Makch 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



377 



possible, study of the conditions under 

 which the conclusions are reached and 

 of the way the conclusion varies with 

 the immediately preceding events and with 

 earlier experience may give the same re- 

 sult. Heaping up descriptions of accom- 

 panying imagery or of accompanying 

 movements may be of no more value to this 

 end than is collecting postage stamps in the 

 study of the causes of events in the world's 

 history. Both may be interesting as me- 

 mentoes, but throw no light upon under- 

 lying causes. 



In the list of irrelevancies in connection 

 with the reasoning processes is the question 

 whether one may think without images so 

 much under discussion at the present. Proof 

 that men may think without images is a 

 valuable advance, not in itself, but in so 

 far as it raises the question how he really 

 does think. If two men reach the same 

 conclusion, one with, the other without 

 images, obviously the presence or absence 

 of imagery is equally unessential. The 

 only alternative is to believe that the one 

 man has images, but does not notice them, 

 or that the other thinks in spite of his 

 images. That one thinks and how is the 

 essential, and the individual with the 

 imagery is no more and no less effective 

 in attaining conclusions than the one with- 

 out. They are equally accurate, and neither 

 knows directly how he accomplishes his re- 

 sults. The quarrel over the nature of the 

 mental state has obscured the more impor- 

 tant problems of reasoning. For this rea- 

 son it seems to me that the important ac- 

 complishment of the Wiirzburg school has 

 been not to prove that thinking may go on 

 without images, although I am prepared to 

 accept that, too, but to show that the ante- 

 cedent purpose, the Aufgabe, determines 

 the course of thought. One shows what is 

 not needed, the other an element that is 

 essential. 



From this standpoint the attempt to set up 

 a new element of pure thought rather than 

 to study the actual operations of thinking 

 is unfortunate. All that has been shown by 

 introspection is that images are lacking, 

 not that anything else is present. To as- 

 sume pure thought is to hypostatize our 

 ignorance. Particularly objectionable is 

 this because no attempts have been made to 

 determine its conditions, to set limits to it, 

 or to reduce it to any law. It is merely 

 another addition to our collection of post- 

 age stamps, perhaps even less valuable than 

 the others because denomination and name 

 of the country have been worn off, and no 

 one knows what the remnants of the por- 

 trait mean. The great disadvantage with 

 the introduction of the term, is that, as 

 with all names, in the course of a few years 

 all problems of thought, all reasoning oper- 

 ations, will be explained by reference to it. 

 If one asks why John reasons better than 

 Jane the answer will be that John possesses 

 more of the pure thought element. To be 

 sure, none of the advocates of the new school 

 mean anything of the kind at present, and 

 it may never develop in this way, but the 

 tendency to use these more or less mystic 

 entities in mystic ways is strong. A word 

 becomes a thing on the slightest provocation. 



By asserting that conscious states may be 

 irrelevant, it is not implied that they are 

 always or even usually irrelevant; in fact, 

 in opposition to Watson it seems to me 

 that many mental states are relevant and 

 that one knows what goes on in mind quite 

 as well or better from the inside than from 

 the outside. Not only does the study of 

 imagery indicate its existence in all but 

 relatively few individuals, but Meumann's 

 and many other studies indicate that it has 

 an important influence upon the method 

 and capacity of an individual's learning, 

 his spelling, the methods of mental calcu- 

 lation and many other activities. To take 



