We now know the object of psychology as well as its method. It's time to apply the method to the object.

This object, as we've seen, is to enumerate, describe, and classify the states of consciousness. But this should be done methodically, so we'll divide the states of consciousness into a certain number of classes and examine each more closely. We won't let ourselves be discouraged by the apparent diversity of states of consciousness but rather will search for the common characteristics that might serve as the foundation for such a division. There'll be as many faculties of the soul as there are perceptible classes.

A faculty is a specific mode of conscious activity, and there are as many different faculties as there are forms of the inner life. The soul has faculties in the same sense that inorganic bodies have properties and that complex living bodies have functions. The only difference is that a faculty refers to a larger sum of activity than a function and that a function refers to a larger sum of activity than a property.

How many faculties (or classes of states of consciousness) can be identified? There are three:

1. Activity: We act on the external world through the intermediary of our bodies and on the inner world through simple will, by directing our intelligence, exercising our thought, etc.

2. […]