The story of the mind.

  • James Mark Baldwin
Date:
[c.1900]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The story of the mind. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    chology considers it, the aspect which presents itself in Action or conduct. The fact that we act is of course as important as the fact that we think or the fact that we feel; and the dis- tinction which separates thought and action should not be made too sharp. Yet there is a distinction. To understand action we must again go to introspection. This comes out as soon as we ask how we reach our knowledge of the actions of others. Of course, we say at once that we see them. And that is true; we do see them, while as to their thoughts we oidy infer them from what we see of their action. But, on the other hand, we may ask: How do we come to infer this or that thought from this or that action of another 1 The only reply is : Because when we act in the same way this is the way we feel. So we get back in any case to our own consciousness, and must ask how is this action related to this thought in our own mind. To this question psychology has now a general answer : Our action is always the result of our thought, of the elements of knowledge which are at the time present in the mind. Of course, there are actions which we do from purely nervous reasons. These are the Instincts, which come up again when we consider the animals. But these we may neglect so long as we are investigating actions which we consider our own. Apart from the Instincts, the principle holds that behind every action which our conduct shows there must be something thought of, some sensation or knowledge then in mind, some feel-