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The Nature of the Psychical (Bode, 1917)
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In: Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 14, (1917): 288-294
 
 
JLJ - Here we begin to understand Tolman's fascination with rat behavior - it is not the rodent, but the simplification and control of behavior experiments which reveal insight into the nature of the human mind. Note also the concept of bringing the future consequences of behavior into the present in order to guide present action. 

p.288 The "recent reflection of others" which I propose as my theme is the drift of neo-realistic speculation towards behavior as the key to the mystery of consciousness, and my special task will be an elaboration of the implications that seem to be contained in this tendency or point of view.

p.289-290 Conscious behavior... the response to an object is to all appearances quite different from the response of mechanical reaction, and it is precisely this difference which must be emphasized and defined if we are to obtain a significant definition of conscious behavior.
 
p.290 "Content of mind," says Perry, "must be defined as that portion of the surrounding environment which is taken account of by the organism in serving its interests."
 
p.290 The "interests" or the "something implied" are... present as future contingencies which have become concerned in giving direction to present behavior
 
p.291 The form of organization for this total response is not determined by a mechanism antecedently provided, but has a peculiar flexibility, so as to suit the needs of the occasion. The process of organizing the different systems of discharge into a unified mode of response is directed towards the end of securing adaptation...  The organization of the activity must be provided for continuously and is nowhere laid down before-hand by inborn connections within the nervous system. It is this organization of relatively independent systems of discharge, and not specific response as such, which constitutes the characteristic feature of conscious behavior.
 
p.291-292 But if a future adaptation is to determine the character of behavior, it is necessary to take account of the meaning or adaptive value that the nascent activities would have if they were released and allowed to run their course. Regarded merely as mechanical reactions, these nascent responses are more or less on a par and constitute an equilibrium of forces. From the standpoint of possible or future adaptation, however, they may be widely unequal. The possible future result of our acts, therefore, must he brought into the present so as to provide the conditions for behavior that has reference to these results; and this peculiar transfer of the future into the present is accomplished in the conscious situation.
 
p.292 By thus keeping a record of the happenings which it undergoes, the nervous system is able to report in advance, as it were, what may be expected of objects when they recur... The perceptions corresponding to these inhibited reactions embody the adaptive value which these nascent activities would have if they were completed; they forecast the possibility of future stimulations and thus transcribe or translate into terms of present fact the conditions which must be taken into account for further adjustment. The perceived object, accordingly, is the environment in the guise of a condition for further activity. Generalizing this result, we may say that all consciousness is behavior directed or controlled by the environment with reference to a future result or a future adaptation.
 
p.293 In any case the object or situation controls behavior by bodying forth the results of activities which are as yet in abeyance.
 
p.293-294 To give attention is to respond to a result more or less dimly foreshadowed at the present moment; the situation as given needs to be enlarged or transformed, and this opens the way for the response of eye or ear or reflective thinking. Conscious behavior, accordingly, is a constant search for new stimulations or a progressive transformation of the given situation so as to remold it nearer to the heart's desire. As contrasted with reflex action, conscious behavior is essentially experimental; its method is, at bottom, the method of trial and error.
[JLJ - Yes, and in our 'present moment' we are in a predicament of sorts, often of our own choosing, executing a scheme of some kind, which we deemed at some point in our past would produce a future with promise, to some degree.]
p.294 the problem of consciousness must be attacked through a consideration of the facts of behavior. If, however, a consideration of these facts is to be significant and enlightening, it is the difference rather than the likeness between conscious behavior and mechanical or reflex reaction that must be emphasized and interpreted. And this difference, as I have ventured to urge, lies in the reference to future results or ends.