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
Catalogue details

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.

    7/32 (page 5)
    THE ABSURDITY OF ANY MIND-BODY RELATION WE are here to-day to pay homage to the genius of perhaps the ablest of modern pioneers in the combined fields of philosophy, sociology, and psycho¬ logy—the late Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse. Our commemoration takes the form of an address which I have been invited this year to deliver. Although deeply sensible of the honour which has thus been bestowed on me, I am equally sensible of my un¬ worthiness to fulfil the duties of the occasion. For research in psychology became only for a brief period of his active life Hobhouse’s main interest. During that short time he carried out experiments at Man¬ chester in comparative psychology on monkeys, cats and dogs, a young elephant, and an otter—experiments which were in many respects vastly superior to those of his predecessors, showing greater insight, making use of improved methods and new tests, and reaching results the value of which is becoming increasingly recognized and utilized to-day by his successors in this important field of investigation. But although throughout most of Hobhouse’s varied life philosophy, sociology, and politics were his prime concern, his interests in mental functions, mental development, and in such problems as the relations of mind, life, and matter, clearly and necessarily continued undi¬ minished. Indeed, shortly before his death, in 1929, Hobhouse contributed an article on Comparative Psychology to the fourteenth edition of the Encyclo¬ paedia Britannica ; and only eight years earlier he had