The Master Mind

THE MASTER MIND

it takes up room, that it occupies space, and that The 'thinker' is hard to locate. would make it very much like a material thing. In truth, the more carefully you consider it, the more plainly you will see what thinking men have known for a long time—that we do not know and cannot learn anything about the thing which thinks, and feels, and wills. It is beyond the range of human knowledge. The books which define psychology as the science of mind have not a word to say about Focus on mental facts. that which thinks, and feels, and wills. They are entirely taken up with these thoughts, feelings, and acts of the will—mental facts, in a word—trying to tell us what they are, and to arrange them in classes, and tell us the circumstances or conditions under which they exist. It seems to me that it would be better to define psychology as the science of the A better definition. experience, phenomena, or facts of the mind, soul, or self—of mental facts, in a word."

And so, in this book, we shall not invade the field of metaphysics or the region of philosophy, with the endless discussions of "about it and about" concerning the "what is" of the soul, self, or mind. Rather shall we dwell contentedly in the safer region of "mental facts," and speak only of the "just how to do things" with the mind, based upon the discovery of "how the mind works" made by advanced psychology. This is the method of the Pragmatic Plan now so favored by modern thinkers—the Pragmatic focus. plan which is concerned with the "how," rather than with the "ultimate why." As William James William James (1842–1910), a leading American philosopher and psychologist. has said: "Pragmatism is the attitude of looking Pragmatism defined. away from first things, principles, categories, supposed necessities; and of looking forward toward last things, fruits, consequences, facts." As another writer has said: "Modern psychology is essentially