The absurdity of any mind-body relation : delivered on 19 May 1932 at University College London / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946
Date:
1932
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The absurdity of any mind-body relation : delivered on 19 May 1932 at University College London / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ABSTRACT OF LECTURE All that we can surmise about the ultimate nature of lifeless matter is that it is mechanically active. The essence of matter consists in process, not in sub¬ stance ; its esse is not percipi^ but agere: its qualities and properties are known to us only by our conscious experience of them—that is to say, by the interaction of its own mechanical activities with our own self¬ activity. We are bound to admit the existence of mechanical (and other) activities, independent of our own self-activity. Living matter is characterized by an inherent activity totally different from that alone inherent in lifeless matter—an activity not blindly mechanical nor in¬ volving the expenditure of mechanical energy, viz. directive activity. The system of the whole universe also exhibits, in its history and organization, a diffuse directive activity; but in the living organism directive activity is inherent within the system of the individual, manifesting itself, e.g. in the individual’s struggle for existence. With the specialization of functions and differentiation of tissues which occur in the evolu¬ tion of animal life, this directive activity, persistent throughout every tissue, becomes most highly de¬ veloped in the nervous system. The various higher and lower directive activities within a living organism are never in perfect harmony; further, they are con¬ trolled by, as they themselves guide, purely mechanical activities. Throughout life, directive activity, together with the associated, characteristic, mechanical activities, is