The Life and Letters of George John Romanes, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.Romanes, George John
Science
The Life and Letters of George John Romanes, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.
Romanes, George John
Naturalists -- Great Britain -- Biography; Romanes, George John, 1848-1894
The whole subject of comparative psychology had a special and
peculiar fascination for Mr. Romanes, partly on account of its
intimate connection with the theory of evolution, and partly from
its bearing on those deeper philosophic problems which were never
long absent from his thoughts. His treatment of the phenomena of
instinct in 'Mental Evolution in Animals,' and elsewhere, was both
comprehensive and exact, and still forms, in the opinion of competent
authorities, the best general account of the subject that we have;
though, had he lived to review and consolidate his work, some changes
would probably have been introduced in view of later discussions on
the nature and method of hereditary transmission. His arguments in
'Mental Evolution in Man,' in support of the essential similarity of
the reasoning processes in the higher animals and in man, created a
stir, at the time of their publication, which was in itself evidence
that his critics felt that they had a writer and thinker that must
be seriously and sharply met. He hoped by this work to win over the
psychologists to the evolution camp; and he himself felt strongly
that in some cases, when he failed fully to convince them of the
adequacy of his method of treatment and of the arguments he adduced,
it was rather in matters of definition than in matters of fact that
the source of their differences lay. He was somewhat disappointed
that his terms 'recept' and 'receptual' for mental products
intermediate between the 'percept' and the 'concept' were not more
generally accepted by psychologists, since, in his matured opinion,
they and the conception they represent were eminently helpful in
bridging the debatable space between the intellectual powers of man
and the faculties of the lower animals.
It was Mr. Romanes' intention to continue the mental evolution
series and to deal, in further instalments of his work, with
the intellectual emotions, volition, morals, and religion. This
intention, however, he did not live to fulfil. His further
development of mental evolution in the light of his later conclusions
in the region of philosophical and religious thought would have
been profoundly interesting. But one's regret that this part of
his life work remained incomplete is tempered by the recollection
that what he did complete was so worthily done. For, in the words
of Mr. Lloyd Morgan, which were quoted with approval by Dr. Burdon
Sanderson in his Royal Society obituary notice: 'by his patient
collection of data; by his careful discussion of these data in
the light of principles clearly and definitely formulated; by his
wide and forcible advocacy of his views; and, above all, by his
own observations and experiments, Mr. Romanes left a mark in this
field of investigation and interpretation which is not likely to be
effaced.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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