Bowdoin Prize Dissertations.

Mr. John M. Pierce delivered a dissertation in Sever 5, last night, on "The Significance for Psychology and Philosophy of the advances thus far made in the Study of Hypnotism." His address in brief was as follows:

The History of Hypnotism is marked by a series of names, each of which contains a theory and reveals the philosophy and psychology held by the namer.

I. Pre-scientific or supernatural; miracle, oracle, cure by faith, magic, sorcery. II. Scientific or natural; 1. Physical; animal magnetism, mesmerism. 2. Psychical; hypnotism, suggestion. Not all are suggestion, but suggestion in all; "hypnotic suggestion" best describes it in a name. The many names for the one thing are result of the many forms and degrees of the hypnotic state; this variety, as great as that of persons, makes it all the more fundamental for psychology. Hypnotism is not imagination but the result of imagination; imagination is not an imaginary fact; history is so full of it that we are suspicious of a smooth story. Psychology cares only for the world of men's experiences, whether that is parallel with the physical world or not. Religious history is the record, not of what men have found in the world, but of what they have put into it; only psychology and philosophy are able to see the truth in the miracles of religion and at the same time respect the integrity of the physical sciences.

The outcome of the psychology, to which hypnotism adds its weight, is states of mind, evolution of these states, relativity of one knowledge, necessity of the will. If we are not satisfied with this, philosophy is before us. The only philosophy that has anything more to say is idealism. The more we see the illusion in looking for gaps in the real world, so much more likely are we to turn to the ideal.

The significance of hypnotism for psychology is in unifying it and throwing out abstract entities.

The significance of hypnotism for philosophy is in making it more wanted to supply the abstract entities which psychology has to give up.