CHAPTER V

HOW NEW MEANS OF CONTROL ARE MADE

New means of control are made through finding new uses for things in carrying out purposes. The essential steps in the complete process by which a new means of control is made, are (1) experiencing some difficulty in realizing a purpose, (2) defining the problem which must be solved in order to overcome the difficulty, (3) solving the problem, and (4) using the solution in overcoming the difficulty. The problem is defined and solved by the use of hypotheses made through analogy and tested in thought or in action, or in both. The uses of things as means of control constitute the meanings of the things. These meanings become so closely associated with the things as to appear inherent in them.

I

New means of control are made through finding new uses for things in carrying out purposes. The essential steps in the complete process by which a new means of control is made, are (1) experiencing some difficulty in realizing a purpose, (2) defining the problem which must be solved in order to overcome the difficulty, (3) solving the problem, and (4) using the solution in overcoming the difficulty. The problem is defined and solved by the use of hypotheses made through analogy and tested in thought or in action, or in both.

When a new difficulty arises in carrying out a purpose, a new means of control competent to overcome this difficulty is sought. As a rule, this new means does not spring into consciousness with the seeming spontaneity that marks the appearance of a purpose, but is the result of a process of which the individual may be directly con

scious. To find, through an analysis of this process, how purposes and means of control already in experience work together to make new means of control, is the problem of this chapter.

Means of control, as we have learned,' appear in the form of things; for example, a drinking cup, a pencil, a law of physics, printed in a book, or a rule of grammar, likewise evident. Things become new means of control, obviously, when new uses are found for them in giving the control necessary to bring about the realization of purposes. How the individual finds new uses for things may be shown by illustrations.

Imagine the case of a person who, for the purpose of writing a letter, applies his fountain pen to the paper and finds that the pen does not make a mark. If he knew by what means the ink could be made to flow from the pen, he would use this means, and the writing would be resumed. But he does not know what means to use. (1) He has thus projected a purpose and met with a difficulty in realizing it.

The individual now sets about to locate definitely the difficulty. Perhaps, he imagines, there is no ink in the penholder; but he remembers that the holder was filled only a half hour before. Perhaps the tube that conducts the ink from the holder to the pen point is misadjusted; but examination reveals that it is in the proper position. Perhaps this feed tube is clogged with dried ink. Let us assume that all evidence, such as the facts that the pen has not been used for a long time and that the tube appears to be stopped up, points to this as the location of the difficulty. The individual then becomes conscious of a definite problem; namely, What means may be used

1 P. 52.

to remove the ink from the feed tube? (2) The difficulty has thus been located and given the form of a definite problem.

A problem appears when the individual is conscious of a purpose, but not of the means for its realization. The purpose marks, or defines, the problem, which appears in the form of the question, How can this purpose be carried out? When the means of writing fails, the problem which first appears may be expressed by the question, How can the writing be done? In this form, however, the problem is vague and general, it is not well defined. In order to define it better, to make the difficulty more clear and specific, the individual must find a purpose which lies in the line of action immediately beyond the difficulty. In the illustration, this is the purpose of removing the dried ink from the pen tube. It marks definitely what must be accomplished in order to overcome the difficulty; and for the time being it takes the place of the purpose of writing the letter. If the problem is complex, that is, if several means of control must be found in order to overcome the difficulty, this complex problem must be subdivided into simpler ones, each of which is defined by a purpose immediately ahead of each means of control needed.

The method of defining the problem, as can be seen from the illustration, consists of making hypotheses, that is, imagining what may be the difficulty, and testing these hypotheses to determine whether they are true. Hypotheses are suggested through similarity of the new situation in which a difficulty has arisen to other situations in which the difficulties have been defined. The fact that one cannot drink lemonade through a straw tube if the lemonade has been exhausted from the glass, or if the straw tube is misadjusted, or if the straw tube is

clogged by pulp or by a seed, may suggest the hypotheses given above in the illustration; or generalizations made from a number of similar instances where the passage of some substance through a tube is concerned, may suggest them. Hypotheses may be tested both in thought and in action. Testing in thought is trying the hypotheses in imagination and consists in calling to mind facts that agree or conflict with the hypotheses. When the individual in the illustration calls to mind the fact that he has filled the pen only a half hour before, he tests an hypothesis in thought and finds it untrue, because this fact conflicts with it. The hypothesis that the feed tube is misadjusted is tested in action by examining the tube.

When the problem has been defined, the individual may have in his stock of means of control previously acquired one that will overcome the difficulty. In this case, he can make use of it without further delay. But if he does not know how to overcome the difficulty, he must proceed to find a new means of control. In other words, (3) he must solve the problem. As in the case of defining the problem, this is done by making hypotheses, and testing them in thought or in action, or in both. He has used a pin to pick lint from the opening in the end of a smail key and, because of the similarity of the two situations, imagines that the obstruction in the pen tube may be removed with a pin. When this hypothesis is tested in imagination, he sees that the tube is so small that the pin cannot be inserted into it. An attempt may be made actually to insert the pin into the tube, especially if the test in thought is doubtful. Testing the hypothesis in imagination, if conclusive, is better than testing it in action, because testing in imagination saves the time. and energy necessary to get the pin and avoids the danger

of injuring the tube by an attempt to force the pin through it. The removal by blowing of fruit pulp or a seed obstructing a straw may now suggest through the similarity of the two situations that the dried ink may be removed by blowing through the feed tube. Trying this in thought, the individual finds the hypothesis useless, in view of the fact that dried ink adheres so closely that it cannot be dislodged by blowing. If this test in thought is not convincing, he may test the hypothesis actually by trying to blow through the feed tube, with the probable result either of losing time in washing the tube or of getting ink upon his lips. The fact that he has cleaned small glass bottles and other things with water, or the generalization from such experiences that water is a solvent, suggests, through similarity of the two situations, that perhaps water may be the means of removing the clogged ink. This hypothesis is tried in imagination and found apparently to work. Testing in action may be done by putting the tube into water and finding that the ink begins to dissolve.

When the hypothesis that water is a means of removing the dried ink from the tube has been tested and found to solve the problem, the ink is removed and the realization of the purpose of writing the letter continued. In other words, (4) he uses the solution of the problem in overcoming the difficulty. This fixes the new means of control in the experience of the individual so that, when the same kind of difficulty occurs with a pen, it will not be necessary for him to go through the process of inventing a means of control for overcoming the difficulty; for he will have stored in memory and ready for use the fact that water is a means of removing dried ink from the feed tube. Also, when he meets a new kind of difficulty that bears