l suffused with the pervasive, evanscent "wraith" that tantalizes us
with glimpses which half reveal and half conceal the name we seek to
grasp.

To account for such experiences simply in terms of half-submerged
"sensations" and "images" is to do violence to all the requirements for
clear thinking. If we rule out explanations of this kind, we are
evidently forced to the conclusion that these experiences are obscure,
not in themselves or in the abstract, but with reference to the function
of putting us in possession of the name to which they are inadequate
clues. It is the subsequent, satisfactory experience of the name which
furnishes our standard for clearness; in other words, the implications
of obscureness are of a functional, and not of a static or structural,
kind. The marginal character of an experience is simply a reference to
its function as a clue or cue to some further experience, i.e., a
reference to its character as a changing stimulus. Or we may say that
the distinction between focus and margin is just another aspect of the
distinction between the conditions for further activity and the
incompleteness which leads to further adjustment. The transfer of the
future into the present gives us a fact, here and now, and in this
respect the experience is entirely focal in character, and as such it is
subject-matter for the various sciences. Whatever the nature of the
experience, it is just what it is, and not something else. With respect
to the further experience, however, which it conditions or for which it
prepares the way, the present experience is entirely marginal, i.e., in
its character as a changing stimulus it is subject-matter for
psychology. The distinction of focus and margin, then, is based
ultimately upon the function of experience in the control of behavior.
The given situation is a present fact and is in functional change; or,
in terms of our present discussion, it has both a focus and a margin. As
present fact it is a reality which requires recognition in the form of
adjustment; as in functional change it provides opportunity for bringing
the adjustment to fruition. That is, the experience both sets a task or
makes a demand and it points the way. The distinction is a distinction
of function, not of static existence, and it is this distinction which
is represented by the contrast of focus and margin.

If we compare this interpretation of focus and margin with that of
traditional psychology, we find