Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of MankindWundt, Wilhelm Max
Science
Elements of Folk Psychology: Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Wundt, Wilhelm Max
Ethnopsychology
The trials of the translator have been recounted too often any longer
to require detailed mention. President G. Stanley Hall has suggested
that the German proclivity to the use of long, involved sentences,
loaded with qualifying words and phrases, and with compounds and
supplementary clauses of every description, may perhaps be said to
have the merit of rendering language somewhat correspondent with the
actual course of thought. The significance of this statement can be
appreciated by no one quite so keenly as by a translator, for whom the
very fact which President Hall mentions causes many German sentences to
be objects of despair. In the present instance, the endeavour has been
to reproduce as faithfully as possible both the meaning and the spirit
of the original, while yet taking such liberties as seemed necessary
either to clarify certain passages or to avoid any serious offence to
the English language. In a number of cases, no absolutely satisfactory
equivalent of the German term seemed available. The very expression
'folk psychology,' for example, may scarcely be said to commend itself
in every respect. Its use seemed unescapable, however, in view of
the fact that the author, in his Introduction, expressly rejects the
terms _Sozialpsychologie_ and _Gemeinschaftspsychologie_ in favour of
_Völkerpsychologie. Bildende Kunst_ has been rendered 'formative art,'
not in the belief that this translation is wholly unobjectionable, but
because it seemed preferable to all possible alternatives, such as
'plastic,' 'shaping,' or 'manual' art. Those who are familiar with, or
who will take notice of, the very precise meaning which the present
author gives to the terms _Märchen, Sage, Legende,_ and _Mythus_ will
understand without explanation our frequent use of the word 'saga'
and the necessity of the term 'märchen' in the translation. Wundt has
always attached great significance to the distinctions which he has
drawn between the various forms of the myth, and, more especially,
to his contention that the earliest and, in a sense, the progenitor
of these was the märchen. The crying need of exact definition and
of clear thinking in a field so confused as that of mythology led
him, on one occasion, to enter a plea for a clear-cut and consistent
terminology such as that which he was attempting to maintain (_vide
Völkerpsychologie, Band V, Zweiter Teil, Zweite Auflage, s._ 33). In
this instance again, therefore, it seemed best to give to the author's
own terms a preference over words which, while more familiar to the
English reader, are less suited to convey the precise meaning intended.
The most pleasant of the translator's duties consists in acknowledging
the very material assistance which he has received from his wife, whose
preparation of an enlarged index for this English edition is but the
last of many services which she has rendered in connection with the
present undertaking.
EDWARD LEROY SCHAUB.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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