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The Analysis of Mind By Bertrand Russell Pdf

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The Analysis of Mind By  Bertrand Russell Pdf

Here you can download The Analysis of Mind By Bertrand Russell Pdf book free online – from The Analysis of Mind By Bertrand Russell Pdf book; When an organism, either animal or plant, is subjected to a stimulus, producing in it some state of excitement, the removal

of the stimulus allows it to return to a condition of equilibrium. But the new state of equilibrium is different from the old, as may be seen by the changed capacity for reaction. The state of equilibrium before the stimulus may be called the “primary indifference-state”; that after the cessation of the stimulus, the “secondary indifference-state.” We define the “engraphic effect” of a stimulus as the effect in making a difference between the primary and secondary indifference-states, and this difference itself we define as the “engram” due to the stimulus. “Mnemic phenomena” are defined as those due to engrams; in animals, they are specially associated with the nervous system, but not exclusively, even in man.

When two stimuli occur together, one of them, occurring afterwards, may call out the reaction for the other also. We call this an “ekphoric influence,” and stimuli having this character are called “ekphoric stimuli.” In such a case we call the engrams of the two stimuli “associated.” All simultaneously generated engrams are associated; there is also association of successively aroused engrams, though this is reducible to simultaneous association. In fact, it is not an isolated stimulus that leaves an engram, but the totality of the stimuli at any moment; consequently any portion of this totality tends, if it recurs, to arouse the whole reaction which was aroused before. Semon holds that engrams can be inherited, and that an animal’s innate habits may be due to the experience of its ancestors; on this subject he refers

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