The Herbartian psychology applied to education : being a series of essays applying the psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart / by John Adams.

  • Adams, John, 1857-1934.
Date:
[1900?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Herbartian psychology applied to education : being a series of essays applying the psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart / by John Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    school, we find the following description by Maudsley of what happens when we voluntarily direct our atten- tion towards a given object. What is accomplished in such cases is the excitation of certain nervous cur- rents of ideas, and their maintenance in action until they have called into consciousness, by radiation of energy, all their related ideas, or as many of them as it may be possible, in the then condition of the brain, to stimulate into action. It would appear, then, that the force that we mean by attention is rather a vis a fronts attracting consciousness, than a vis a tergo driv- ing it. Consciousness is the result, not the cause of the excitation. The psychological mode of expression puts the cart before the horse ; the problem in reflec- tion is not, as it is said, to direct consciousness or to direct the attention to an idea, but to arouse con- sciousness of it by stirring it up to a certain pitch of activity. ^ Without at all committing ourselves to the material- istic basis of this argument, we may fairly claim that Maudsley's conclusions are in full harmony with the Herbartian theory. Attention consists in giving ideas a chance to rise above the threshold. This chance is given them by keeping back or inhibiting all other ideas, and particu- larly those which are hostile to the ideas we wish to bring into prominence. It is this work of inhibition that causes the peculiar feeling of effort that marks all voluntary attention as opposed to involuntary. Either we must abandon all explanation, or admit an action 1 Physiology of Mind, pp. 317 ff. Quoted by Ribot. s