Remark, in passing, this piquant6 contradiction: the Automaton7 theory of Descartes, when applied8 to the animals, generally excited ridicule9 or repulsion; whereas the far more inconsistent and mechanical theory of Reflex Action has been almost universally welcomed as a great discovery, though it banishes10 the Sensibility which Descartes preserved. And further, the philosophers who most loudly protested against the idea that animals were machines, were the philosophers who most insisted that these animals were made, not evolved—planned by their maker11, as a watch is planned by its maker, with a distinct purpose and prevision in the disposition12 of every part; whereas the philosophers who most emphatically432 reject this notion of organisms being made, are often those who liken organisms to machines.
72. The paradox13 propounded14 by Descartes loses much of its strangeness when we understand his meaning. Its terms are infelicitous15 because of their misleading connotations. When he says that all the actions of animals which seem to be due to Consciousness are in fact produced on the same principles as those of a machine, he means that animals have not souls to direct their actions; but since, on being questioned, he is ready to admit that animals have sensation, perception, emotion, and memory, his denial of their souls practically comes to much the same as the ordinary position that animals have not Thought nor Consciousness of Self.220 The admission of sensation is, however, quite enough to mark the essential difference between an organism and a machine.
73. It was really a great step taken by Descartes when he directed attention to the fact that all animal actions were executed in strict conformity16 with mechanical principles, because both before his time, and since, we may observe a great disregard of the animal mechanism17, and a disposition to interpret the phenomena on metaphysical principles. But the connotations of the term “machine”433 were such as to lead the mind away from the special conditions of the vital mechanism, and fix it exclusively on the general conditions of machinery18. Hence his opponents misunderstood him, and some of his followers19 made the same oversight20, and ended by eliminating sensation altogether. In pursuance of this mechanical point of view, to the exclusion21 of the biological, Thought and even Consciousness have been eliminated from among the organic agencies, and are said to have no more influence in determining even human actions than the whistle of the steam-engine has in directing the locomotive. There are thus two metaphysiological theories. According to the one, Consciousness directs indeed the actions of the organism, but is not itself an organic process—it sits apart, like a musical performer playing on an instrument. According to the other, it is not a directing agency, but an accessory product of certain organic processes, which processes may go on quite as well without any accompaniment and interference of Consciousness.
74. Two observations arise here. First, we observe a want of due recognition of the objective and subjective22 aspects, and their respective criteria23. Secondly24, we observe mental facts of irresistible25 certainty interpreted by material hypotheses of questionable26 value; and not only so, but a higher validity is assigned to the material hypotheses than to the mental facts they are invented to explain. That we are conscious, and that our actions are determined27 by sensations, emotions, and ideas, are facts which may or may not be explained by reference to material conditions, but which no material explanation can render more certain. That animals resemble us in this as in other respects is an induction28 of the highest probability. It is also a fact that many actions take place, as we say, unconsciously and involuntarily; and that some take place now consciously, now unconsciously.434 These facts also we endeavor to explain: and when we find that some of the unconscious and involuntary actions take place after the brain has been removed, this is interpreted on the material hypothesis of the brain being the sole seat of sensation and consciousness; and is urged in favor of the hypothesis that consciousness cannot be an agent in the mechanism. Here the confusion of objective and subjective aspects is patent. Consciousness as a subjective fact cannot be a material or objective fact. But may it not be another aspect of that which is objective? So long as we are dealing29 with the objective aspect, we have nothing but material processes in a material mechanism before us. A change within the organism is caused by a neural30 stimulation31, and the resulting action is a reflex on the muscles. Here there is simply a transference of motion by a material mechanism. There is in this no evidence of a subjective agency; there could be none. But when we come to investigate the process, we find that it differs from similar processes in anorganisms, by the necessary co-operation of special conditions, and among these—the vital conditions—there are those which in their subjective aspect we express not in terms of Matter and Motion, but in terms of Feeling, i. e. not in objective but in subjective terms. I see a stone move on being struck; I also see a man shrink on being struck, and hear a dog howl on being kicked. I do not infer that the stone feels as the man and dog feel, because I know the stone and the dog to be differently constituted, and infer a corresponding difference in their reactions. I infer that the man and dog feel, because I know they are like myself, and conclude that what I feel they feel, under like conditions.
75. Descartes says that animals are sensitive automata. They always act as we sometimes act, i. e. when we are not conscious of what we do, as in singing, walking, playing435 the piano, etc. We are said to do these things mechanically, automatically, and hence the conclusion that these actions are those of a pure mechanism. But it would be truer to say that we never act mechanically, we always act organically. “When one who falls from a height throws his hands forwards to save his head,” says Descartes, “it is in virtue32 of no ratiocination33 that he performs this action” (that depends on the definition: in the Logic2 of Feeling there is a process of ratiocination identical with that in the Logic of Signs). “It does not depend upon his mind” (again a question of definition), “but takes place merely because his senses being affected34 by present danger” (senses, then, have a perception of danger?) “some change arises in his brain which determines the animal spirits to pass thence into the nerves in such a manner as is required to produce this motion, in the same way as in a machine, and without his mind being able to hinder it. Now since we observe this in ourselves, why should we be so much astonished if the light reflected from the body of a wolf into the eye of a sheep has the same force to excite in it the motion of flight?”
Here, both in the case of the man and the sheep, there is presupposed the very mental experience which is denied. The young child will not throw out its arm to protect itself; but after many experiences of falling and stumbling, there is an organized perception of the impending35 danger, and the means of averting36 it, and it is this which determines the throwing out of the arms. If this is not a mental fact—a process of judgment—then the logical conclusion by which a financier on hearing a war rumor37 orders his broker38 to sell stock, is not a mental fact. The light reflected from the body of a wolf would not disturb the sheep unless its own, or its inherited organized experience were ready there to respond. But this organized436 experience, you say, enters into the mechanism? Yes; but it cannot be made to enter into the mechanism of an automaton, because however complex that mechanism may be, and however capable of variety of action, it is constructed solely39 for definite actions on calculated lines: all its readjustments must have been foreseen, it is incapable40 of adjusting itself to unforeseen circumstances. Hence every interruption in the prearranged order either throws it out of gear, or brings it to a standstill. It is regulated, not self-regulating. The organism, on the contrary—conspicuously so in its more complex forms—is variable, self-regulating, incalculable. It has selective adaptation (p. 221) responding readily and efficiently41 to novel and unforeseen circumstances; acquiring new modes of combination and reaction. An automaton that will learn by experience, and adapt itself to conditions not calculated for in its construction, has yet to be made; till it is made, we must deny that organisms are machines. Automatism in the organism implies Memory and Perception. A sudden contact—a sudden noise—a vague form seen in the twilight42 will excite the mechanism according to its organized experiences. We start automatically, before we automatically interpret the cause; we start first, and then ask, What is that? But we do not always start at sounds or sights which have no association with previous experiences. The child and the man both see the falling glass, but the child does not automatically stretch out a hand to save the glass. Having once learned the action of swimming or billiard-playing, we automatically execute these; without consciously remembering the rules, we unconsciously obey them; each feeling as it rises is linked on to another, each muscle is combined with others in a remembered synthesis.
76. Kempelen’s chess-player surprised the public, but every instructed physiologist43 present knew that in some437 way or other its movements were directed by a human mind; simply because no machine could possibly have responded to the unforeseen fluctuations44 of the human mind opposed to it. Even the mind of a dog or a savage45 would be incompetent46 to pass beyond the range of its previous experiences, incompetent to seize the significance of an adversary’s moves on the chessboard. Now just as we conclude that mental agency is essential to a game of chess, so we conclude that Sensibility is essential to the fluctuating responses of an organism under unforeseen circumstances. We can conceive an automaton dog that would bark at the presence of a beggar; but not of an automaton dog that would bark one day at the beggar and the next day wag his tail, remembering the food and patting that beggar had bestowed47. Since all we know of machines forbids the idea of their being capable of adjusting their actions to new circumstances, or of evoking48 through experience new powers of combination, we conclude that wherever this capability49 of adaptation is present there is an agency in operation which does not belong to the class of mechanical agencies. Goltz has shown that a frog deprived of its brain manifests so much of vision as enables it to avoid obstacles—leaping to the right or to the left of a book placed in its path. This Professor Huxley regards as purely50 mechanical:—“Although the frog appears to have no sensation of light, visible objects act upon the motor mechanism of its body.” Should we not rather conclude that if the frog had no sensation, no such effect would follow? because although a machine might be constructed to respond to variations of light and shadows, none could be constructed (without Sensibility) to respond to the fluctuating conditions as an organism responds.221 Were the reflex actions of the organism purely438 mechanical—i. e. involving none of those fluctuating adjustments which characterize Sensibility—the effect would be uniform, and proportional to the impact; but it is variable, and proportional to the static condition of the nervous centres at the moment. Exaggerate this—by strychnine, for instance—and the slightest touch on the skin will produce general convulsions. Lower it—by an an?sthetic—and no reflex at all will follow a stimulus51. In an?sthesia of the mucous52 membrane53, no reflex of the eyelid54, no secretion55 of tears, follows on the irritation56 of the membrane; no sneezing follows irritation of the inside of the nose; no vomiting57 follows irritation of the fauces.
77. The question has long ceased to be whether the organism is a mechanism. To the physiologist it is this439 before all things. To the psychologist also it has of late years more and more assumed this character; because even when he postulates58 the existence of a spiritual entity59 in the organism but not of it, he still recognizes the necessity of a mechanism for the execution of the acts determined by the spirit; and when the psychologist adopts the theory of spiritual phenomena as the subjective aspect of what objectively are material phenomena, he of course regards the bodily mechanism and the mental mechanism as one and the same real.
This settled, the problem of Automatism may be thus stated: Granting the animal organism to be a material mechanism, and all its actions due to the operation of that mechanism, are we to conclude that it is an automaton essentially60 resembling the automata we construct, the movements of which may, or may not, be accompanied by Feeling, but are in no case determined by Feeling?
Descartes says that animals are sensitive automata. Professor Huxley says that both animals and men are sensitive and conscious automata; so that misleading as the language of Descartes and Professor Huxley often is in what its terms connote, we do them great injustice61 if we suppose them to have overlooked the points of difference between organisms and machines which have been set forth62 with so much emphasis in a preceding chapter; and the reader is requested to understand that without pretending to say how much the inevitable63 connotation of their language expresses their opinions, and how much it may have only led to their being misunderstood, my criticisms are directed against this connotation and this interpretation64.
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1
ambiguities
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| n.歧义( ambiguity的名词复数 )；意义不明确；模棱两可的意思；模棱两可的话 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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automaton
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| n.自动机器，机器人 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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banishes
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的第三人称单数 ) | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
infelicitous
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| adj.不适当的 | |
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conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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20
oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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21
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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22
subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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criteria
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| n.标准 | |
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24
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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induction
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| n.感应，感应现象 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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neural
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| adj.神经的，神经系统的 | |
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stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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32
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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ratiocination
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| n.推理；推断 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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40
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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42
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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43
physiologist
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| n.生理学家 | |
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44
fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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45
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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46
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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47
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
evoking
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| 产生，引起，唤起( evoke的现在分词 ) | |
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49
capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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50
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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51
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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52
mucous
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| adj. 黏液的，似黏液的 | |
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53
membrane
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| n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸 | |
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54
eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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55
secretion
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| n.分泌 | |
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56
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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57
vomiting
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| 吐 | |
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postulates
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| v.假定，假设( postulate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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59
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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60
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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61
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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62
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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63
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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64
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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