The Mind and the Brain: Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le CorpsBinet, Alfred
Philosophy
The Mind and the Brain: Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps
Binet, Alfred
Mind and body
I have shown elsewhere, by experiments on hysterics, that it is
possible by the intermediary of their insensibility to touch to
suggest ideas on the value of which the patients make mistakes. For
instance, you take the finger in which they have no sensation, you
touch it, you bend it. The patient, not seeing what is done, does not
feel it, but the tactile sensation unfelt by their principal
consciousness somehow awakes the visual image of the finger; this
enters into the field of consciousness, and most often is not
recognised by the subject, who describes the occurrence in his own
way; he claims, for instance, that he thinks of sticks or of columns.
In reality he does not know of what he is thinking, and we know better
than he. He is thinking of his finger, and does not recognise it.
All these examples show that the clearly defined characteristics into
which it is sought to divide extrospection and introspection do not
exist. There is, however, a reason for preserving the distinction,
because it presents a real interest for the psychology of the
individual. These two words introspection and extrospection admirably
convey the difference in the manner of thinking between those who
from preference look, and those who from preference reflect. On the
one hand, the observers, who are often men of action; on the other,
the speculators, who are often mystics. But it would be no more
legitimate by this means to separate psychology and physics than to
say, for instance, "There are two kinds of geology: one is the geology
of France, for one is acquainted with it without going from home, and
the other is that of the rest of the world, because in order to know
it one must cross the frontier."
We reject, therefore, the definition drawn from the difference of
method. At bottom there is no difference of method, but only
differences of process, of _technique_. The method is always the same,
for it is derived from the application of a certain number of laws to
the objects of cognition, and these laws remain the same in all
spheres of application.
Here is another difference of method which, if it were true, would
have an incalculable importance. Psychology, we are told, is a science
of direct and immediate experiment; it studies facts as they present
themselves to our consciousness, while the natural sciences are
sciences of indirect and mediate experiment, for they are compelled to
interpret the facts of consciousness and draw from them conclusions on
nature. It has also been said, in a more ambitious formula, "The
science of physical objects is relative; logical science is absolute."
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