The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)James, William
Philosophy
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
It will be remembered that in our criticism of the theory of the
integration of successive conscious units into a feeling of musical
pitch, we decided that whatever integration there was was that of the
air-pulses into a simpler and simpler sort of physical effect, as the
propagations of material change got higher and higher in the nervous
system. At last, we said (p. 23), there results some simple and massive
process in the auditory centres of the hemispherical cortex, to which,
_as a whole_, the feeling of musical pitch directly corresponds.
Already, in discussing the localization of functions in the brain,
I had said (pp. 158-9) that consciousness accompanies the stream of
innervation through that organ and varies in quality with the character
of the currents, being mainly of things seen if the occipital lobes
are much involved, of things heard if the action is focalized in the
temporal lobes, etc., etc.; and I had added that a vague formula like
this was as much as one could safely venture on in the actual state of
physiology. The facts of mental deafness and blindness, of auditory
and optical aphasia, show us that the whole brain must act together
if certain thoughts are to occur. The consciousness, which is itself
an integral thing not made of parts, 'corresponds' to the entire
activity of the brain, whatever that may be, at the moment. This is a
way of expressing the relation of mind and brain from which I shall
not depart during the remainder of the book, because it expresses the
bare phenomenal fact with no hypothesis, and is exposed to no such
logical objections as we have found to cling to the theory of ideas in
combination.
Nevertheless, this formula which is so unobjectionable if taken
vaguely, positivistically, or scientifically, as a mere empirical law
of concomitance between our thoughts and our brain, tumbles to pieces
entirely if we assume to represent anything more intimate or ultimate
by it. The ultimate of ultimate problems, of course, in the study
of the relations of thought and brain, is to understand why and how
such disparate things are connected at all. But before that problem
is solved (if it ever is solved) there is a less ultimate problem
which must first be settled. Before the connection of thought and
brain can be explained, it must at least be _stated_ in an elementary
form; and there are great difficulties about so stating it. To state
it in elementary form one must reduce it to its lowest terms and
know which mental fact and which cerebral fact are, so to speak, in
immediate juxtaposition. We must find the minimal mental fact whose
being reposes directly on a brain-fact; and we must similarly find
the minimal brain-event which will have a mental counterpart at all.
Between the mental and the physical minima thus found there will be an
immediate relation, the expression of which, if we had it, would be the
elementary psycho-physic law.
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