Volume 1

Mind and brain, or, The correlations of consciousness and organisation : systematically investigated and applied to philosophy, mental science and practice / by Thomas Laycock.

  • Thomas Laycock
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mind and brain, or, The correlations of consciousness and organisation : systematically investigated and applied to philosophy, mental science and practice / by Thomas Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    other, when discussing the laws of things. Thus, in reference to the passage just quoted, as to the origin of Art, it may be stated that no art, being, as affirmed, the result of the laws of nature, can contain what is not in the laws of nature; yet, Mr Mill remarks, every art has one first principle, or general premise, not borrowed from science—that which enunciates the object aimed at, and affirms it to be a desirable object. The builder's art assumes that it is desirable to have buildings; architec- ture (as one of the fine arts), that it is desirable to have them beautiful or imposing.* When the object aimed at is attained, we say, that is the result of the art. Now, as every art aims at the promotion of happiness as its ultimate end, and as this is the ultimate principle of Teleology, it follows that, if that be also the ultimate end of Life and Organisation, Teleology, or the doctrine of ends, must be our guide in the development of the first principles of mental science. Or, in other words, the results of the laws of Nature, as ends, must be the great object of our scientific researches into the correlations of Life and Thought. Whether happiness, to use the words of Pope, be our being's [sole] end and aim, may be questioned on logical grounds; but as a fact of experience, it is surely unquestionable that it is one of the ends 5 and in truth, when investigating the phenomena of Life and Organisation, it is not possible, for this reason, to avoid the teleological method, as we can when investiga- ting mere cosmic or physical phenomena. We cannot be content with simply determining the mere relations of things or events—an existence, a co-existence, a succes- sion, or a resemblance—and not inquire into the ends thereof. Such a doctrine, applied to physiology, would * Op. cit. p. 526.
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