On the other hand, as
soon as the psychological method is applied, this immediate life
meaning of human experience is abandoned, and instead of it is gained
the possibility of considering the whole experience as a system of
causes and effects. Mental life is then no longer what it is to us in
our daily intercourse, because it is reconstructed for the purposes of
this special treatment, just as the water which we drink is no longer
our beverage if we consider it under the point of view of chemistry as
a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Hence we have not two statements
one of which is true and the other ultimately untrue; on the contrary,
both are true. We have a perfect right to give the value of truth to
our experience with water as a refreshing drink, and also to the
formula of the chemist. With a still better right we may claim that
both kinds of mental experience are equally true. Hence not a word of
objection is raised against the discussions of the historians and the
philosophers, if we insist that their so-called psychology stands
outside of the really descriptive and explanatory account of mental
life, and is therefore not psychology in the technical sense of the
word.
It is this historical attitude which controls all the studies of the
political economists. They speak of the will-acts of the individuals
and of their demands and desires and satisfactions, but they do not
describe and explain them; they want to interpret and understand them.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214