The Science of Human Nature | Page 3

are only imperfectly seen by it, while the

scientific mind not only sees things, but inquires into their causes and
effects or consequences. The non-scientific man, walking over the top
of a mountain and noticing a stone there, is likely to see in it only a
stone and think nothing of how it came to be there; but the scientific
man sees quite an interesting bit of history in the stone. He reads in the
stone that millions of years ago the place where the rock now lies was
under the sea. Many marine animals left their remains in the mud
underneath the sea. The mud was afterward converted into rock. Later,
the shrinking and warping earth-crust lifted the rock far above the level
of the sea, and it may now be found at the top of the mountain. The one
bit of rock tells its story to one who inquires into its causes. The
scientific man, then, sees more significance, more meaning, in things
and events than does the non-scientific man.
Each science has its own particular field. Zoölogy undertakes to answer
every reasonable question about animals; botany, about plants; physics,
about motion and forces; chemistry, about the composition of matter;
astronomy, about the heavenly bodies, etc. The world has many aspects.
Each science undertakes to describe and explain some particular aspect.
To understand all the aspects of the world, we must study all the
sciences.
=A Scientific Law.= By law a scientist has reference to uniformities
which he notices in things and events. He does not mean that
necessities are imposed upon things as civil law is imposed upon man.
He means only that in certain well-defined situations certain events
always take place, according to all previous observations. The Law of
Falling Bodies may be cited as an example. By this law, the physicist
means that in observing falling bodies in the past, he has noticed that
they fall about sixteen feet in the first second and acquire in this time a
velocity of thirty-two feet. He has noted that, taking into account the
specific gravity of the object and the resistance of the air, this way of
falling holds true of all objects at about the level of the sea.
The more we carefully study the events of the world, the more strongly
we come to feel that definite causes, under the same circumstances,
always produce precisely the same result. The scientist has faith that

events will continue to happen during all the future in the same order of
cause and effect in which they have been happening during all the past.
The astronomer, knowing the relations of the members of the solar
system--the sun and planets--can successfully predict the occurrence of
lunar and solar eclipses. In other fields, too, the scientist can predict
with as much certainty as does the astronomer, provided his knowledge
of the factors concerned is as complete as is the knowledge which the
astronomer has of the solar system. Even in the case of human beings,
uncertain as their actions seem to be, we can predict their actions when
our knowledge of the factors is sufficiently complete. In a great many
instances we do make such predictions. For example, if we call a
person by name, we expect him to turn, or make some other movement
in response. Our usual inability to make such predictions in the case of
human beings is not because human beings are not subject to the law of
cause and effect, it is not that their acts are due to chance, but that the
factors involved are usually many, and it is difficult for us to find out
all of them.
=The Science of Psychology.= Now, let us ask, what is the science of
psychology? What kind of problems does it try to solve? What aspect
of the world has it taken for its field of investigation?
We have said that each science undertakes to describe some particular
aspect of the world. Human psychology is the science of human nature.
But human nature has many aspects. To some extent, our bodies are the
subject matter for physiology, anatomy, zoölogy, physics, and
chemistry. Our bodies may be studied in the same way that a rock or a
table might be studied. But a human being presents certain problems
that a rock or table does not present. If we consider the differences
between a human being and a table, we shall see at once the special
field of psychology. If we stick a pin into a leg of the table, we get no
response. If we stick a pin into a leg of a man, we get a characteristic
response. The man moves, he cries out. This shows two very great
differences between a man and a table. The man is