Nor can the second problem be dealt with in any other fashion; for it is
only by the observation of the growth of knowledge that we can
rationally hope to discover how knowledge grows. But the solution of
the third problem simply involves the discussion of the data obtained
by the investigation of the foregoing two.
Thus, in order to answer three out of the four subordinate questions
into which What can I know? breaks up, we must have recourse to that
investigation of mental phenomena, the results of which are embodied in
the science of psychology.
Psychology is a part of the science of life or biology, which differs
from the other branches of that science, merely in so far as it deals
with the psychical, instead of the physical, phenomena of life.
As there is an anatomy of the body, so there is an anatomy of the mind;
the psychologist dissects mental phenomena into elementary states of
consciousness, as the anatomist resolves limbs into tissues, and tissues
into cells. The one traces the development of complex organs from simple
rudiments; the other follows the building up of complex conceptions out
of simpler constituents of thought. As the physiologist inquires into
the way in which the so-called "functions" of the body are performed, so
the psychologist studies the so-called "faculties" of the mind. Even a
cursory attention to the ways and works of the lower animals suggests a
comparative anatomy and physiology of the mind; and the doctrine of
evolution presses for application as much in the one field as in the
other.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66