PART II.

GENERAL VIEW OF MIND.

CHAPTER IV.

ANALYSIS OF MIND: MENTAL FUNCTIONS.

§ 1. Problem of Dividing Mind. The objects of Psychological Analysis have been indicated with sufficient fulness above (see p. 23). As was there pointed out, the immediate purpose of a general analysis of mental states or operations is the discovery of certain fundamental types of mental activity, certain simple and comprehensive functions of mind, of which all the concrete facts of our mental life may be viewed as various modifications. In seeking for such radical and comprehensive distinctions we are commonly said to be classifying or arranging mental states under general heads, or to be dividing mind into distinct modes of manifestation.

§ 2. Triple Function of Mind. By help of such a process of analysis carried out on a variety of psychological phenomena psychologists have come to distinguish between three radically distinct mental functions. These, which are pretty clearly recognised in our everyday distinctions, are known as Feeling, Knowing, and Willing.

In order to illustrate the difference between these modes of mental manifestation, we may select almost any example of a familiar mental experience. For instance, I see an apple on a tree. I may be affected by the beauty of its colour glowing in the midst of its cool green surroundings. Such a mental state of delightful admiration would be properly described as a feeling

or affective state. Or, again, if I happen to be a connoisseur of apples my mind may be stimulated by the sight of the object to note its peculiar characteristics with a view to recognise the particular variety to which it belongs. Such a direction of mental activity would come under the head of knowing, cognitive process or intellection. And, lastly, if I happen to be hot and thirsty the sight of the apple may very likely excite a desire to pluck and eat it and prompt the corresponding actions. And in this case what goes on in my mind would be a process of willing, volition, or conation.

It may easily be seen that there is no mental process which cannot be brought under one or more of these three heads. Whatever state of mind we happen to be in, we shall always find that it is fully described by help of these three fundamental or primary functions. To be affected by some feeling, as wonder, love, or grief, to be following out some process of intellectual inquiry, or to be actively engaged in doing something or preparing to do something, this seems to exhaust all known forms of mental operation.

§ 2a. Mental States and Processes. We find the terms mental state and mental operation used indifferent y in describing the phenomena of mind. There seems good reason however to adopt the second as the more suitable. As already pointed out, psychical facts are events in time. They have an appreciable duration, and exhibit a series of changes. 'They are thus most accurately described as processes. That all examples of intellection and volition are such processes must be evident. To think, to carry out a voluntary action, is a progressive operation in which we can easily distinguish successive stages. And though the case of feeling may at first seem to be an exception, it will be found to illustrate the general rule. For every feeling, however momentary it seems, really goes through a process of rise and fall.

It may be necessary in certain cases to distinguish between the mental process and the completed state or final psychical product. Thus we distinguish the process of perception and the product, the percept, the process of conception and the product, the concept, and so forth. But though we may by a device of abstraction distinguish thus between a process and its result, a productive operation

1 The reader will note that there is no adjective cognate with the substantive "feeling". We are thus compelled to resort to another word, as "emotional". This last is the one generally adopted, though it is open to the objection that the cognate substantive “emotion" is confined to the higher order of feeling. The term "affective" seems on the whole the best for covering all varieties of feeling.

2 The reader should note that we use the word Knowing and not Knowledge in order to mark off the psychical process as such, without any reference to the objective worth or validity cf its result.

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and its product, we must remember that they are only two aspects of the same phenomenon. An idea is merely the last stage of a process of ideation, a desire merely the consummation of a process of desiring, and so on. Hence it seems more scientific to describe the result of our general analysis as the division of mental processes into three fundamental comprehensive types of process.1

§ 3. Elementary Functions. Having now reached the most comprehensive types of mental operation we may carry our analysis a step further, and seek to reduce each of these modes of functioning to its simplest form. That is to say, we may endeavour to discover the essential element or elements in each of the three processes, feeling, knowing, and willing. And here we may conveniently set out with the process of knowing.

(a) Primary Intellectual Functions. The mental operations classed under the head of knowing or intellection exhibit a wide variety of form. This variety is indicated in the everyday mode of describing them as the faculty of memory, imagination, reason, and so forth. It is the object of scientific analysis to penetrate below the superficial differences here marked off, and to discover more fundamental distinctions of functional activity. The object of such analysis is to determine the fewest elementary functional activities from the varied activity of which all the observable diversity of operation in our mental life can be derived.

In order to reach these primary functions let us examine a simple case of knowing. A letter is brought to me. I glance at the address and recognise the handwriting of a friend. In this apparently simple operation it is easy to recognise a combination of factors. There is (a) the initial stage, viz., the presentation of an object to sense and the fixing of the attention on this, and (b) the stage of intellection proper, the act of perceiving, interpreting, or recognising what is presented.

Each of these stages seems to be necessary. We cannot carry out a process of knowing unless some material is presented to the mind on which it can fix its attention. Such material is supplied in the first instance by the senses. Hence the impressions received through the senses are a necessary factor in the process of intellection. They are the material out

1 On the distinction of process and product, see some remarks by Dr. Ward, Mind, vol. xii. p. 50. Mr. Shadworth Hodgson has suggested the expression "process-content" (Brain, No. liii. (1891) p. 7).

of which cognitions are elaborated. And equally essential is the act of Attention, by which the mind reacts on the presentation. As we shall see more fully presently, every process of intellection depends on this exertion of activity under the form of attention, or restriction and delimitation of consciousness to a definite object.

Coming now to the stage of intellection proper, we find that it consists of processes of segregation and aggregation, analysis and synthesis. Thus in the very direction of attention now to this, now to that feature of the handwriting the mind separates, isolates, or differentiates the presented materials. This process of analysis is supplemented by a process of synthesis in which the several characters of the handwriting thus individually observed are taken together as constituting a single whole, viz., a particular person's penmanship.

Looked at from a slightly different point of view this process of separation and combination resolves itself into the discernment or establishment of certain relations among the presented material. It is commonly said that knowing consists in this consciousness of relations, or, as it has been called, the process of relating or referring. In the above example we may see that the mind is throughout engaged in apprehending relations. Thus in the very process of analysis by which a particular feature of the handwriting is selectively attended to there is a rudimentary consciousness of difference of difference between this and the other features momentarily neglected. Further, the whole group of characters as synthetically co-apprehended is virtually distinguished as different from other groups corresponding to other correspondents' writing. This discernment of difference is the most fundamental and constant element in all intellection. It is known as Discrimination.

In addition to this isolating and discriminating activity there is a conjoining or combining activity. And this shows itself under two apparently distinct forms. In the first place the presented material is connected with other like material. In identifying the handwriting I obviously become aware of its similarity to other specimens previously seen. The most

1 For a full illustration of this position, see Lotze, Metaphysic, bk. iii. chap. iii.; H. Spencer, Psychology, pt. ii. chap. ii.

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general name for this connecting of like with like is Assimilation. Assimilation or Consciousness of Resemblance is the second elementary intellectual function co-ordinate with Discrimination or Consciousness of Difference.

In the second place this integrating activity shows itself under the form of connecting a number of materials by relations of time and place. This form of integration appears in the apprehension of those relations of line to line, letter to letter, which constitute the peculiar form of the handwriting itself, and still more plainly in the conjoining of the handwriting with a particular writer. This connecting of a given material with its concomitants or belongings in time and place may be conveniently marked off as Integration, or, when we want to distinguish it from Assimilative Combination, as Associative Integration.

Each of these elements will be found more or less distinctly present in every intellectual operation. Hence we may say that the processes of intellection are resolvable into more elementary constituent activities, which may be briefly summarised under the two heads of Analysis and Synthesis (isolation and combination), or more fully under the three heads, Discrimination, Assimilation, and Associative Integration.

In order to complete this account of the work of intellection it is necessary to point out that these processes of isolation and combination depend on and are rendered possible by a peculiar power or property of mind that has been named Retentiveness. Thus in identifying the handwriting as that of a particular friend I must, it is evident, have retained the impression of the previously seen writing, as well as of the writer. Since, indeed, this person is not at the moment presented as an object to the mind, I must distinctly reproduce a past impression of him under the form of a mental representation.1 This power of retention, which in its highest form appears as reproduction of past impressions or representation, is a necessary condition of all processes of intellection. More particularly it is the chief support of the work of integration.

1 Presentation refers to what is directly presented to the mind and immediately apprehended, as when we see an object; representation is the idea or mental image which stands in place of the presentation when this is wanting, and by help of which we indirectly or mediately cognise the object.