russell, bertrand - analysis of the mind

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The Analysis of Mind

by Bertrand Russell

February

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Subjects Psychology, Ethics, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy,Theology While much had been done in England in tracing thecourse of evolution in nature, history, economics, morals andreligion, little had been done in tracing the development ofthought on these subjects Yet 'the evolution of opinion is part

of the whole evolution'

"By the co-operation of different writers in carrying out thisplan it was hoped that a thoroughness and completeness oftreatment, otherwise unattainable, might be secured It wasbelieved also that from writers mainly British and Americanfuller consideration of English Philosophy than it had hithertoreceived might be looked for In the earlier series of bookscontaining, among others, Bosanquet's "History of Aesthetic,

Page 11

Pfleiderer's "Rational Theology since Kant

The need which Professor Muirhead stressed is no less pressingto-day

enabling us to meet it

himself

of philosophy As Professor Muirhead continues to lend the

distinction of his name to the Library of Philosophy it seemednot inappropriate to allow him to recall us to these aims in hisown words The emphasis on the history of thought also seemed to

me very timely; and the number of important works promised forthe Library in the very near future augur well for the continuedfulfilment

original editor

which I find myself in sympathy

might seem inconsistent On the one hand

especially those of the behaviourist school

is essentially a materialistic position

not of metaphysics They make psychology increasingly dependent

on physiology and external observation

matter as something much more solid and indubitable than mind.Meanwhile the physicists

of the theory of relativity

less material Their world consists of "events

(Cambridge University Press

old-fashioned materialism can receive no support from modernphysics I think that what has permanent value in the outlook ofthe behaviourists is the feeling that physics is the most

fundamental science at present in existence But this positioncannot be called materialistic

physics does not assume the existence of matter

Page 13

The view that seems to me to reconcile the materialistic tendency

of psychology with the anti-materialistic tendency of physics isthe view of William James and the American new realists

according to which the "stuff" of the world is neither mental nor

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material

Page 15

There are certain occurrences which we are in the habit of

calling "mental." Among these we may take as typical BELIEVINGand DESIRING The exact definition of the word "mental" willhope

mean by it whatever occurrences would commonly be called mental

I wish in these lectures to analyse as fully as I can what it is

that really takes place when we

first lecture I shall be concerned to refute a theory which is

widely held

the essence of everything mental is a certain quite peculiar

Page 16

something called "consciousness

Page 17

Before considering modern theories

consciousness from the standpoint of conventional psychologysince this embodies views which naturally occur when we begin toreflect upon the subject For this purpose

preliminary consider different ways of being conscious

concerned to note that perception of objects is one of the mostobvious examples of what is called "consciousness." We are

Page 18they are phenomena which intentionally contain an object inthemselves.

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The view here expressed

ultimate irreducible characteristic of mental phenomena

which I shall be concerned to combat Like Brentano

interested in psychology

the light that it may throw on the problem of knowledge Until

very lately I believed

essential reference to objects

pleasure and pain Now I no longer believe this

of knowledge I shall try to make my reasons for this rejection

clear as we proceed It must be evident at first glance that the

analysis of knowledge is rendered more difficult by the

rejection; but the apparent simplicity of Brentano's view of

knowledge will be found

maintaining itself either against an analytic scrutiny or against

a host of facts in psycho-analysis and animal psychology I do

not wish to minimize the problems I will merely observe

mitigation of our prospective labours

is to be analysed

there is no enemy to thinking so deadly as a false simplicity

Travelling

joy

there are vast countries still very imperfectly explored

The view expressed by Brentano has been held very generally

developed by many writers Among these we may take as an examplehis Austrian successor Meinong.* According to him there are threeelements involved in the thought of an object These three he

Page 20

calls the act

any two cases of the same kind of consciousness; for instance

I think of Smith or think of Brown

Page 21

deren Verhaltniss zur inneren Wahrnehmung

The above analysis of a thought

Page 22

and object

The first criticism I have to make is that the ACT seems

unnecessary and fictitious The occurrence of the content of athought constitutes the occurrence of the thought Empiricallycannot discover anything corresponding to the supposed act; andtheoretically I cannot see that it is indispensable We say: "_I_

think so-and-so

are misleading if regarded as indicating an analysis of a single

Page 23

Page 24

vol i

(Longmans

what follows refer

He explains that this is no sudden change in his opinions "For

Page 25twenty years past

Page 26

Page 27

There is a psychological school called "Behaviourists

knows" its name because it comes when it is called, and that it

"remembers" its master, because it looks sad in his absence, butwags its tail and barks when he returns That the dog behaves inthis way is matter of observation, but that it "knows" or

"remembers" anything is an inference, and in fact a very doubtfulone The more such inferences are examined, the more precariousthey are seen to be Hence the study of animal behaviour has beengradually led to abandon all attempt at mental interpretation.And it can hardly be doubted that, in many cases of complicatedbehaviour very well adapted to its ends, there can be no

prevision of those ends The first time a bird builds a nest, wecan hardly suppose it knows that there will be eggs to be laid in

it, or that it will sit on the eggs, or that they will hatch into

young birds It does what it does at each stage because instinctgives it an impulse to do just that, not because it foresees anddesires the result of its actions.*

* An interesting discussion of the question whether instinctiveactions, when first performed, involve any prevision, howevervague, will be found in Lloyd Morgan's "Instinct and Experience

Page 29

an account of the actions of animals without assuming what wecall "consciousness." It has seemed to the behaviourists thatsimilar methods can be applied to human behaviour

assuming anything not open to external observation Let us give acrude illustration

capable of affording a rough insight into their meaning Supposetwo children in a school

times nine?" One says fifty-four

one

such-and-such a thing; examinations are experiments for

discovering such facts But all that is observed or discovered is

a certain set of habits in the use of words The thoughts (if

any) in the mind of the examinee are of no interest to the

examiner; nor has the examiner any reason to suppose even themost successful examinee capable of even the smallest amount ofthought

Page 30

Thus what is called "knowing

Page 31

imperative For nay part

consciousness from awareness

What

and beliefs may be wholly dominated by a desire of which he isquite unconscious

suggested to him Such a desire is generally

a sort which the patient would consider wicked; if he had toadmit that he had the desire

so strong that it must force an outlet for itself; hence it

becomes necessary to entertain whole systems of false beliefs inorder to hide the nature of what is desired The resulting

delusions in very many cases disappear if the hysteric or lunaticcan be made to face the facts about himself The consequence ofthis is that the treatment of many forms of insanity has grownmore psychological and less physiological than it used to be.Instead of looking for a physical defect in the brain

treat delusions look for the repressed desire which has foundthis contorted mode of expression For those who do not wish toplunge into the somewhat repulsive and often rather wild theories

of psychoanalytic pioneers

little book by Dr Bernard Hart on "The Psychology of Insanity."*

On this question of the mental as opposed to the physiologicalstudy of the causes of insanity

* Cambridge

are to the second edition

Page 32

hypothesis, to be tested empirically without any preconceptions.

It may be true, or it may not So far, that is all we can say

Returning from this digression to our main topic, namely, the

criticism of "consciousness," we observe that Freud and his

followers, though they have demonstrated beyond dispute the

immense importance of "unconscious" desires in determining ouractions and beliefs, have not attempted the task of telling us

what an "unconscious" desire actually is, and have thus investedtheir doctrine with an air of mystery and mythology which forms alarge part of its popular attractiveness They speak always as

though it were more normal for a desire to be conscious, and asthough a positive cause had to be assigned for its being

unconscious Thus "the unconscious" becomes a sort of undergroundprisoner, living in a dungeon, breaking in at long intervals uponour daylight respectability with dark groans and maledictions andstrange atavistic lusts The ordinary reader, almost inevitably,

thinks of this underground person as another consciousness,

prevented by what Freud calls the "censor" from making his voiceheard in company, except on rare and dreadful occasions when heshouts so loud that every one hears him and there is a scandal.Most of us like the idea that we could be desperately wicked if

only we let ourselves go For this reason, the Freudian

"unconscious" has been a consolation to many quiet and

well-behaved persons

I do not think the truth is quite so picturesque as this I

believe an "unconscious" desire is merely a causal law of our

behaviour,* namely, that we remain restlessly active until a

certain state of affairs is realized, when we achieve temporary

equilibrium If we know beforehand what this state of affairs is,

our desire is conscious; if not, unconscious The unconscious

desire is not something actually existing, but merely a tendency

to a certain behaviour; it has exactly the same status as a force

in dynamics The unconscious desire is in no way mysterious; it

is the natural primitive form of desire, from which the other hasdeveloped through our habit of observing and theorizing (oftenwrongly) It is not necessary to suppose, as Freud seems to do,that every unconscious wish was once conscious, and was then, inhis terminology, "repressed" because we disapproved of it On the

Page 34

undoubtedly occurs and is important

for unconsciousness of our wishes The usual reason is merelythat wishes are all

known when they are actively noticed Usually

people do not notice

they find current

this theory would lead them to expect We used to be full ofvirtuous wishes

Page 35

Page 36

There is one movement

which is not subsequently classified

is the kind of movement which may be called "mechanical"; it isevidently of a different kind from either reflex or voluntary

in some very recondite sense A moth flying into a lamp is not

acting sensibly; no more is a man who is in such a hurry to gethis ticket that he cannot remember the name of his destination.Appropriateness is a complicated and merely approximate ideafor the present we shall do well to dismiss it from our thoughts

As James states

"An outside observer, unable to perceive the accompanying

consciousness, might be wholly at a loss to discriminate betweenthe automatic acts and those which volition escorted But if thecriterion of mind's existence be the choice of the proper meansfor the attainment of a supposed end, all the acts alike seem to

be inspired by intelligence, for APPROPRIATENESS characterizesthem all alike

Page 37

of the outside observer

The physiologist can discover that both depend upon the nervoussystem

voluntary depend upon higher centres in the brain than those thatare reflex But he cannot discover anything as to the presence or

absence of "will" or "consciousness

movements We may then distinguish "vital" from mechanical

movements by the fact that vital movements depend for their

causation upon the special properties of the nervous system

while mechanical movements depend only upon the properties whichanimal bodies share with matter in general

There is need for some care if the distinction between mechanicaland vital movements is to be made precise It is quite likely

that

their movements from the laws of chemistry and physics It is

already fairly easy to see how chemistry reduces to physics

how the differences between different chemical elements can beaccounted for by differences of physical structure

constituents of the structure being electrons which are exactlyalike in all kinds of matter We only know in part how to reducephysiology to chemistry

that the reduction is possible If we suppose it effected

would become of the difference between vital and mechanical

Page 38

movements?

Some analogies will make the difference clear A shock to a mass

of dynamite produces quite different effects from an equal shock

to a mass of steel: in the one case there is a vast explosion

while in the other case there is hardly any noticeable

disturbance Similarly

a large rock poised so delicately that a touch will set it

crashing down into the valley

firm that only a considerable force can dislodge them What isanalogous in these two cases is the existence of a great store ofenergy in unstable equilibrium ready to burst into violent motion

by the addition of a very slight disturbance Similarly

requires only a very slight expenditure of energy to send a

post-card with the words "All is discovered; fly!" but the effect

in generating kinetic energy is said to be amazing A human bodylike a mass of dynamite

equilibrium

disturbance which is physically very small

word In all such cases the reduction of behaviour to physicallaws can only be effected by entering into great minuteness; solong as we confine ourselves to the observation of comparativelylarge masses

cannot be determined Physicists distinguish between macroscopicand microscopic equations: the former determine the visiblemovements of bodies of ordinary size

occurrences in the smallest parts It is only the microscopic

equations that are supposed to be the same for all sorts of

Page 39

matter The macroscopic equations result from a process ofaveraging out

our instance

mechanical and vital movements

phenomena may be the same

We may say

the nervous system

advantage of the stored energy in unstable equilibrium

to produce movements out of proportion to the proximate cause.Movements produced in this way are vital movements

mechanical movements are those in which the stored energy of aliving body is not involved Similarly dynamite may be explodedthereby displaying its characteristic properties

due precautions) be carted about like any other mineral Theexplosion is analogous to vital movements

mechanical movements

Mechanical movements are of no interest to the psychologist

it has only been necessary to define them in order to be able toexclude them When a psychologist studies behaviour

vital movements that concern him We shall

ignore mechanical movements

remainder

The next point is to distinguish between movements that areinstinctive and movements that are acquired by experience Thisdistinction also is to some extent one of degree Professor Lloyd

Page 40Morgan gives the following definition of "instinctive behaviour":