Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/267

Rh Now something not unlike this happens at birth. Before birth the minor physical system, i. e., the embryo, though lightly attached to, is nevertheless part of the physical system of the mother: and the psychic correspondents of its activities form part of a complex consciousness which is that of the mother and embryo together; the psychic correspondents of the activities of the mother, as exclusive of those of the embryonic parasite, being of course preeminent in such a complex psychic system.

At birth we have a disruption of the less developed, from the more developed, physical system; and corresponding therewith we have a minor consciousness of low development 'split off' from the more highly developed preeminent consciousness of the mother which remains to all intents and purposes intact. The new 'split off' minor consciousness then begins its existence as an individual entity, and as time goes on develops into a full formed human individual consciousness.

We may now turn to the question whether there are other forms of consciousness still more complex than those forms of human consciousness with which we are familiar in our own life of reflection.

The fact that each human consciousness is a psychic system which is a complex of minor psychic systems, which are themselves highly complex systems of psychic elements, leads us to see that it is by no means impossible that our own complex psychic systems, taken as wholes, i. e., our own consciousnesses, may be joined with other complex psychic systems, i. e., other consciousnesses, in the formation of consciousnesses of still higher grades of complexity.

We are led thus in the first place to consider whether there is any possibility of the formation of such higher systems—of such higher consciousnesses—from the combination of the consciousnesses of human beings aggregated in social masses: whether, in other words, there can be any such thing as a 'social consciousness'; and whether coincidently the aggregates of individuals in social bodies may rightly be looked upon as a 'social organism.'

The first thought which suggests itself to us in this connection seems to argue against such a notion, for we are accustomed to hold that the neural systems with which the consciousnesses of men are correlated are what we call closed systems, and as such are physically disconnected completely from one another; and if such is the case it would seem impossible to imagine the coincident consciousnesses united into a unified system.

Upon second thought, however, we are led to ask wherein consists the bond between the minor neural systems, within the great neural