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
2. On this ground, if on this alone, an acquaintance with the
general principles of structure and function is indispensable to
the psychologist; although only of late years has this been fully
recognized, so that men profoundly ignorant of the organism have had
no hesitation in theorizing on its highest functions. In saying that
such knowledge is indispensable, I do not mean that in the absence
of such knowledge a man is debarred from understanding much of the
results reached by investigators, nor that he may not himself make
useful observations and classifications of psychological facts. It is
possible to read books on Natural History with intelligence and profit,
and even to make good observations, without a scientific groundwork of
biological instruction; and it is possible to arrive at empirical facts
of hygiene and medical treatment without any physiological instruction.
But in all three cases the absence of a scientific basis will render
the knowledge fragmentary and incomplete; and this ought to deter
every one from offering an opinion on debatable questions which pass
beyond the limit of subjective observations. The psychologist who has
not prepared himself by a study of the organism has no more right to
be heard on the genesis of the psychical states, or of the relations
between body and mind, than one of the laity has a right to be heard on
a question of medical treatment.
THE POSITION OF BIOLOGY.
3. Science is the systematic classification of Experience. It
postulates unity of Existence with great varieties in the Modes of
Existence; assuming that there is one Matter everywhere the same,
under great diversities in the complications of its elements. The
distinction of Modes is not less indispensable than the identification
of the elements. These Modes range themselves under three supreme
heads: Force, Life, Mind. Under the first, range the general properties
exhibited by _all_ substances; under the second, the general properties
exhibited by _organized_ substances; under the third, the general
properties exhibited by organized _animal_ substances. The first
class is subdivided into _Physics_, celestial and terrestrial, and
_Chemistry_. Physics treats of substances which move as masses,
or which vibrate and rotate as molecules, without undergoing any
appreciable change of structural integrity; they show changes of
_position_ and _state_, without corresponding changes in their
elements. Chemistry treats of substances which undergo molecular
changes of composition _destructive_ of their integrity. Thus the blow
which simply moves one body, or makes it vibrate, explodes another. The
friction which alters the temperature and electrical state of a bit of
glass, ignites a bit of phosphorus, and so destroys its integrity of
structure, converting phosphorus into phosphoric acid.
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