The psychological approach to reality / by Francis Aveling.

  • Aveling, Francis, 1875-1941.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychological approach to reality / by Francis Aveling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    may sometimes give rise to concepts which could have been reached by recombination of abstracts educed from experience, may also take us beyond the range of empirical reality whether actual or possible; and, besides providing us with concrete objects of thought, may also yield abstract notions or concepts which properly cannot be said to be educed, but rather induced or produced from it. The distinction is so important that the utmost clearness is desirable in its regard; and since clear definition of terms seems to be the only way of reaching clear understanding of the dis¬ tinction itself and of its implications, the reader will indulgently permit me to define as exactly as possible what I mean by the terms I propose to use. Psychological terms are especially apt to be ambiguous and misleading, since in their long history they have collected around themselves so many shades of connotation from philo¬ sophical and scientific as well as from popular usage. Accordingly, since this essay is an attempt to reach reality from the initial standpoint of psychology, we must at least know what we mean by the terms to be employed. In this connection, the most important terms