86 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



This anthropomorpUsm, though deeply rooted in the human 

 mind, is none the less deceptive and erroneous. Consciousness 

 is a phenomenon which implies a certain development of the 

 nervous system ; and the view which holds the centraUsation ol 

 the nervous system in certain centres of the brain cortex to be 

 the indispensable condition for the development of conscious- 

 ness is certainly the correct one. Max Verworn has shown that- 

 all stimulated movements in the lower organisms and plants 

 must be regarded as reflex, and that conscious and voluntary 

 action commences only subsequently to the development of the 

 specific nerve centres.^ 



For this reason we are unable to agree with Eibot, who writes : 

 " Cet etat initial (de I'instinct) doit etre accompagne de con- 

 science, n'est possible que par elle : il est au sens strict, d'une 

 nature psychique. Considerons maintenant les instincts dans 

 leur dernier terme : dans les actes, les resultats auxquels ils 

 aboutissent. loi encore, il est difficile de ne pas admettre un 

 etat de conscience, surtout dans les cas ou I'activite de 1' animal 

 doit parcourir plusieurs phases dont chacune n'est qu'une etape 

 vers le resultat final." ^ Ribot goes on to say that the inter- 

 mediary phenomena between the initial and the final act, which 

 constitute instinct properly so called, are indeed unconscious ; 

 for, as the nervous process is the only indispensable factor in the 

 conscious state, it matters little if consciousness itself disap- 

 pears in the course of time, provided that the nervous process 

 which constitutes the physiological equivalent of consciousness 

 remain. 



Ribot' s view is that instinct is nothing but inherited habit • 

 and although this may be true in a certain sense when applied 

 to those instincts which have their origin in an act of conscious 

 volition, Weismann has shown conclusively that it cannot be 



1 M. Verworn, Psycliophysiologische Protisten-Studien, pp. 135-140. 

 ^ Th. Ribot, L'Heredite psychologique, 7th edition, p. 18. Paris, Alcan, 

 1902. 



