Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/295

 PHILOSOPHICAL PEEIODICALS. 279 olim praefigurabatur veritas fidei quam tenemus, hoc bonum provenit quod testimonimn fidei habenms ab hostibus et quasi in figura nobis repraesentatur quod credimus ; et ideo in suis ritibus tolerantur ". In an interesting account of Le IV me Congres d'Anthropologie Criminelle, which held its meetings at Geneva, from the 23rd to the 29th of last August, M. Maus points out that, whereas criminal anthropology was at first regarded as strongly favourable to materialism and determinism, it is now seen to be quite consistent with the doctrines of free-will and responsibility, and, indeed, to be the necessary complement of those doctrines. M. Van Overbergh continues his examination of Scientific Socialism as set forth in the ' Manifesto communiste,' and discusses its second characteristic, evolution. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR PSYCHOLOGIE UND PHYSIOLOGIE DEE SINNESORGANE. Bd. xi., Heft 5 und 6. S. Witasek. ' Versuche iiber das Vergleichen von Winkelverschiedenheiten.' [A white disc was divided by black threads, under different conditions of constancy of one or two of the three angles : the subject either judged given proportions, or himself set the threads at the right distances. Result : arithmetical rather than geometrical progression. Reason : probably, confusion of difference and differentness.] Q. Heymans. ' Aesthetische Untersuchungen in Ansch- luss an die Lipps'sche Theorie des Komischen (n.).' [Those things are beautiful which, ' not transitorily or in connexion with accidental cir- cumstances, but by their nature and associative relations, internal and external, adjust the attention to the object of perception, and so facilitate its apprehension '. Test of the theory on formal, associative and typical beauty, and the beauty of successful imitation.] A. Meinong. ' Ueber die Bedeutung,' etc. [V. Ueber psychische Messung und das Webersche Gesetz. 27. Theoretically, mental magnitudes, if divisible, are measur- able. Intensities are indivisible : we may not speak of ' sensation increment '. Hence only surrogate measurement of them, by help of the notion of mental distances, is possible. Practically, we do not measure the mental directly, but only indirectly, by aid of physical magnitudes. 28. Weber's law, barely stated, says that equally different (proportional) stimuli belong to equally different (proportional if extensive, quasi-propor- tional if intensive) sensations (different = verschieden). It would seem natural to assume that stimulus and sensation are proportional. But what of the logarithmic formula ? 29. In deriving his formula, 30, Fechner confused difference with differentness ; and the popular accept- ance of the formula has confirmed the confusion. 31. This does not mean that the fact that stimuli corresponding to equally different sen- sations change in the logarithmic relation is valueless. Rather does it give us (though, it is true, in surrogate form only) the function which we were looking for in 17 ff. 32. We have now rejected the ' difference hypothesis ' of Weber's law. What of the ' relation hypothesis ' ? The law of relativity does not help us : difference itself can be brought under it. Moreover, the ' relative difference ' of the hypothesis is still a differ- ence. Yet undoubtedly the spirit evinced in its formulation is a groping for truth, and the hypothesis comes nearer our own position than the difference hypothesis (cf. 26). 33. So far we agree with Merkel, whom we have been criticising (20). There are three possible assumptions on the sensation side of the law : difference, differentness, noticeability. Merkel bases his relation hypothesis on a difference assumption. But a survey of the facts shows that our own differentness assumption fits them better. Noticeability is only a bolster for Merkel's theory, not needed by us. 34. Weber's law does not require any ' interpretation '. Plainly,