We might liken the nerves, singly, to wires, and all of them
together to a system of wires. The things of the external world tap at
the switchboard by using the organs of special sense; the nerves,
acting as wires, transmit their messages; at the switchboard is the
operator--consciousness--accepting and interpreting the jangle of
calls.
The recognition by the brain of the appeals coming by way of the
transmitting sense, and its interpretation of these appeals, is the
mind's function of consciousness, whether expressed by thinking,
feeling, or willing.
THE CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS IN ACTION
I am passing the open door of a bake-shop, and a pervading odor fills
the air. I think "hot rolls," because my organ of smell--the nose--has
received a stimulus which it transmits along my olfactory nerves to the
brain; and there the odor is given a name--"hot rolls." The recognition
of the stimulus as an odor and of that odor as "hot rolls" is
consciousness in the form of thinking. But the odor arouses desire to
eat--hunger; and this is consciousness in the form of feeling.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45