RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONDUCT
Since both physical and mental attributes are unquestionably inherited, it
becomes a matter of importance to inquire into the nature of the entity we
call personality. To what extent is human conduct a product of parentage?
Although apparently free agents are we in reality only by infinitely
subtle indirections making the responses, forming the habits, establishing
the characters which result merely from the blind impulsions of an
inherent constitution? If so, who is praiseworthy, who blameworthy? Are
men
"But helpless pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days."
=All Mental Process Accompanied by Neural Process.--=Whatever the ultimate
decision of psychologists may be regarding the relation of mind to the
sensory and nervous mechanism of man it is certain that there is so close
an association between them that the least alteration in the mechanism
means a parallel effect in the mind, or in the words of Huxley, "every
psychosis is definitely correlated with a neurosis." The rind or _cortex_
of gray matter which constitutes the surface of the large cerebral
hemispheres of the human brain is regarded as the seat of consciousness.
The development of the mental powers in the infant is dependent on the
development of the elements of this cortical substance and the waning of
the mental faculties in old age goes hand in hand with its atrophy.
Abnormal arrangements, injuries or omissions in it mean mental
unsoundness. How the activity of the structural mechanism gives a reaction
in consciousness is not understood, but we know that in the living being
the two phenomena are inseparably linked. Whether we accept the hypothesis
that consciousness is an actual product of the structural mechanism or the
hypothesis that the latter is only an instrument for the manifestations as
consciousness of an outside force or entity, just as the telegraphic
instrument manifests the existence of electricity, is neither here nor
there for our purposes. On either supposition the degree and manner of
expression are determined by the structure of the mechanism. Our main
problem is to decide as nearly as possible how much of the mechanism is
rigidly inherited, how much is at birth largely undestined, so that its
ultimate outcome is in part a product of the forces which play upon it, or
in other words of education and training.
=Gradation in Nervous Response from Lower Organisms to Man.--=To
comprehend fully the basic nature of human neural responses one must seek
the roots in the behavior of lower organisms. For there is found in a
simpler form many of the fundamental activities and the first dim gropings
which emerge in man as memory, reason and will. As we ascend the scale of
animal life we find a continuous advance in neural complexity and nervous
response that in many respects grades up closely to the human type.
A windmill or a weather-vane points toward the source of the wind,
obviously not because either exercises any special choice in the matter,
but because it is constructed on such lines of symmetry that when the wind
strikes it, if it slants the slightest to left or right, the more exposed
surface receives the greatest pressure and thus swings the body back into
the line of least resistance.
=Behavior of Many Animals Often an Automatic Adjustment to Simple External
Agents.--=It is a far cry, of course, from the responses of such a machine
as a windmill to the responses of even the simplest living thing, but in
spite of the broad gap between the two, there is much reason to believe
that the behavior of many living organisms is due in a marked degree to
the directive effects of comparatively simple external factors rather than
to the complex internal volitions the casual observer is likely to
attribute to them.
=Tropisms.--=It is a marked characteristic of all living protoplasm that
it has the power of responding to external stimuli. This power of response
is termed _excitability_ or _irritability_. In describing the motor
responses of living organisms to stimuli resulting from a change in
surroundings the term _tropism_ (Gr. _Trope_, turning) is frequently used
and the kind of stimulus is indicated by a prefix. Thus the term
phototropism means a turning or _orientation_ brought about by means of
light. An organism which reacts by a movement toward the source of light
is said to be _positively phototropic_, one which moves away from it,
_negatively phototropic_. By using such a neutral terminology the
physiologist avoids implying that necessarily "likes" or "dislikes" or any
other psychic reaction enter into the movements.
Several kinds of tropisms are recognized, such as _phototropism_ or
_heliotropism_, reaction to light; _thermotropism_, reaction to heat;
_electrotropism_ or _galvanotropism_, to electric current; _geotropism_,
to gravity; _chemotropism_, to a chemical; _rheotropism_, to current;
_thigmotropism_ or _stereotropism_, to contact; and _chromotropism_, to
color.
=Many Animals Show Tropic Responses.--=Many of the lower animals seem to
have their movements determined more or less mechanically by the action of
such external factors, some being positively, others negatively responsive
to a given kind of stimulus, or the same individual may be at one time
positive, at another negative, according to modifying conditions to be
mentioned presently.
In plants and in simpler lower animals there is no special nervous system.
The responses of these organisms depend on the general irritability of
their constituent protoplasm. In other animals a nervous system is
developed, crude and diffuse in lower forms, extremely delicate, complex
and definitely ordered in higher forms. But it should be borne in mind
that nerve protoplasm possesses only in high degree a capacity for
irritability, conduction, etc., that is common to all living substance. In
keeping with other "physiological divisions of labor" or specialization
which mark the increasing complexity of animals, this enormously enhanced
sensitivity and conductivity of certain tissues have come about, and they
have become set apart for these special functions. In higher animals,
therefore, the tropisms where operative must act more or less through the
agency of the nervous system instead of directly through the general
protoplasm of the organism.
=Certain Apparently Complex Volitions Probably Only Tropisms.--=Where
nervous systems enter into tropic responses there must be specific
sensibility of certain nerve terminations (i. e., sense organs) at the
surface of the body. These sensory or receiving nerves connect through the
central system with corresponding motor nerves which in turn supply
certain specific muscles through the contraction of which the organism is
as surely and as mechanically oriented as in the simpler cases. For
example, if light is the stimulating agent, when it strikes a positively
phototropic animal, if the latter is not already oriented, the eyes or
other nerve terminations sensitive to light transmit an impulse through
the central nervous system to certain muscles causing them to increase
their tension and thereby swing the animal around with its head toward the
light. Progressive movements which the organism then makes must carry it
toward the source of light. Thus it is not "love of light" that draws the
moth into the flame but the mechanical steering of the body toward the
source of light through the stimulations produced by the light waves. It
is chemotropism, not solicitude for its offspring, which drives the flesh
fly to lay its eggs on decaying meat. And it is stereotropism and not a
desire for concealment which impels certain animals such as many worms
and insects to get into a close contact with solid bodies, or in other
words to "hide" themselves in burrows and crevices.
=Complicating Factors.--=However, beautifully as these theories of
tropisms work out in a broad general way, there are various additional
factors entering which must be reckoned with, and these become more
numerous and of more consequence as the organism becomes more complex. In
the first place certain internal conditions must be considered. Living
matter is characterized by its instability. There are continual synthetic
and disruptive processes in progress which the physiologist terms
metabolic changes. The very "life" of such matter seems to be the
manifestation of such changes. Concerning what the ultimate source of
these changes is, whether or not indirectly they may be referred to
external conditions as seems probable to many biologists, no one so far
has ever given a convincing, positive answer. It is sufficient for our
purposes to know that they may have set up certain internal stimuli which
may modify the behavior of the organism in which they reside, and that the
"physiological state" of the organism at the time of external or internal
stimulation will condition the response. This physiological condition may
be dependent on the general metabolic equilibrium of the animal, or on the
extent of previous stimulation by means of the same or different agents.
Thus the organism may not always react in the same way to the same
stimulus.
The intensity of the stimulation and change in the intensity of the
stimulation, are also factors to be reckoned with. Moreover, it must be
taken into account that a given organism is often operating under the
control of more than one external influence. For example, swarm spores in
a dish of water which at a given temperature are positively phototropic,
that is, gather at the side of the dish toward the light, may, if the
temperature of the water is raised or in case of marine forms if the
salinity is increased, become negatively phototropic. Sometimes two or
more forms of stimuli may cooperate in bringing about certain behavior as,
for instance, in the reaction of the earthworm to a suitable habitat,
through a combination of chemical and contact stimuli. On the other hand,
two different stimuli may interfere with each other; for example, the
usual phototropic responses of certain animals do not manifest themselves
when they are mating or feeding. In short, anything that alters the
physiological state of the organism may cause it to react in a different
manner. And thus with the interplay of shifting external agents and
variable internal state the bounds of behavior on these purely mechanical
bases become considerably extended.
=Many Tropic Responses Apparently Purposeful.--=The query arises as to why
if these responses are mechanical they are so often apparently purposive;
that is, why do they so often subserve some useful end for the animal?
While they do not always work out to the animal's benefit, as for instance
in the case of the moth and the light or under many other conditions that
can be devised experimentally, as a matter of fact under normal natural
conditions they are on the whole useful to the organism, carrying it
into suitable surroundings of food, lessened danger, temperature, and the
like.
The probabilities are that in their first origin the reactions were not
purposive. However, if any proved harmful they would result in the
extermination of their possessors and hence of that particular strain of
individuals. Those types that happened to have useful reactions would be
left and in course of time as the process of eliminating the others went
on, would become the prevailing types. Any organism which the useful
reaction had preserved would tend to hand it down to the succeeding
generation where again it would be the conserver of those individuals
which possessed it in sufficient degree.
=Authorities Not Agreed on Details of Tropic Responses.--=Although all the
foremost modern students of animal behavior accept as facts the more or
less mechanical orienting effects of external stimuli, there is by no
means unanimity of opinion regarding details. Some stress as the directive
factor the continuous action of the stimulating agent on sensitive tissues
symmetrically situated. Others would maintain that it is the time rate of
change in the intensity of the stimulating agent, or that the factor is
different in different cases. Some make much of an automatic sort of
"trial and error" system by which certain organisms test out an inimical
environment until the path of least irritation is hit upon as the way to
safety. The field is a broad one and to get at the finer shades of
distinction the reader will have to refer to the works of such
authorities as Loeb, Jennings, Holmes and Mast.
=Tropisms Grade Into Reflex Actions and Instincts.--=The tropisms in many
cases become indistinguishable from _reflex actions_ and these in turn
grade up into the _instincts_ of animals. The latter may be looked on as
but subtler and more involved reactions made possible through a more
intricate structural organization. As might be expected of instincts, the
feature of utility is more in evidence than in simpler tropisms because
they have become of proportionately greater magnitude, but the same
fundamental mechanism is apparently at bottom of both. It has already been
seen how the "instinct" of the blow-fly to lay its egg on meat is
interpretable as a chemotropic response. Thus no elaborate psychic
mechanism is necessary in such behavior.
=Instincts.--=In the typical instinct there is a series of "chain
reflexes" in which one step determines the next until mechanically the
whole gamut of changes is run to the last step. It is characteristic of a
purely instinctive act that an animal performs it without practise,
without instruction, and without reason. Moreover, all of the same kind of
animals tend to perform the act in the same way. But with instincts, as
with tropisms, the physiological state of the organism must be regarded.
For instance, the instinctive reactions of an animal sated with food or
hungry will be different.
=Adjustability of Instincts Opens the Way for Intelligent Behavior.--=As
we progress in the scale of animal life this adjustability of instincts
to new conditions comes more into evidence. While prescribed in the main
by internal impulse the carrying out of the action is capable of some
adaptability to circumstances. And in proportion as this adaptability
releases the organism from a blind rigid working-out of a predetermined
end, there is opened up the possibility of intelligent behavior; that is,
of modification of the instinctive behavior by individually acquired
experience.
While the generation of instinctive impulses still occurs it is left more
for individual experience to teach discrimination between ends. But we can
not escape a fundamental structural mechanism, for with this new capacity
of educability must come new structural mechanisms in the nervous system
and this must be as faithfully reproduced in each individual as is the
basis for any other nervous response. How low in the scale of animal life
animals can profit from their experiences to the extent that their future
conduct is conditioned thereby is not known. Some would place it as far
back as the protozoa, others would not. Where such modification of
behavior is possible there must be some mechanism for the storage of
impressions in the form of what we term _memory_.
=Modification of Habits Possible in Lower Animals.--=Among invertebrates
such animals as crayfish will acquire new habits, or rather will modify
old ones. Even as lowly an organism as the starfish can have changes of
habit thrust on it. When a starfish is placed upon its back it rights
itself by means of its arms or rays. Professor Jennings found that in a
given individual the tendency was always to employ certain rays for this
rather than others. However, by preventing the use of the rays customarily
employed, he found that the animal would use a different pair and that
ultimately in this way it could be trained into the habit of using this
pair of rays even when restrained in no way. One starfish which was given
one hundred eighty such lessons in eighteen days after an interval of
seven days still retained the new habit; young individuals were found to
be more easily trained than old ones.
=Some Lower Vertebrates Profit by Experience.--=Among vertebrates it is
known that those as low in organization as fish will profit by experience.
They will learn to come for food at a regular time and apparently learn
more or less to appreciate the presence of certain obstacles with which
they have had unsatisfactory experiences. Professor Sanford sums up what
he believes are the limitations of the piscine mental organization as
follows: "No fish is ever conscious of himself; he never thinks of himself
as doing this or that, or feeling in this way or that way. The whole
direction of the mind is outward. He has no language and so can not think
in verbal terms; he never names anything; he never talks to himself; as
Huxley says of the crayfish, he 'has nothing to say to himself or any one
else.' He does not reflect; he makes no generalizations. All his thinking
is in the present and in concrete terms. He has no voluntary attention, no
volition in the true sense, no self-control."
=Rational Behavior.--=Finally, however, out of these first dull
glimmerings of intelligence as exemplified in the higher invertebrates
and the lower vertebrates, which can modify behavior as the result of
experience, come the still higher factors so dominant in man, of
_rational_ behavior. This higher mental process can realize the end to be
reached and can deliberate on the means to be employed. By means of his
_reason_ man can overcome difficulties in advance by "thinking" out
suitable schemes of action. Some naturalists believe that man stands alone
in possessing the power to reason, although others believe that some of
the other mammals, notably the other primates, possess the same attribute
although in a much less degree.
=Conceptual Thought Probably an Outgrowth of Simpler Psychic States.--=Is
the capacity for such conceptual thought, however, which appears as the
final efflorescence of complex neural activity something entirely new?
Most students of comparative psychology maintain that it is not. Just as
one kind of an instinct frequently grows out of another, so has this grown
out of the complex of _psychic_ states which preceded it. It apparently is
the product of the increasing awareness on the part of animals of their
neural processes and the outcome of these processes, which becomes more
and more prominent as we ascend the scale of animal life. With the advent
of associative memory the mind comes more and more to deal with attributes
of objects instead of merely with each single concrete object as it
presents itself, and these attributes being common to many objects, come
to represent definite ideas which can be manipulated by the mind.
Language, of course, has been an indispensable aid to man in this regard,
for words become descriptions of facts and symbols of concepts, and
thereby allow of abstract thought.
=The Capacity for Alternative Action in High Animals Renders Possible More
Than One Form of Behavior.--=With this modification of instinct by
experience made possible, there comes at the same time, of course, the
capacity for a rational instead of a purely instinctive behavior. This
very capacity for alternative action opens up many new possibilities of
behavior and together with the well-known fixative effects of habit, also
the opportunity of permanently establishing certain ones. Thus it is
obvious that a behavior toward which in a strict sense there can not be
said to have been an original specific tendency, can be developed. What
was present in the first place was only a general possibility of the
development of any one of several types of behavior. The final choice of
the alternatives together with repetition makes it the habitual behavior
of the individual. Of course it can be urged that if the selection of the
type of behavior is left to the individual then the latter will operate
automatically toward the various impulsions of its neural make-up and one
path will be followed because of stronger inclination in that direction,
so that the whole procedure is in the end the mere operation of an
automaton. But however this may be in the individual left to itself, the
fact is in man that the young individual is never left to itself and in
the nature of things can not be, so that without entering into this
troubled pool of controversy regarding freedom of the will, I wish merely
to point out that the possibility of more than one form of behavior
exists and that if one is more desirable than the others then this one can
be chosen by the ones responsible for the training of the young individual
and clenched fast by the agency of habit.
Intelligence, reason and habits, however, no less than instincts and
tropism must have neural as well as psychical existence and we can not
escape therefore the underlying mechanism.
=The Elemental Units of the Nervous System Are the Same in Lower and
Higher Animals.--=It is interesting to note that the fundamental neural
mechanism which underlies the mental processes of higher animals is not
essentially different from that which serves in lower forms. Although as
animals become more complex their nervous systems have become
proportionately larger and incomparably more intricate, still all the
changes have been rung on the same basic neural unit, the _neuron_ or
nerve-cell (Fig. 32_A_, p. 209). The higher nervous system differs from
the lower in the number, in the specializations and in the associations of
these units rather than in possessing something of entirely different
elemental structure.
=Neuron Theory.--=According to the prevailing modern conception the entire
nervous system is made up of a series of units called _neurons_. Each
neuron is a single cell with all its processes. The latter consists
typically of short branching processes on the one hand, known as
_dendrites_, and of a single process on the other, known as the _axon_,
which extends from the cell to become a nerve fiber (Fig. 32, p. 209). The
various neurons, with possibly a few exceptions, are not anatomically
continuous but contiguous. They communicate with one another apparently by
contact only. The axon of each neuron ends in an elaborate series of fine
branchings which lie in contact with the dendrites of another neuron, or
in some cases with the body of the other cell (Fig. 32, p. 209). Thus the
nervous impulse passes from one neuron to the other at these points of
contact. An impulse is supposed to travel normally only in one direction
through a neuron, the dendrites being the receiving and the axon the
discharging terminals. There are various types of neurons. Some,
particularly within the brain, have their main processes so provided with
branches and brushes that they may come into physiological connection with
a number of other neurons.
[Illustration: FIG. 32
A--Diagram to illustrate neurons and their method of connection; _a_,
axon; _d_, dendrite; _s_, synapse. To simplify the diagram the medullary
sheathes of such fibers as would have them have been omitted. The arrows
indicate the direction in which the impulse travels. The lower series
shows diagrammatically how from the same neuron in the cortex two
subordinate neurons may be affected, the one excited to cause contraction
of a certain group of muscle fibers, the other inhibited so that the
antagonistic fibers may relax and thus not hinder the movement of a given
part.
B--Section of a region of the cerebral cortex (after Cajal). The cells
have been blackened with chrome-silver and are much less highly magnified
than the diagrams in A. The numerals refer to certain characteristic
layers of the cortex in this region.]
=Establishment of Pathways Through the Nervous System.--=It is believed
that more or less resistance to transmission of stimuli prevails at the
point of contact (_synapse_) between two neurons but that this resistance
is lessened by repetition of conduction. The frequent traversing of a
given pathway by similar impulses finally results in an automatic
occurrence of the transmission, or, in other words, the action becomes
habitual. Education consists largely in establishing such routes through
the nervous tissue. Because of the greater plasticity of the neural
mechanism in youth it is easier to open up and fix pathways of conduction
than in later years. Moreover the earlier established lines of conduction
become the more permanent.
=Characteristic Arrangements of Nerve Cells Are as Subject to Inheritance
as Other Structures of the Body.--=That the main features of the nervous
system are inherited becomes obvious when we see that each kind of animal
has its own distinctive numbers, arrangements and proportions of the
various neural units. In man, for example, there are certain
characteristics, types and groupings of nerve-cells which are reproduced
generation after generation with remarkable fidelity. This means that in
so far as these represent the mental make-up of the individual, his
mentality is continuously linked with others which have gone before. The
new-born child has all the nerve-cells in its brain that it will ever have
but the ultimate linkages of the finer connectives between them, or at
least the pathways of travel, remain in large measure to be made.
As we have already seen, the cerebral cortex is the seat of the chief
mental faculties of man or at least of the highest of these. Professor
Lloyd Morgan, one of our greatest authorities on comparative psychology,
is inclined to believe that the instincts are located in the subcortical
material. In any event, the inheritance of mental ability resolves itself
into the inheritance of a certain cerebral mechanism.
=Different Parts of the Cortex Yield Different Reactions.--=The cerebral
cortex, however, is not functionally homogeneous throughout. Certain
regions have been shown to be motor, others sensory, and moreover, these
regions are apparently further specialized so that a given one of them is
associated with a specific type of sensory or motor response, not merely
with responses in general. Thus by injuring one of the sensory areas we
might destroy vision but not other sensations, or by stimulating one of
the motor centers we would get a response in a corresponding motor organ
but not in all such organs. Likewise, it is probable that still different
areas, the so-called "association areas," relatively of much greater
development in man than in any other animal, are the regions in which
various perceptions and conceptions are synthesized and formed into
organized knowledge. Here also are engendered the volitions which when
flashed through the motor centers become expressed in activity or
behavior.
It seems highly probable that just as the sensory and motor areas differ
in kind from one another, so we must suppose there are qualitative
differences in various parts of the association areas so that the
different parts give different reactions in consciousness; that is, each
special mental ability of the individual is more or less centered in a
special part of the cortex. And just as there may be variations in other
structures of the organism so there may be variations in these areas. The
"gifted" person in some one direction, whether it be in mathematics,
music, painting, or what not, is on this hypothesis one who has that
particular area of his brain which forms the basis for the talent in
question more highly developed than it is in the average individual. And
since such talents are handed down to descendants, this can only mean that
a similar grouping of the neurons in the region in question has occurred.
=Skill Acquired in One Special Branch of Learning Probably Not Transferred
to Another Branch.--=Such a differential arrangement of the
brain-mechanism which presumably underlies the various mental abilities
would lead to the inference that skill in one special branch of learning,
in so far as it involves only certain centers of the cortex, would not be
transferred to another branch based on different neural pathways and
centers. Development of historical knowledge, for example, would not
enhance one's mathematical ability, or vice versa. The testimony of
various psychologists bears out this idea. In so far as certain factors of
training, such as habits of industry, concentration, etc., are common to
the study of either mathematics or history, the good effects of either
discipline will probably be much the same, but the identity of effect
vanishes as soon as the intrinsic characteristics of the subjects
themselves are involved.
Just how far we are warranted, however, in carrying this idea of localized
functions as regards the association areas is a moot question. Our present
attitude regarding the specificity of such localizations is largely a
matter of inference based on analogy to conditions which obtain in other
and better known parts of the brain, together with the indubitable
differences in inborn abilities which exist between individuals. Some few
brain physiologists maintain that the whole cortex operates more or less
as a unit in all of the higher psychical activities.
=Preponderance of Cortex in Highest Animals.--=One of the most interesting
conditions in the nervous system of the highest types of animals is the
way in which the cortex has outrun the other parts of the brain in size
and complexity and has come to dominate the organism more and more both
directly and indirectly. Aside from the proportionately greater increase
in size of the cortex, there is an abundance of anatomical evidence of
this altered and probably altering system of control in man and the higher
apes. This is well illustrated in the fiber tracts (nerve bundles) of the
spinal cord.
=More Long Fiber Tracts in the Spinal Cord of Man.--=The spinal cord
although having many nerve centers of its own is also in great part a
large cable for conducting enormous numbers of fibers from one part of the
cord to another, or to and from the brain. In man and the higher apes a
considerably larger percentage of the total area of the cord is given up
to the long fiber tracts from the brain to the body than in lower
vertebrates. This progressive increase in long fiber tracts in the higher
anthropoids probably marks more and more domination of the body by the
higher brain centers and correspondingly less by the direct activity of
the cord and by the lower brain centers. However, even in man, many of the
simpler reflexes of the body still have their centers in the spinal cord.
=Special Fiber Tracts in the Cord of Man and Higher Apes.--=There are
certain special tracts of the cord that are particularly interesting in
connection with the increasing domination of the brain over the body,
namely, the _pyramidal tracts_. These were the latest tracts to appear in
the animal kingdom and are apparently the latest to become functional in
the individual. It is believed that the development of the medullary
substance (an enveloping sheath) of the common medullated nerve fiber
marks the time of entrance of the fiber into activity and it is a
significant fact that the formation of this sheath occurs last of all in
the fibers of the pyramidal tracts, where it does not appear till after
birth. These tracts convey impulses from the brain to the body. They
consist of two sets of tracts, in fact, one the crossed, the other the
direct. As an anomaly, probably arising most frequently from instrumental
injury at birth, the pyramidal tracts fail to develop normally, with the
distressing result that the infant, although possessing perfectly normal
brain activity and normal spinal cord reflexes, is unable to exercise
voluntary control of the body. In other words the condition, like
hare-lip, is one of suppressed development. At least this seems to be the
most plausible explanation of what is known as _Little's disease_. Such
unfortunates usually die early although they may survive for a few years.
The direct pyramidal tracts occur only in man and man-like apes. They vary
considerably in extent in different individuals. They originate in nests
of characteristic large cells located in the cerebral cortex and are
regarded as paths, though not the only ones, through which volitional
impulses are conveyed from the brain. They seem to control certain of the
finer and more delicate movements of the body.
=Great Complexity in Associations and More Neurons in the Brain of Man
Than of Other Animals.--=It has already been noted that as animals stand
higher in the scale of life while the general plan of their neural
elements remain the same, there is increasing complexity in the number and
connections of the neurons. The number of processes on individual
nerve-cells is also greater. There is in fact much greater complexity in
the number of processes and the inter-connections of the neural cells
than in the numbers of the cells themselves. This would seem to indicate
that the greater mental activities of higher animals depend more on
richness in complex associations than on mere increase in number of
neurons. The latter, however, is by no means unimportant as may be seen in
man, for instance, in whom it is estimated that the cerebral cortex, that
is, that part of his brain in which his more complex mental processes
transpire, contains some nine billion more nerve cells than does the
corresponding region of the brain of an anthropoid ape.
Of especial significance in the psychic make-up of man is his vastly
increased capacity for inhibition. Although not possessed by all men in
equal measure and not entirely wanting in lower animals it is a
distinctive feature in all human conduct. Much of any child's education,
particularly as it pertains to behavior, must be concerned with training
in the exercise of proper inhibitions. He must learn to suppress certain
primitive types of reaction in favor of higher ones. This applies not only
to motor activities but to trains of thought as well. The essence of
self-control consists mainly in ability to substitute for one impulse or
idea other compensating ones. And the secret of concentration lies in
being able to banish irrelevant ideas and focus on the central thought.
=The Nervous System in the Main Already Staged at the Time of Birth for
the Part It Must Play.--=It is clear from what is known of its anatomy
that in the main the central nervous system is framed to respond in
certain set ways, that there are determinative elements in it which
control or determine the responses, and therefore the behavior of the
body. The same evidence shows also, however, in the incompleteness of many
of the associations, that while the stage is all set and some of the main
features of the performance are determined at the time of birth,
considerable yet remains to be done toward fitting the parts together and
working up the detail. Just exactly what and how much is rigidly
determined no one knows.
=Many Pathways of Conduction Not Established at Birth.--=As we have
already seen the evidence is that many of the neural pathways are not yet
fully established at birth, and there is some indication that routes once
opened may be altered. To what degree this has bearing on behavior is
still unknown, but since neurologists attribute so much importance to the
richness and the associations of the cell-outgrowths, it is evident that
this increase in the number of pathways after birth with possible
alternatives of connections may be a very important factor in the
modification of behavior. Yet, on the other hand, we are completely in the
dark as to what extent these later associations are predetermined in the
earlier cells.
=The Extent of the Zone That Can Be Modified Is Unknown.--=There is little
doubt that many of the paths of action are already firmly established.
Others, although not irrevocably fixed, offer the least resistance and
would "naturally" be taken if not counteracted or modified by the more or
less artificial development and fixation of other paths through
cultivation and habit. Yet others perhaps are largely neutral; they still
await the initial decisive push which "choice" or external environment may
mete out to them. As trainers of youth all that is left that we can do is
to attempt to develop in certain ways the elements of this indefinite,
impressible zone. Unfortunately, we must labor in the dark to a great
extent as we have all too little indication of which the malleable factors
of intellect and conduct are. We can only infer from long, intelligent and
sympathetic observation of children in successive stages of their
development. It is only by having clearly in mind the nature of our
problem that our conclusions will finally come to be of enhanced practical
value in the training of children. Observation to the present time clearly
indicates that many children are strongly predisposed this way or that "as
the sparks fly upward."
This is a point too frequently overlooked by educators. They are often
unduly actuated by the other piece of the truth that, "as the twig is bent
the tree inclines." They sometimes fail to realize that after all the tree
remains the same kind of a tree. If an apple tree, while it may be bent
from the normal path of development, it can not produce other fruit than
apples. Just how much the destiny of man can be influenced by training and
the exercise of his own will power is the fundamental question not only of
pedagogy but of ethics as well. For if man's rational judgments are
markedly conditioned by his neural make-up then the volitional judgments
which underlie conduct are likewise conditioned since they are
inextricably intermingled with his reason. We must believe that to a
considerable extent emotional expression, as well as other mental
functions, is due to hereditary dispositions of the neurons in the
various parts of the brain.
=Various Possibilities of Reaction in the Child.--=Despite the innate
predeterminations of the tree, it is nevertheless our province to see that
the twig _is_ bent, but our work can only be done with due intelligence
when we recognize something of the limitations of our material. Of the
various possibilities of reaction we must see that certain desirable ones
are realized, even, in some cases, if only to have others thereby
excluded. It is a commonplace of psychology that all cerebral excitations,
no matter what the origin, must vent themselves in some way and if this
expression is not directed into proper channels it will very likely find
improper ones. We must see that the young wearer of the coat of
undetermined capacities gets it set by repeated performance into the
habitual wrinkles of normal social conduct. For it is a trite observation
that when habits are once well established it requires tremendous efforts
to do otherwise than as they dictate. There is not the least doubt that
some of our subjects will respond much more readily to training in certain
directions of habitual reactions than others, but we have always the
consolatory knowledge that no matter how difficult the art may be at
first, repetition reduces the difficulty.
While much of any youth's character must be determined by external forces
brought to bear upon it, the ultimate climax of our effort and measure of
our success will be the extent to which we have engendered in him the
capacity for initiating and carrying out through his own volition those
impulsions and inhibitions which tend to the highest good of humanity.
=Probable Origin of Altruistic Human Conduct.--=Those phases of human
conduct which find expression in consideration for others seem no less
than other mental attributes to have their origin in certain fundamental
instincts. Altruistic conduct, in last analysis, apparently resolves
itself back largely to certain very fundamental impulsions, namely those
which arise out of certain obligations for the welfare of others which are
necessarily associated with the marital, parental and filial relations
that must exist where the young require post-natal care. Looked at from
the standpoint of natural selection, this would come about as a mere
matter of survival value. Where the young, as in man, are helpless for a
long period of time, more opportunity would be afforded for the
development of both conjugal and filial affection. The sympathetic
emotions once established in such family relations would partly through
habit, partly through community of interest, readily become extended to
clan or tribe and as a final consummation to all mankind.
=Training in Motive Necessary.--=In the training of children, then, we
must recognize first of all that there are decided inclinations or bents
which, as long as they are not anti-social in nature, must be respected if
not always encouraged. While it is necessary to utilize these as much as
possible in their training still we must bear in mind that although it is
natural for a child to follow certain interests, the fact remains that as
regards social worth these natural interests may not be the most valuable.
When this is true we must strive to develop others which will compel
attention and thus become impelling factors in conduct. Where certain
fundamental impulsions run contrary to the common welfare it is necessary
to practise the child in the setting up of inhibitions or counter-impulses
until this becomes habitual. He must be led to construct a protective
mantle of appropriate scruples, doubts and fears. It is all important to
get the proper motives for action to prevail in his mind.
=Actual Practise in Carrying Out Projects Is All Important.--=But on the
other hand it is equally important to see that the action is effectively
carried out. In the matter of self-discipline, particularly, we may have
many ideal impulses and realize that they should prevail over certain of
our natural propensities, but unless we put forth effort to overcome the
propensities our ideal impulses are of no avail. The world has many such
moral paralytics to-day who can not seize their "languor as it were a
curling snake and cast it off." It is training in this very overcoming of
reluctance, in this putting forth of actual effort toward worthy ends
instead of merely memorizing precepts about the desirability of such
accomplishments, that is so sadly lacking in our school and home life
to-day. We prate of the importance of self-control, we say with our lips
that the way to learn to do is by doing, we proclaim that it is more vital
to instil good mental and physical habits into our pupils than to stock
them with information, we preach that mere fact training is as conducive
to making a first-class rascal as an upright man, yet we jog on
complacently in the well-beaten ruts of memory routine which require the
memorizing of symbols rather than real understanding. We seldom require
that our proteges make intelligent judgments based on evidence, we rarely
exact of them decisions in matters of ethics, and almost never demand that
they put their knowledge into efficient accomplishment. It can not be too
strongly urged that we need less of formulae learned by heart, less dead
erudition pigeonholed in the brain like so many foreign bodies, and vastly
more assimilation of knowledge into the living personality of the
individual.
Where in school or home to-day do we find provision for such training? Our
tendency is, in fact, just the opposite. According to the modern code, as
it works out in many instances at least, the child must be taught through
play. Though it is a truism that he who has not learned obedience can
never be master of himself, the child of to-day must not be made to obey
but be wheedled into changing his mind. If a given subject of study proves
distasteful to him, the fault is the teacher's for not making it
interesting, for he must always be led on by the thrill of fascination. In
other words, the child must not only be allowed but be encouraged to take
the path of least resistance. His own pleasure is to be the standard of
his actions. Let no stern demands of duty interfere!
Is it any wonder that the products of such tutelage come into the
activities of life self-indulgent and undisciplined, and although often
recognizing our private and public shame in business, politics and
conduct, still remain supine, evasive of the unpleasantness or hardships
of reform, or inefficient or unwilling in accomplishing unselfish ends?
=Interest and Difficulty Both Essential.--=The writer does not wish to be
understood as minimizing the importance of interest on the part of the
child in what he is doing. Interest is undeniably the open sesame to
desirable mental development; but what he does protest against is that not
uncommon interpretation of interest which deems it necessary to eschew
most serious consideration of a subject and evade such parts as present
difficulties. Certainly if there is any fact that stands out prominently
in human experience it is the fact that nothing conduces to the
development of moral stamina so much as the overcoming of difficulties,
particularly distasteful difficulties.
=Conduct Developed Through Actual Performance.--=Self-control and the will
to do can be trained and crystallized into habit as well as can any other
activity. It is a fact that one well grounded in morals by habit will
successfully resist subconscious impulsions to wrongdoing even when
suggested in the hypnotic state. Conduct is largely a matter of growth
through actual performance. For proper guidance of this growth there must,
of course, be high ideals around which the feelings are led to cluster and
by which they gradually come to be controlled.
=Construction of Ideals.--=The construction of such ideals through
example, through precept, through appeal and through actual practise in
self-denial and self-control on the part of the child, should be the
foremost duty of the parent or teacher. Above all it should be remembered
that imitation of teacher, of parents, of companions, is more of a factor
than intellect in the moral action of children. At present educationally
we are in a fever for vocational training, for "practical" work, and in
general for all things conducive to coaching our pupils in how to make a
living, yet commendable as all this may be, is it not of even more
fundamental importance to train them how to live?
=The Realization of Certain Possibilities of the Germ Rather Than Others
Is Subject to Control.--=It may be said in a sense that there exists
potentially in any germ all the things that can possibly come out of it
under any obtainable conditions of environment. The very initiation of a
given mode of expression by some environmental factor, however, often
mutually excludes many of the others. We get a given average result
ordinarily because development normally takes place in a given average
environment.
As may be easily shown by experiment, this is manifest even in the
instincts of lower animals. In the young the various instincts do not come
into expression at the same time, and it not infrequently happens that if
one of the earlier instincts becomes operative toward certain objects or
situations, later instincts will have a wholly different relation toward
these objects or situations than they would otherwise have had. As a
result the whole life conduct of the animal is markedly modified. For
example, young animals immediately after birth have no instinct of fear.
They do, however, have a strong instinct to attach themselves to some
moving thing and follow it. The utility of such an instinct, as for
instance in the case of young chickens, is obvious. The object of
attachment is usually the parent, but man may take the place of a parent
and the young animal will fearlessly follow him about. However if the
young animal has had no experience with man during its earliest infancy a
later instinct, that of fear or wildness, will have come into play and it
will flee from him. It is clear, therefore, that by familiarizing the
young animal with man before its instinct of fear has come to expression,
certain habitual reactions are set up in it which inhibit or limit the
application of its instinct of wildness as regards man. In other words,
the whole course of its life has been altered by this simple experience.
The same principle applies in even greater degree to the young of man.
We have seen in a former chapter that what in the ordinary course of
nature was "predestined" to become one individual nevertheless contained
the possibility of becoming four or more if the environing conditions were
made such as to bring about a separation of the cleavage blastomeres. Or a
fish egg that contained the possibility of becoming a normal two-eyed form
also contained the possibility of becoming a one-eyed form and could be
made to do so by certain unusual modifications of the conditions under
which it develops. However we must not be led so far by the plausibility
of this comparison that we are misled, for the fact is that we are not
creating anything new by these environmental upheavals, but are mainly
altering features that already exist. Beyond doubt the nature of the
material is of greater import in the specificity of the outcome than are
the external forces brought to play on it. The only point I wish to make
is that even what seem ordinarily to be predestined ends can be altered
by environment, and that the probabilities are that certain features are
relatively indifferent at their inception, the environmental factor adding
the final touch of specificity. And our common experience in education
would indicate that the same is true of mental conditions, including
behavior. The actual appearance of a particular trait is not necessarily
always a matter of an initial trend, but may be due merely to the fact
that its development is possible under certain conditions of environment
and that these conditions have prevailed in the given instance. And even
where there is a specific bent it may be arrested through the awakening of
a contrary impulse, or, on the other hand, its exercise may prevent the
engendering of the opposite impulse.
=Our Duty to Afford the Opportunity and Provide the Proper Stimuli for the
Development of Good Traits.--=It is clearly our duty to see that the
expression of good traits is made possible. We must throw a sheltering
screen of social environment around the young individual which will fend
off wrong forms of incitement and chances for harmful expression, and we
must provide proper stimuli and afford opportunity for development of
proper modes of expression. We must not forget that a normal instinct
denied a legitimate outlet will not infrequently find an illegitimate one.
Above all we must not forget the vital importance of establishing correct
habits nor the possibility of even replacing undesirable ones by good
ones. If training can redirect the machine-like behavior of as lowly a
creature as the starfish into new courses, why should we be so willing as
some of our genetists would seem to be to throw up our hands and admit
failure in the case of man before we have even made a rational attempt to
correct the evils in question? Even in lowly organisms we have seen that
behavior is not only the result of an innate constitution but also of the
degree and kind of stimulations to which it has been subjected.
If the individual himself has not the initiative or will to make the
attempt to set up proper or corrective habits, or to cultivate the
necessary specific inhibitors, then all the more is it our duty to see
that he is led by suggestion and drill into the proper routine of
activities for their establishment. For if the individual with
propensities toward moral obliquity is to be saved to society it must be
through the stereotyping effects of good habits.
=Moral Responsibility.--=Beyond question different men have different
degrees of capacity for mental and moral training. All can not be held
equally responsible ethically, but the lowermost limit of obligatory
response to social and ethical demands necessary to rank one as within the
pale of normal conduct is at such a level that any one not an actual
defective can in a reasonably wholesome environment surmount it. All
normal men are responsible for their conduct.