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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1009 



clined to go still further in maintaining 

 that a student of comparative psychology, 

 or the behaviorist in the wide sense, is 

 admirably fitted, by his experience in deal- 

 ing with varied forms of behavior, by his 

 knowledge of the genetic relations or devel- 

 opmental history of organic behavior, and 

 by the ingenuity in devising and using ex- 

 perimental methods which his work forces 

 him to acquire, to formulate problems in 

 human behavior and to suggest methods of 

 solving them. 



There are at least three valuable points 

 'of view from which the behavior of man 

 may be studied: the psychological; the 

 physiological; and the pragmatological.^ 

 The first inclines the observer to an analytic 

 study of activity in its relations to the 

 ideas, motives, purposes and ideals of the 

 organism ; in a word, to a study whose goal 

 is the description of behavior as an expres- 

 sion of will. The second disposes the inves- 

 tigator to seek definite knowledge of the 

 functions of motor organs and of the rela- 

 tions of those mechanisms to other bodily 

 organs and processes. Prom this point of 

 view, the organism is studied as a living 

 thing, influenced by environment and re- 

 acting upon it. The third directs him to 

 the products of organic activity, as keys to 

 the meaning of conscious behavior. It may 

 reasonably be maintained that the under- 

 standing of the behavior of any organism, 

 and most of all that of man, is conditioned 

 by reliable and reasonably complete knowl- 

 edge of the experiences of the organism, of 

 its life processes, including its complex as 

 well as its simple forms of behavior, and of 

 the products or results of its bodily activ- 



2 We lack a term to designate the point of view 

 of tlie scientific student of the results or products 

 of activity, such, for example, as the abodes of 

 animals or of man, works of art, scientific inven- 

 tions, etc. I have designated this point of view as 

 pragmatological, in the absence of a more suitable 

 term. 



ities. We may consider fortunate those 

 students of human behavior who are able 

 to take, in turn, as occasion demands or as 

 opportunity makes possible, these three 

 points of view, for we must recognize that 

 man is a self-conscious being who exhibits 

 varied and complex activities and at the 

 same time produces works of science, indus- 

 try' and art which are of deep psj'^chological 

 significance. This, however, is merely 

 equivalent to the statement that human 

 behavior may be clearly understood only 

 if viewed in its relations, on the one hand, 

 to its structural conditions, and on the 

 other, to its purposes and results. 



The history of science indicates that man 

 has been surprisingly slow to come into 

 close quarters, in a strictly scientific man- 

 ner, with his own behavior. Of psycho- 

 logical, neurological, ethnological and arch- 

 eological facts we to-day have an abun- 

 dance. But we know relatively little con- 

 cerning the facts and laws of human activ- 

 ity. This is true, I believe, chiefly for two 

 reasons. First, because consciousness, pre- 

 senting as it does a perennially puzzling 

 problem in its relations to body, has ab- 

 sorbed attention; and, second, because the 

 results of human behavior have proved 

 more engaging to most observers, even to 

 most scientific observers, than the behavior 

 itself. To-day, a change is evident, for here 

 and there "human behavior" has become 

 an object of scientific interest. Sometimes 

 this interest is inspired by practical prob- 

 lems ; sometimes, by the desire for scientific 

 knowledge. Eecently, there have appeared 

 several books^ which, although dealing with 



3 Among these may be mentioned ' ' The Science 

 of Human Behavior: Biological and Psychological 

 Foundations," by Maurice Parmelee, New York, 

 1913; "The Fundamental Laws of Human Be- 

 havior; lectures on the foundations of any mental 

 or social science," by Max Meyer, Boston, 1911; 

 ' ' Introduction to Social Psychology, ' ' by William 

 McDougall, London, 1908. 



