Single Relations Between Thoughts. 
48 
case being “ The wood burns badly. In spite of that it is dry. ” 
This interpretation brings us out of the field of external causa¬ 
tion into that of internal or mental causation. In this field the 
ill-burning of the wood is a natural cause of the opinion that it 
is wet. The opinion that it is dry subsists in spite of the rec¬ 
ognition that it burns badly. The example then illustrates the 
counter-causative in the intellectual field of action. 
I have not thought it necessary to discriminate between the 
treatment, in causal relations, of the external and the internal; 
for I see no cases in which treatment differs in principle. What 
is known as the relation of “ G-rund und Folge ” or “ datum to 
inference, ” I have then left undifferentiated from other causal re¬ 
lations. To one peculiar form of the mentally causal I however 
invite passing attention, giving it the name, for lack of a bet¬ 
ter, of 
CLASS VII. RELATION OF DECISION TO MUTUALLY CONFLICTING DATA. 
This class employs the connective on the whole. 
For example, “ X is polite, amusing, vain and fickle. On the 
whole I like him. ” The connective is defined by Webster as mean¬ 
ing “ all things considered, ” “ in view of all the circumstances. ” 
Or, more strictly, the final statement is in a relation of mental 
attendance on all details of the preceding. That is, all are co¬ 
present in consciousness. This connective might be used when 
all data favor the same decision. But as a matter of fact, and 
indeed naturally enough, it appears to be employed only when 
the data partly favor and partly oppose the decision. In such 
case the speaker’s assurance that his decision is accompanied by 
a consciousness of both favorable and unfavorable data is quite 
in order. It is indeed natural to regard the following thought 
as in relation, partly of effect to cause, and partly of effect to 
counter-cause, with the preceding data. But it is more natural 
to believe that the speaker’s opinion is in the single relation of 
effect to cause with the resultant of the conflicting influences. 
Or, letting the causes constitute a minuend and the counter-causes 
a subtrahend, the remainder is cause, of which the decision is 
effect. The thought-structure, in either view, is that employed 
in the other cases considered. A full reinstatement, or a rein- 
