Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/842

 826 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The author speaks of those whom he calls " organic thinkers " as heralding a new view of the relation of the mental life to the organism. These " new conceptions of soul-life " which underlie his interpretation of adolescence on the psychological side he describes as " a new and higher monism," an " evolutionism more evolved." He protests against the lack of interest in the genetic problem, which he finds among his contemporaries in philosophy and psy- chology, regards the whole movement of metaphysical thought from Descartes to Hegel "as a philosophic intermezzo," a "tedious detour," and himself seeks " a pure culture of naturalism and induc- tion." " Its cardinal principle is nemo psychologus nisi biologus, so inseparable are life and mind."

He spurns the current psychophysical parallelism and, turning to the physical side asks : '* What can brute matter tell us of its lofty partner, mind ? " In reply we find that " nature and mind have the same root," that " mind is invisible nature." " The idea of soul we hold to is in its lower stages indistinguishable from that of life."

The first chapter of a scientific psychology, then, is metabolic and nutri- tive, and the first function of the soul is .... food-getting, assimilation, and dissimilation. Whether it be conceived as spiritual or as subtly natural, it is related to soft protoplasmic parts We can truly know soul only- through body [The] psyche is a quantum and direction of vital energy.

.... The nervous system, which is the master tissue of the body, may be the seat of the highest complexity, where matter is most clearly transubstan- tiated into soul.

The true beginning for a psychology essentially genetic is hunger, the first sentient expression of the will to live, which with love, its other fundamental quality, rules the world of life. The more we know of the body, the more clearly we see that not only growth, but every function, has a trophic back- ground; that through all the complex chemical bookkeeping of income and expenditure, every organ is in a sense a digestive organ .... that man is,

physically considered, what he eats and what he does with it Food is

the first object of desire, and all fins, legs, wings, and tails were developed either to get food or to escape finding a grave in some other creature's

stomach To get food .... is the chief end of the world-wide struggle

for survival, where the law, " Eat or be eaten," is imperative.

In keeping with this geneticism, we find the author laying great stress upon the recapitulation theory of individual development, holding that "the child and the race are each keys to the other." Many will think that he accepts this theory in too literal a sense. He is inclined to lay much more emphasis upon the vestigial character of