Semon's Theory

SEMON'S THEORY (Semon) is most fully developed in the author's book 'Mneme as a Principle of Stability in Organic Processes' (in German) in 1904. Organic matter possesses not only irritability but also the property to react in new ways due to the long-lasting and persistent changes that occur in it under the influence of preceding irritations. Semon designates these changes as engrams - a unique recording of the effects of irritants, and the process of manifestation of the engram as ecphory. The entire complex of processes and phenomena related to this aspect of the life activity of organisms, Semon calls the phenomena of mneme. Mneme is inherent only in organic matter, which as it were remembers its own history. However, the phenomenon of memory in the psychological sense of the word represents only a particular case of the phenomena of mneme, which can proceed completely apsychically. Such are primarily the processes of heredity, in which Semon also sees the realization of the mnemic properties of organic matter. Establishing the similarity between the phenomena of memorization as a psychophysiological process and the phenomena of heredity, Semon objects to the assessment of this similarity as a simple analogy (the viewpoint of Hering). The identity of both series of phenomena lies, according to Semon, not in the fact that supposedly even elementary forms of 'organic substance' possess psychic properties (on these points Semon energetically distances himself from overt vitalists, in particular psycholamarckists), but in the fact that here too, due to long and deeply influencing irritations, persistent physiological changes of the engram type arise in the organism, taking the form of hereditary predispositions. The transformation of these 'dispositions' into one or another structural or functional feature of an individual organism occurs only in the presence of an additional ecphoric irritation and in this respect follows the same law as the process of psychophysiological reproduction. Here and there the ecphoric irritation contains only some of the conditions under which the engram was formed at one time. However, due to the presence of a ready-made engram at a given moment, it is sufficient to have a limited range of conditions for the effect of the ecphoric irritation to be no less than the effect of the original ('original') irritation. In his attempt to justify the applicability of the mneme theory to the phenomena of heredity, Semon declares himself a supporter of the doctrine of the inheritance of individually acquired characteristics as a result of the direct physiological effect of the external environment on the organism and uncritically relies on the data from the works of Kammerer, E. Fischer (Kammerer, Fischer) and other contemporary Lamarckians. Semon does not limit himself to the phenomena of heredity, but attempts to explain from the point of view of the doctrine of mneme many other biological phenomena, such as the phenomena of regulation, regeneration, periodicity of various life processes, etc. Mneme is depicted as one of the most important principles of organic development, ensuring the stability of individual moments of the latter, and is placed in significance in the same row with the other two principles - variability and selection. Acting together with the latter, the principle of mneme underlies the successful adaptability of organisms to the external environment. Semon consciously avoids answering the question about the essence of mneme, believing that for natural science it is sufficient to limit itself to studying the diverse 'manifestations' (forms of manifestation) of the latter. The main advantage of his theory Semon sees in the fact that it allows one to reduce the complexity of the organic world to a few 'principles' and thereby economize our thinking. In this assertion Semon reproduces one of the main positions of the idealist theory of knowledge of Mach-Avenarius. Similarly, Semon slides toward the agnosticism of Kant. On the other hand, however much Semon distances himself from overt vitalism, however much he emphasizes the physiological nature of mnemic phenomena, his reasoning about mneme inevitably leads to the idea of mneme as some immaterial principle, hardly differing essentially from other 'life principles' proclaimed by modern neovitalism. This circumstance is all the more instructive that the basic argumentation of Semon has a clearly expressed mechanistic character. The unity of the developing organic world Semon depicts only as identity. Correctly insisting on the need to take into account the history of development in physiological research, Semon however gives an incorrect metaphysical concept of development and falls into error, believing that it is precisely mneme 'connects the past and the present with a living bond.' The circumstance that Semon repeatedly polemicizes with vitalists, declares himself a supporter of rational natural science, and considers his theory as a further development of the physiology of irritation (Reizphysiologie), allows one to classify him in the camp of spontaneous natural-science materialism. However, the mechanico-Lamarckian views of Semon on the question of heredity, his view of the organism as a passive object of environmental influences, and many other indications point to the inconsistency of Semon's materialist positions. The result of this inconsistency was not only the admixture of idealist positions in Semon's theory, but also the fact that it was repeatedly used by biologists-vitalists to 'justify' the idea of panpsychism. The known scientific significance of the positive elements of S. for the development of physiology is limited exclusively to the field of higher nervous activity. It consists mainly in the clear highlighting of a number of aspects and moments in the very complex psychophysiological process that underlies memory as a function of the highly developed nervous system. However, the terminology in which Semon expressed the results of his analysis of memory can be applied only with essential reservations, since in it at the same time found their reflection Semon's mechanistic views.