On the principles and method of a practical science of mind : a reply to a criticism / by Thomas Laycock.

  • Thomas Laycock
Date:
1862
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the principles and method of a practical science of mind : a reply to a criticism / by Thomas Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    of changes, in the encephalou. Ceaseless change is the law of mental hfe, as it is of life simply, or of the whole creation. But these changes are due to motive forces which are supplied to the encephalon, and which operate for tlie attainment of ends according to certain fixed laws, termed vital or physiological. The supply of them to the encephalon, iinj)lies a means and method of continuous su])])ly, otherwise tlie changes Avould cease. These means are the blood- making, blood-transmitting organs, which again imply other organs, for tht supply of material to them, and these again others, so that the incessant changes on which life and thought depend, require a system of organs or things acting in harmonious relation to each other, so that the one result is attained. This system is, in man, the jjerson or individual, the end thus attained is the union of many things into a harmonious Avliole, and the laio, is the law of unity. Hence the law of unity, is the first or fundamental law of life. What then, we now inquire, is the correlative and equally fundamental law of consciousness ? The correlative of this primary biological law, is the equally primary mental law, the intuition of being one; the Ego or I of the metaphysician. Now this intuition is not so sim])le in an act of thought, as it is in feeling; nor is it identical with the intuition of personal identity. In its simplest, i. e., its sensational form, it is strictly to be Hmited to the Present; but in thought, the Present instantly yields to the To-come, and thereby becomes the Past; now the intuition of personal identity includes not only that of being one in time present, but that of having been the same one in time past, and of to-be the same, in time to-come. These fundamental intuitions are worthy of the most careful study of the practitioner, whether as a specialist or generally, for there are hardly any morbid mental states in which they are not modified more or less, being either exalted, subverted or jierverted. Hallucinations as to personal identity, are highly characteristic of all forms of dreaming, delirium, and maniacal raving; and of several forms of mel- ancholia and monomania. Yarieties of double, triple, and alternating consciousness, are also common in various morbid states of the ence- phalou. It is not difficult to explain the majority of these. The encephalon is a double organ, and when one half is exclusively morbid, or more morbid than the other, if both be affected, we have very much the same kind of condition of the whole organ of consciousness, as we have of that portion of it which subserves to vision, when the phenomena of double vision are manifested. These principles bear mainly upon our sources of knowledge, but the same laws explain the relations of feeling, desire, emotion, and effort or will, to fundamental biological laws. In the address abeady referred to, I observe,— But let us inquire, to what fundamental biological law, can we