Licence: In copyright
Credit: The mind of man : a text-book of psychology / by Gustav Spiller. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![is no new material, we are justified in systematically applying the prefix re, indicating recurrence, to all its phases. And, by contrast, it is not a far stretch to employ the prefix pre to point to those systems which are new, e.g., as we say, arrange, pre-arrange, re-arrange, so we say, combine, pre- combine, re-combine. To indicate imagination and work, we may, in addition, employ the prefix trans, thus trans-combine (primary or secondary action), trans-pre-combine (work), trans-re-combine (imagine). The general problem of a psychological terminology is far from simple. On reflection one finds that our whole vocabulary reflects the psychology oj the past, and that, therefore, nothing less than a total reconstruction of human language can satisfy rational demands. Such a revolution, not an unlikely one, must be, however, the work of centuries and not that of a solitary individual. Suffice it, therefore, that an attempt has been made at linguistic reform and interpretation. Descartes is responsible for the notion that we must see that our ideas are clear and dis- tinct. Perhaps on account of the turbidity and indistinctness implied in that rule, the cry was re-echoed everywhere, Locke being the principal sinner in England. The question of terminology is fully discussed by Tdnnies, Philosophical Terminology, 1899. My own opinion is that a close study of a subject, together with a desire to a mutual under- standing among experts, are the chief pillars of a solid terminology. When all is confusion, as in present-day psychology, one smiles as one hears complaints against the varied ways in which words are used. Here are Descartes’ four rules, which will repay careful study : “ The first rule was never to receive as true anything which I did not demonstrably recognise as such; that is to say, to carefully avoid precipitation and prejudice; and to include in my judgments nothing which did not present itself to my mind so clearly and distinctly that I had no occasion to doubt it. The second rule was to divide every difficulty under examination into as many parts as possible, or into as many as might be necessary for its solution. The third was to conduct my thoughts in an orderly manner, by beginning with the simplest objects and those easiest known, slowly rising by degrees to what is most complex, and postulating an order even among those objects which do not at all naturally follow one another. And the last rule, to make such a complete induction, and to take such a comprehensive view, that I might be sure of having omitted nought” (Discours de la Mithode, 1637, second part). See Gibson, Regulae of Descartes, 1898. System.—Anything given whatever. [To develop]. A. Primary systern.—Any system referable to the Present. [To pre- develop.] B. Secondary system.—Any system referable to the Past. [To re-develop.] [In the place of pre and re, primary and secondary can be used.] A and B are again divided into— C. Integral [system], where a system is considered apart from any inter- pretation placed upon it, as when a coloured surface is seen, without being connected with (say) the name of an orange or a lamp. [An integral, or a sensation or image j a pre-integral, or a sensation; a re-integral, or an image. To integrate, or to sense or image; to pre-integrate, or to sense; to re-integrate, or to image. Integrate also equals to member, to collect.] [Thus also de-develop, dis- integrate, etc., equal to forget]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21938982_0060.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
