THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



The remarkable progress which has been made in the 

 last few decades in the anatomic and histological investi- 

 gation of the brain does not yet, it is true, enable us to 

 make a clear delimitation of the region of the phronema 

 and its relations to the neighboring sensory and motor 

 spheres in the cortex. We must, in fact, assume that 

 there is no sharp distinction in the lower stages of the 

 vertebrate soul; in the older and phylogenetically more 

 distant stages they were not yet differentiated. Even 

 now there are still intermediaries between the assthetal 

 and phronetal cells. But we may expect with confidence 

 that further progress in the comparative anatomy of the 

 brain will, with the aid of embryology, throw more and 

 more light on these complicated structures. In any case, 

 the fundamental fact is now empirically established that 

 the phronema (the real organ of the soul) forms a 

 definite part of the cortex of the brain, and that without 

 it there can be no reason, no mental life, no thought, 

 and no knowledge. 



Since we regard psychology as a branch of physiology, 

 and examine the whole of the phenomena of mental life 

 from the same monistic stand-point as all other vital 

 functions, it follows that we can make no exception for 

 knowledge and reason. In this we are diametrically 

 opposed to the current systems of psychology, which 

 regard psychology, not as a natural science, but as a 

 mental science. In the next chapter we shall see that 

 this position is wholly unjustified. Unfortunately, this 

 dualistic attitude is shared by a number of distinguish- 

 ed modern physiologists, who otherwise adopt the 

 monistic principles; they take the soul to be, in the 

 Cartesian sense, a supernatural entity. Descartes — a 

 pupil of the Jesuits — only applied his theory to man, 

 and regarded animals as soulless automata. But the 

 theory is quite absurd in modern physiologists, who 

 know from innumerable observations and experiments 



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