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
161. The foregoing remarks have had the object of showing how little
substantial aid Psychology can at present derive from what is known
of the elementary structure of the nervous system, indispensable
as an accurate knowledge of that structure must be to a complete
analysis of its functions. This caution has been specially addressed
to those medical and psychological students whose researches leave
them insufficient leisure to pursue microscopical investigations
for themselves, and who are therefore forced to rely on second-hand
knowledge, which is usually defective in the many qualifying
considerations which keep scepticism vigilant. Relying on positive
statements, and delusive diagrams which only display what the observer
_imagines_, not what he actually _sees_, they construct on such data
theories of disease, or of mental processes; or else they translate
observed facts into the terms of this imaginary anatomy, and offer the
translation as a new contribution to Science.
162. But little aid as can at present be derived from the teaching of
the microscope, some aid Psychology may even now derive from it. The
teaching will often serve, for instance, to correct the precipitate
conclusions of subjective analysis, which present artificial
distinctions as real distinctions, separating what Nature has united.
It will show certain organic connections not previously suspected;
and since whatever is organically connected cannot functionally be
separated, such sharply marked analytical distinctions as those of
periphery and centre, or of sensation and motion, must be only regarded
as artificial aids. The demonstration of the indissoluble union of
the tissues is a demonstration of their functional co-operation. So
also the anatomical demonstration of the similarity and continuity of
all parts of the central system sets aside the analytical separation
of one centre from another, except as a convenient artifice; proving
that cerebral substance is one with spinal substance, having the same
properties, the same laws of action.
For the present, Psychology must seek objective aid from Physiology
and Pathology rather than from elementary Anatomy. In the paragraphs
which are to follow I shall endeavor to select the chief laws of
nervous activity which the researches of physiologists and pathologists
disclose. By these laws we may direct and control psychological
research.
THE ENERGY OF NEURILITY.
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