On the principles and method of a practical science of mind : a reply to a criticism / by Thomas Laycock.
- Thomas Laycock
- Date:
- 1862
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.
24/28 (page 22)
![physicians take no note of those vital changes, wliich at least necessarily coincide with and, as I maintain, necessarily correlate all states of consciousness; and consequently they could not apply the term to them, as things of which a man has experience. When, therefore, I concede Mr. Mill's ])roposition, that even our ideas of number are due to experience, I expressly ex])lain tlie sense in which I use the term. My words are If we apply the fundamental law of all cognition to an elucidation of this question, we cannot but see that in the widest sense of the term, all truths whatever, must be truths of experience; for consciousness itself is but an experience of the vital changes within us. We do not even hio7v that we exist as one, out of relation to something else. Now a knowledge of that relation implies an anterior cognition of self and not-self, wliich' cognition can only be the residts of the teleiotic or teleorganic changes, going on within us to that end. Mr. Mill, therefore, [it is conceded] lias rightly attributed, even our ideas of number to experience, if the term be used in the sense here indicated.* 9. Conclusions as to the importance of method in mental science.— It is not of much practical moment to point out various minor mistakes and misappreliensions into which Dr. Bushnan has fallen in his criticism; they are all traceable to the same cause as the larger defects I have noted; namely a wholly defective method. Now this is a point of very cardin'al importance to those officers of asylums who desire to use the large and valuable field of observation and research of which they are in possession, in virtue of tlieir important office, for the advancement of mental science. Here is one of their body, a gentleman of high intelligence, and evidently a pains-taking and honest inquirer after truth, who mistakes (as I have shown) even the uses of the generalisations of science ; who looking for the practical in mental science, can find no better tests for it, than the insoluble problem of the nature of the Deity, or the uses of metaphysical logo- machy, and the like wearinesses; and who, although in daily contact with the mentally disordered, seems to have wholly forgotten in his search for the practical, that— * * * To know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom. I say that it is to the old method which he advocates and practises, that this failure is due, and I have ample grounds for this conclusion, by exam])les of similar failures. It is at least a curious circumstance that of the many critics of my views, who belong to the old school, none has discussed any of the numerous practical topics I have brought forward; but on the contrary;, their criticisms have been * ' Mind and Brain,' vol. i, p. 290. System of Logic, book ii, chaps. 5 and 6,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21481210_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
