The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
In discussing the methods of psychology Professor Münsterberg rejects the
speculative and the mathematical methods; he claims a great importance
(and we agree with him) for self-observation. But self-observation is
no easy task; it requires a high degree of training. “He who does not
understand botany cannot make observations of plant-life. The same things
which call into play certain associations in the botanist are also seen
by the layman, but they remain unobserved. Self-observation is in a
similar way ... not without its presuppositions; it is dependent upon a
rich store of ready associations” (p. 164).
Psychological investigations under natural conditions are classified
by Münsterberg according to their objects, as those of the normal man,
the child, the savage, the insane, the animal, etc. In experimental
psychology, psychopetal, psychofugal, and psychocentral processes are
distinguished. For psycho-physiological investigations we have besides,
(1) the immediate experiment in the laboratory, (2) the method of
anatomy, (3) of comparative anatomy, (4) and of physiology. Professor
Münsterberg concludes with an appeal to institute special professorships
of psychology, which is at present a mere branch of philosophy. It
takes all the energy of one man to keep abreast with the progress of
psychological investigation. “No medical man, no lawyer, no theologian,
or educator should enter into practical life without having passed an
examination in psychology ... the growing generation of children, the
sick, the criminal, and the comfort-seeking souls of mankind have to
suffer if teachers, physicians, judges, and preachers are ignoramuses
in the matter of human soul-life.... But here also the gods have placed
sweat before virtue.”
κρς.
LA PHILOSOPHIE DU SIÈCLE. By _E. de Roberty_. Paris: Félix Alcan.
The author of the present work, which forms a volume of the Library of
Contemporary Philosophy, is one of those disciples of the founder of
French positivism who, while following in his footsteps to a certain
point, do not hesitate to diverge from the beaten track when they think
their leader has gone astray in his philosophic quest. M. de Roberty
speaks of Comte with reverence as his first guide and his best master,
and he finds in the very contradictions of the Master the germ of his own
conception of the general trend of philosophic development.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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