380 



SCIENCE 



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



the mental life, are the products of intro- 

 spection or observation. On this point 

 there is room for difference of opinion. A 

 large number of the processes, recognition, 

 judgment, feeling, seem to be more closely 

 related to introspection; the active proc- 

 esses, on the other hand, the comparison of 

 divided with accumulated repetitions and 

 perceptions, are either derived from obser- 

 vation or a combination of observation and 

 introspection. In addition to these imme- 

 diately observed, generally recognized men- 

 tal states and functions there are immediate 

 facts derived both by introspection and by 

 observation aided by experiment. Such 

 are on the one side the awareness of the 

 different sorts of imagery, the course of 

 association, colored hearing and the differ- 

 ent synesthesias, and, on the other, the 

 changes in circulation with mental opera- 

 tions, the slight movements, and the larger 

 movements of expression. These and many 

 other immediate facts of consciousness 

 escape the untrained observer or intro- 

 spector, but are needed to round out the 

 series of mental facts and to aid in the 

 formulation of expansions of other facts 

 and laws. 



In brief then there is room in psychol- 

 ogy for the greatest variety of standpoints 

 and for all methods, provided only the 

 spirit of live and let live prevails. The 

 science is above the individual and the 

 individual's preference in definition and 

 method. The definition and method in 

 turn must grow out of the science ; they are 

 not given once and for all, and the science 

 forced into them. Given a set of facts and 

 laws of fairly general acceptance, the form 

 of statement again is largely a matter of 

 individual preference guided and tested 

 by the interest and comprehension of the 

 group for whom the discussion is intended. 

 As in most sciences a mixture of explana- 

 tion and theory with bare fact may be used, 



or bare facts may be stated and explana- 

 tion follow or be omitted. Methods that 

 are assumed by the investigators may be 

 with advantage followed in the restatement 

 of their results. But formulation of re- 

 sults and their presentation in a treatise 

 can no more be determined by a priori 

 principles than can the statement of defi- 

 nitions or the prescription of methods. In 

 brief, my plea is for the widest liberty in 

 all respects with a testing of everything 

 by results rather than by formulae or even 

 by tradition. In the light of the tests so 

 far available it seems to me that defining 

 psychology as the science of behavior and 

 the use of all methods possible under suita- 

 ble precautions will lead soonest to the end 

 of psychology, the discovery of mental laws 

 and their explanation. 



And we have no reason to be ashamed of 

 the progress of the science. More has been 

 done in the discovery of fundamental laws 

 in the last sixty years than in all the pre- 

 ceding centuries from Thales to Fechner, 

 and interesting problems open to our 

 methods of approach on every hand. 

 These laws, the immediate results of experi- 

 ment, are not in dispute. They have stood 

 the test of repeated investigation, and are 

 accepted on all sides. There is much more 

 difference of opinion about theories, but 

 even here we have made progress. Except 

 for the fact that we still take our theories 

 very seriously, even our theories offer no 

 more occasion for controversy than do 

 theories on similar problems among phys- 

 iologists, or zoologists or much more than 

 between physicists and chemists. 



W. B. PiLLSBURY 



M-ES. HENRY DSAPEB 



Anna Palmer Draper, widow of Dr. Henry 



Draper, died on December 8, 1914, at her home 



in New York City. Her name will always be 



honorably associated with the science of astro- 



