Thought-Culture; Or, Practical Mental TrainingAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Thought-Culture; Or, Practical Mental Training
Atkinson, William Walker
Thought and thinking
Many psychologists classify the activities of the mind into three
general divisions; _viz._, (1) Thinking; (2) Willing; (3) Feeling. These
divisions, which result from what is known as "the tri-logical
classification," were first distinctly enunciated by Upham although Kant
had intimated it very plainly. For many years before the favored
division was but two-fold the line of division being between the
_cognitive_, or knowing, activities, and the _conative_, or acting,
activities, generally known as the Understanding and the Will,
respectively. It took a long time before the authorities would formally
recognize the great field of the Feelings as forming a class by
themselves and ranking with the Understanding and the Will. There are
certain sub-divisions and shadings, which we shall notice as we proceed,
some of which are more or less complex, and which seem to shade into
others. The student is cautioned against conceiving of the mind as a
thing having several compartments or distinct divisions. The
classification does not indicate this and is only intended as a
convenience in analyzing and studying the mental activities and
operations. The "I" which feels, thinks and acts is the same--one
entity.
As Brooks well says: "The mind is a self-conscious activity and not a
mere passivity; it is a centre of spiritual forces, all resting in the
background of the ego. As a centre of forces, it stands related to the
forces of the material and spiritual universe and is acted upon through
its susceptibilities by those forces. As a spiritual activity, it takes
the impressions derived from those forces, works them up into the
organic growth of itself, converts them into conscious knowledge and
uses these products as means to set other forces into activity and
produce new results. Standing above nature and superior to its
surroundings, it nevertheless feeds upon nature, as we may say, and
transforms material influences into spiritual facts akin to its own
nature. Related to the natural world and apparently originating from it,
it yet rises above this natural world and, with the crown of freedom
upon its brow, rules the natural obedient to its will."
In this book, while we shall fully and unquestionably recognize the
"tri-logical classification" of the activities of the Mind into the
divisions of Thinking, Willing and Feeling, respectively, nevertheless,
we shall, for convenience, use the term "Thought" in its broadest,
widest and most general sense, as: "The power or faculty of thinking;
the mental faculty; the mind," rather than in its narrower and
particular sense of: "the understanding or cognitive faculty of the
mind." Accordingly, we shall include the cultivation of the mental
activities known as Attention, Perception, Imagination, etc., together
with the strictly cognitive faculties, under the general term of
Thought-Culture.
CHAPTER III.
PHASES OF THOUGHT
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