Our view of the relation between body and mind leads to the further conclusion that, as our body may be distinguished from its parts without having existence separate from its parts, so our mind may be distinguished from the several states of consciousness without having existence separate from them. Mind is the concept of the totality of mental functions. As self-preservation is the chief end of all bodily function, so self-preservation is the chief end of mental life. QUESTIONS 40. Do the facts of comparative anatomy and of localized function agree with the view that the brain is the mind’s tool? 41. Is mind subject to the law of the conservation of energy? 42. Is mind a demon interfering with the laws of nature? 43. What is the cause of the illusion that nervous processes bring forth mental states, or that mental states bring forth nervous processes? 44. Why is it correct to regard certain events going on outside of the organism--and even in the organism, but outside of the nervous system--as effects or as causes of certain mental states? 45. Is there any objection to distinguishing our mind from the several mental states? CHAPTER II THE SPECIAL FACTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS _A._ _THE ELEMENTS OF MENTAL LIFE_ § 4. SENSATION 1. _The Newly Discovered Kinds of Sensations_ We shall discuss first the simplest facts of mental life, later their complications. It has often been objected that such a treatment is not in harmony with the fact that we are more familiar with the complications than with the simpler facts. But we are also more familiar with our body than we are with muscle cells, nerve cells, and blood corpuscles, and yet we do not object to beginning the study of biology by a study of the structural elements and their chief properties. No one understands this to mean that the cells of various kinds existed first separately and were then combined into the body which consists of them. No one should believe that the simple mental states existed separately and were then combined into those complications with which we have become familiar in everyday life. Simple mental states are abstractions. But we cannot hope to understand the complexity of mental life without using abstractions. Through the sense organs our mind receives information about the external world. The traditional classification of the sensations divided them into five groups. But the distinction of five senses has been found to be insufficient. At least twice as many must be distinguished.