1895]. Psychology. 773 
PSYCHOLOGY.’ 
The Problem of Instinct.—The works of Prof. Lloyd and of 
Prof. Baldwin, which I have recently reviewed in these pages, deal 
more at length with this problem, but it seems worth while to add an 
account.of a very interesting article which Louis Weber published in 
the January number of the ~“ Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale,” 
pp. 27-59. 
The word instinct may be taken in three quite distinct senses. In 
the first sense it is practically equivalent to animal mind or intelli- 
gence ; in the second it denotes certain types of conduct, adapted to an 
end, constant throughout the individuals of a given species or race, and 
although constant, not dependent upon consciousness for their perform- 
ance ; in the third it denotes simply unconscious adaptation to an end 
—the instinctive act may be conscious but in that conscfousness there 
must be no representation of the end to which it tends. The first is 
too vague, the second is arbitrary in that it involves the assumption of 
a precision that does not exist, the third is preferable to either of the 
others, for it embraces phenomena of widely different character and 
recognizes instinct as a phenomenon co-extensive with mentality. The 
facts accumulated by investigators in this field have been of little value 
to science for lack of approved methods of research and the theories 
based upon them stand in need of critical revision. 
The difficulties of getting exact information upon these points are 
great. Unlike physical phenomena, mental phenomena are not objects 
of direct perception but must be inferred from external signs. In the 
process of inference many errors creep in, springing, in part, from 
theological or philosophical prejudices, and in part from our natural 
tendency to read our own experiences into the minds of the lower ani- 
mals. Among the most misleading of the anthropocentric conceptions 
to which this tendency gives rise, is that of the scale of intelligence, in 
which the human mind has the first place, every other type of mind 
having its appropriate niche below it. ‘ Thus, the conceptions of rela- 
tive value, of degree, and of hierarchy are intruded into the study of 
phenomena which from their very nature cannot be brought under 
any scheme of classification based upon the notions of less or more.” 
1 This department is edited by Dr. Wm. Romaine Newbold, University of Penn- 
sylvania. 2 
