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This small volume represents a philosophical speculation dealing with sense consciousness and thought consciousness in a manner which attempts to substitute another “Immaterial Principle” for the concept of mind. The author in a “Pickwickian or Philosophic sense” denies the consciousness of the orthodox psychologists, at the same time admitting the practical advantages of expressing behavior in terms of consciousness. The author mentions a tendency on the part of those acquainted with his theory to identify it with Behaviorism, but certainly this is quite difficult to comprehend, since one trained in Behaviorism as it is understood by the American school of investigators fails to discover the least similarity in the two concepts.
Among other things which McKerrow has emphasized, he advises a substitute for the subject with its cognition, affection and conation in the form of a single principle which he explains at length in the text, the tendency to “Viable Equilibrium,” or the tendency toward viability in a biochemical sense, which concept, we must agree, has its advantages as a working hypothesis since it is far more basic and less occult. Theoretically both man and the universe is here regarded as a series of conditioned events, but practically we must be considered responsible for our actions which occasion praise or blame, love or hate, or perhaps indifference from the herd.
A thread of humor runs through this book, serving to hold the interest of the reader.
White