SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 392. 



meditation. To know, observe. Observe 

 more and more, and in tlie end you will 

 know. A generalization is a mountain of 

 observations; from the summit the out- 

 look is broad. The great observer climbs 

 to the outlook, wlule the mere thinker 

 struggles to imagine it. The best that can 

 be achieved by sheer thinking on the data 

 of ordinary human experience we have 

 already as our glorious inheritance. The 

 principal contribution of science to human 

 progress is the recognition of the value 

 of accumulating data which are found out- 

 side of ordinary human experience. 



Twenty-three years ago, at Saratoga, I 

 presented before the meeting of this Asso- 

 ciation—which I then attended for the 

 first time — a paper, 'On the Conditions to 

 be Filled by a Theory of Life,' in which I 

 maintained that, before we can form a 

 theory of life, we must settle what are the 

 IDhenomena to be explained by it. So now, 

 in regard to consciousness it may be main- 

 tained that, for the present, it is more im- 

 portant to seek additional positive knowl- 

 edge than tO' hunt for ultimate interpreta- 

 tions. We welcome therefore especially 

 the younger science of experimental psy- 

 chology, which, it is gratifying to note, 

 has made a more auspicious start in 

 America than in any other country. It 

 completes the circle of the biological sci- 

 ences. It is the department of biology 

 to which properly belongs the problem of 

 consciousness. The results of experi- 

 mental psychology are still for the most 

 part future. But I shall endeavor to show 

 that we may obtain some valuable prelim- 

 inary notions concerning consciousness 

 from our present biological knowledge. 



We must begin by accepting the direct 

 evidence of our own consciousness as fur- 

 nishing the basis. We must further ac- 

 cept the evidence that consciousness exists 

 in other men essentially identical with the 

 consciousness in each of us. The anatom- 



ical, physiological and psychological evi- 

 dence of the identity of the phenomena in 

 different human individiials is, to a scien- 

 tific mind, absolutely conclusive, even 

 though we continue to admit cheerfully 

 that the epistemologist rightly asserts that 

 no knowledge is absolute, and that the 

 metaphysician rightly claims that ego is 

 the only reality and everything else exists 

 only as ego's idea, because in science as in 

 practical life we assume that our knowl- 

 edge is real and is objective in source. 



For the purpose of the following dis- 

 cussion we must define certain qualities or 

 characteristics of consciousness. The most 

 striking distinction of the processes in liv- 

 ing bodies, as compared with those in in- 

 animate bodies, is that the living processes 

 have an object— they are teleological. The 

 distinction is so conspicuous that the biol- 

 ogists can very often say why a given struc- 

 ture exists, or why a given function is 

 performed, but hoiv the structure exists or 

 how the function is performed he can teU 

 very imperfectly, more often not at all. 

 Consciousness is only a particular ex- 

 ample; though an excellent one of this 

 peculiarity of biological knowledge — we do 

 not know what it is, we do not know how it 

 functions, but we do know why it exists. 

 Those who are baffled by the elusiveness of 

 consciousness when we attempt to analyze 

 it will do well to remember that all other 

 vital phenomena are in the last instance 

 equally and similarly elusive. 



In order to determine the teleological 

 value of consciousness, we must endeavor 

 to make clear to ourselves what the es- 

 sential function is which it performs. As 

 I have found no description or statement 

 of that function which satisfied me, I have 

 ventured, perhaps rashly, to draw xvp the 

 following new description: 



The function of consciousness is to dis- 

 locate in time the reactions from sensa- 

 tions. 



