Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 46677-h.htm or 46677-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46677/46677-h/46677-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46677/46677-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/introductiontops032004mbp AN INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY by WILHELM WUNDT Professor of Philosophy in the University Of Leipsic Translated from the Second German Edition by Rudolf Pintner, M. A. (Edin.), Ph. D., (Leipsic) Publication of the "Pädagogische Literatur Gesellschaft Neue Bahnen" London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. Ruskin House, 40 Museum St. W. C. I. Published 1912--Reprint 1920 AUTHOR'S PREFACE It is not the intention of this introduction to psychology to discuss the scientific or philosophical conceptions of psychology, or even to make a survey of the investigations and their results. What this little book attempts is rather to introduce the reader to the principal thoughts underlying present-day experimental psychology, leaving out many facts and methods which would be necessary for a thorough study of the subject. To omit all mention of experimental methods and their results is at the present day impossible. Yet we only need to consider a comparatively small number of results of the first importance in order to comprehend the basal principles of the new psychology. To characterise the methods of this psychology it would be impossible to omit all reference to experiments, but we can and will omit reference to the more or less complicated instruments on which the carrying out of such experiments depends. I must refer the reader who wishes a fuller account of the new psychology to my _Outlines of Psychology_, which also contains the necessary bibliography of the subject. W. WUNDT. Leipsic, June 1911. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The present volume is a popular introduction to the Wundtian psychology. It is a shorter and simpler sketch than the same author's _Outlines of Psychology_, and it should prove invaluable to the English-speaking student who wishes to gain some conception of the subject before entering upon a deeper study of the same. Its popularity in Germany has been phenomenal. In translating the work the translator has, as far as possible, used the same English terms as those employed in the translations of Wundt by Judd and Titchener. He is greatly indebted to Mr. Robert Wilson, M.A., B. Sc., for his advice and help in reading over the manuscript before going to press. RUDOLF PINTNER. Edinburgh, May 1912. CONTENTS CHAPTER I CONSCIOUSNESS AND ATTENTION