Elements of physiological psychology : a treatise on the activits and nature of the mind from the physical and experimental point of view / by George T. Ladd.

  • Ladd, George Trumbull, 1842-1921
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of physiological psychology : a treatise on the activits and nature of the mind from the physical and experimental point of view / by George T. Ladd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/718 (page 4)
    no more, we propose at first to include under the term “mind.” This term is preferred to the wTord “ soul,” in part out of concession to the prejudices to which allusion has already been made, and in part because it seems to admit of the handling which it is proposed to give to it subsequently, with more freedom from entangling alli¬ ances with ethical, social, and religious ideas. In other words, wre wish to begin and continue as far as possible upon purely scientific grounds. And when, subsequently, these grounds are in part aban¬ doned for certain fields of rational sj^eculation, we wish to have the connection between the two kept open and unimpeded. § 3. In accordance with what has already been said concerning the nature of psychology, we may define Physiological Psychology as the science which investigates the phenomena of human con¬ sciousness from the “ physiological ” point of view or method of approach. Remembering the cautions which have already been expressed, we may also say that it is the science of the human mind as investigated by means of its relations to the human physical or¬ ganism. A more accurate definition, however, requires that some¬ thing further should be said concerning the nature and method of that science which furnishes the adjective to our compound term. Human Physiology is the science of the functions (or modes of the behavior in its correlated action) of the human physical organism. As studied at present it implies an acquaintance with the fields of gross and special microscopic anatomy (histology), of embryology and the general doctrine of development, of biology,—including the allied phenomena of plant life,—of molecular physics and chemistry as related to the structure and action of the bodilv tissues, and of other forms of kindred knowledge. It is only a relatively small part of this vast domain, however, with which Physiological Psychology has directly to deal; for it is only a part of the human organism which has any direct relation to the phenomena of consciousness. As will appear subsequently, it is with the nervous system alone that our science has its chief immediate concern. Indeed it might be described—though in a still somewhat indefinite, but more full and complete, way—as the science which investigates the correla¬ tions that exist between the structure and functions of the human nervous mechanism and the phenomena of consciousness, and which derives therefrom conclusions as to the laws and nature of the mind. § 4. Physiology is compelled, from its very nature as a physical science, to regard the nervous system as a mechanism. Physiological Psychology, inasmuch as it relies so largely upon physiology for its data and method and points of view, is also required to consider