CHAPTEE VII. 



THE METHODS AND SNARES OF PSYCHOLOGY 



We have now finished the physiological preliminaries of 

 our subject and must in the remaining chapters study the 

 mental states themselves whose cerebral conditions and 

 concomitants we have been considering hitherto. Beyond 

 the brain, however, there is an outer world to which the 

 brain-states themselves 'correspond.' And it will be well, 

 ere we advance farther, to say a word about the relation of 

 the mind to this larger sphere of physical fact. 



PSYCHOLOGY IS A NATURAL SCIENCE. 



That is, the mind which the psychologist studies is the 

 mind of distinct individuals inhabiting definite portions of 

 a real space and of a real time. With any other sort of 

 mind, absolute Intelligence, Mind unattached to a particular 

 body, or Mind not subject to the course of time, the psychol- 

 ogist as such has nothing to do. ' Mind,' in his mouth, is 

 only a class name for minds. Fortunate will it be if his 

 more modest inquiry result in any generalizations which 

 the philosopher devoted to absolute Intelligence as such 

 can use. 



To the psychologist, then, the minds he studies are 

 objects, in a world of other objects. Even when he intro- 

 spectively analyzes his own mind, and tells what he finds 

 there, he talks about it in an objective way. He says, for 

 instance, that under certain circumstances the color gray 

 appears to him green, and calls the appearance an illusion. 

 This implies that he compares two objects, a real color 

 seen under certain conditions, and a mental perception 

 which he believes to represent it, and that he declares the 

 relation between them to be of a certain kind. In making 

 this critical judgment, the psychologist stands as much out- 

 side of the perception which he criticises as he does of the 

 color. Both are his objects. And if this is true of him when 



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