A manual of psychology.

  • Stout, George Frederick, 1860-1944.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of psychology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    business of psychology to inquire how it ought to take place. The principles which it lays down account equally for correct thinking and for incorrect thinking. It deals with objects as they are actually presented to consciousness. It lias no concern with the nature of the object as it may bo apart from its actual presentation. It cannot, therefore, inquire whether or not the actual presentation corresponds to the true nature of the object as it exists in the real world. Theory of knowledge pushes the question of truth and falsehood further back than logic. It inquires how truth and falsehood are possible at all; in other words, it investigates bow the private thought of an individual can apprehend a reality independent of bis own individual existence, either truly or falsely; how. for instance, can a finite consciousness, composed ot a series of fleeting states, beginning to exist at a certain da to and ending at a certain date, connected with and dependent on a body which forms only a small fragment of the infinite extension of the material world,—how can such a fiuito and particular being contain in itself the thought of the universe as a whole? How can it become a spectator of all time and all existence? Obviously, such questions are very far removed from the province of psychology. The possibility of thought is assumed by the psychologist. The relation of subjoct and object is pro-supposod by him as a datum. He simply investigates the actual laws which regulate the processes through which the subjoct passes in knowing, willing, feeling, in relation to the objoet. Ontology may be regarded as an offshoot from theory of knowledge. Theory of knowlogo inquires how the finite individual can bo aware of the universe to which he heloims , # it appoars to some philosophers that this question cannot be