The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.Lewes, George Henry
Philosophy
The Physical Basis of Mind: Being the Second Series of Problems of Life and Mind.
Lewes, George Henry
Mind and body; Psychophysiology
77. Difficult as it must be to keep the physiological question apart
from the psychological when treating of Sensibility, we shall never
succeed in our analysis unless the two questions are separately
treated. The physiologist considers organisms and their actions
from their objective side, and tries to detect the mechanism of the
observed phenomena. These he has to interpret in terms of Matter and
Motion. The psychologist interprets them in terms of Feeling. The
actions which we _see_ in others we cannot _feel_, except as visual
sensations; the changes which we feel in ourselves we cannot see in
others, except as bodily movements. The reaction of a sensory organ is
by the physiologist called a sensation,--borrowing the term from the
psychologist; he explains it as due to the stimulus which changes the
molecular condition of the organ; and this changed condition, besides
being seen to be followed by a muscular movement, is _inferred_ to
be accompanied by a change of Feeling. The psychologist has direct
knowledge only of the change of Feeling which follows on some other
change; he infers that it is originated by the action of some external
cause, and infers that a neural process precedes, or accompanies, the
feeling. Obviously there are two distinct questions here, involving
distinct methods. The physiologist is compelled to complete his
objective observations by subjective suggestions; compelled to add
Feeling to the terms of Matter and Motion, in spite of the radical
diversity of their aspects. The psychologist also is compelled to
complete his subjective observations by objective interpretations,
linking the internal changes to the external changes. A complete theory
must harmonize the two procedures.
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