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/lp/american-psychological-association/a-handbook-of-general-experimental-psychology-the-mechanism-of-WgT0giBX0R
- Publisher
- Clark University Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © 1934 American Psychological Association
- Pages
- 155 –203
- DOI
- 10.1037/11374-003
- Publisher site
- See Chapter on Publisher Site
Abstract
In attacking the problem of the mechanism of reaction one naturally seeks to interpret the fundamental activities which constitute the basis of behavior in terms of physical law. The scientist should not be complacent in the assumption that all laws of matter, animate or inanimate, are known. But the hasty assumption that vital phenomena which do not appear to exemplify the known laws of matter are not subject to physical law tends to confuse and obstruct progress. The law of the conservation of energy is no more violated by living matter than by other material systems. Those vital phenomena which baffle our attempts at explanation in terms of physical law should be regarded as complexities as yet unraveled, rather than as evidence that physical law does not apply to living things. As the marvels of physiology are elucidated by research, they show not so much new laws of life, breaking away from physics and chemistry, as examples of the ingenuity with which the physical laws and physical properties of matter have been utilized in the process of evolution. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Published: Feb 12, 2007
Keywords: mechanism of reaction; experimental psychology