mind regards as mental 

 is really a matter of behavior that a defi- 

 nition of psychology as the science of be- 

 havior would change the nature of the sci- 

 ence. As was asserted in the beginning, 

 the science makes the definition, not defini- 

 tion the science. There is no mental proc- 

 ess, however strictly one may follow the 

 subjectivist, that does not have some influ- 

 ence upon behavior. The very description 

 of them in words itself implies behavior. 

 Perception in all forms, images of all types, 

 feelings and emotions, not to mention the 

 mental antecedents of voluntary action, all 

 play a part in determining the character 

 of the individual. Each modifies his be- 



havior. If one understood thoroughly the 

 behavior of any man he would also under- 

 stand his consciousness. It is possible to 

 neglect behavior in the study of conscious- 

 ness, but not to neglect consciousness in the 

 study of behavior. The only ones who 

 could object to the statement that behavior 

 was to be understood in terms of conscious- 

 ness are the men who deny the existence of 

 consciousness, and they need no convincing 

 as to the possibility or even the desirability 

 of defining psychology as the science of 

 behavior. To my mind, the adoption of be- 

 havior to designate the subject-matter of 

 psychology need not change in the least the 

 treatment of the subject as ordinarily pre- 

 sented. Even the individual who finds no 

 interest in anything but the classification 

 of his own mental states, if such there be, 

 could go on with his classification, and, if 

 he classified all of his states, would find 

 an awareness of his own movements among 

 them, and find these very important both 

 as the beginning and the end of his series. 

 He would probably prefer another descrip- 

 tion, but his own work would be included 

 in the definition, he would still be within 

 the pale. By adopting the definition we 

 change our description of the science not 

 the science itself. 



It should be added that in the nature of 

 the case no definition can be satisfactory. 

 No single phrase, or paragraph even, is 

 sufficient to definitely delimit the subject- 

 matter of psychology. Even a short text 

 can not include and describe all that might 

 be and is in reality included in the science. 

 The meanings of terms are bound to grow, 

 and with each change a definition becomes 

 inaccurate. Of course, were one to take the 

 other attitude that the definition fixes the 

 science, the difficulty would be avoided. 

 But there is no absolute authority to fix 

 that definition and even if it could be fixed 

 by such an authority the science would soon 



