FACTS AND FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT 73 



6. Consciousness. — The most complex of 

 all psychic phenomena, indeed the one which 

 includes many if not all of the others, is con- 

 sciousness. Like every other psychic process 

 this has undergone development in each of us ; 

 we not only came out of a state of unconscious- 

 ness, but through several years we were grad- 

 ually acquiring consciousness by a process of 

 development. Whether consciousness is the 

 sum of all the psychic faculties, or is a new 

 product dependent upon the interaction of the 

 other faculties, it must pass through many 

 stages in the course of its development, stages 

 which would commonly be counted as uncon- 

 scious or subconscious states, and complete 

 consciousness must depend upon the complete 

 development and activity of the other facul- 

 ties, particularly associative memory and in- 

 telligence. The question is sometimes asked 

 whether germ cells, and indeed all living 

 things, may not be conscious in some vague 

 manner. One might as well ask whether water 

 is present in hydrogen and oxygen. Doubtless 

 the elements out of which consciousness de- 

 velops are present in the germ cells, in the 



