Introspection as an Objective Method (Address of the president, before the American Psychological Association, Princeton Meeting, December, 1921).

Abstract

The two most radical doctrines put forward by the behaviorist are, first, that consciousness does not exist, and second, that psychology should wholly abandon the introspective method.My chief object this evening is to inquire in what degree the second thesis necessarily follows from the first.But before entering on a discussion of the value of introspection to a behaviorist, it seems desirable that I should state, as briefly as possible, my attitude towards the first thesis, namely, that consciousness does not exist.I was trained as a structural psychologist.Now it is an odd circumstance that while historically behaviorism in America is the child of functional psychology, logically the point of view of structural psychology leads more naturally to sympathy with behaviorism than does that of functional psychology.Structural psychology and behaviorism have the tremendous bond of accepting the world of physical science as a closed system.Structural psychology in addition to the world of physical science accepts a parallel or epiphenomenal world of consciousness; behavioristic metaphysics rejects this conscious concomitant.But both behaviorism and structural psychology refuse to allow the interference of non-physical causes in the physical system.As a structural psychologist, then, I am prepared like the behaviorist to defend the unity of the physical world.It is

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