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

  • Ladd, George Trumbull, 1842-1921.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    every stej) with such degree of assurance as belongs to the evidence hitherto attainable upon the particular subject discussed. With declamation, either in attack or defence of the old psychology, of the introspective method, etc., one may dispense without seri- ous loss. The study of the phenomena of consciousness by the method here proposed necessarily' requires some acquaintance with a consider- able circuit of sciences which are not usually all alike closely allied. The number of scholars who can form opinions with equal freedom and confidence in all of these sciences is very small. Moreover, since all psycho-physical laws are supposed—as the very term indi- cates—to govern the correlations of phenomena of consciousness with phenomena of the nervous system, a peculiar mystery belongs to much of the domain within which psycho-jDhysical science is com- pelled to move. These facts may fitly, on the one hand, excite caution in the writer; and, on the other hand, excuse him for many inevitable failures to set forth with perfect definiteness and confi- dence the conclusions he has to propose. Much will be said that must be accepted as provisional, as only probably true. Much room must also be made for conjecture and speculation. What is most important, however, is that conjecture should not be put forth as ascertained fact, or speculation as unquestioned law. It would have been a great assistance to me if I had had more predecessors in the path which I am to take. But with the ex- ception of Wundt's masterly work [Grundziige der physiologischen Psychologie, second edition in 1880), no one book has attempted to cover, even in a summary way, the entire ground. The number of monographs, however, which have dealt with individual questions subordinate to, or part of, the main inquii'y is very great. These two facts also render the attempt at a general survey of Physiolog- ical Psychology for readers of English both peculiarly attractive and peculiarly difi&cult. I can only indulge the hope that I have done something toward breaking this path and rendering it easier and more secure, both for mj'self and for others, in the future. The investigators and authors to whom I am under obligations for material upon the various questions discussed, or statements made, in this book are by no means all mentioned by name. Of course, much of what is said on the structure of the nervous system, and on the phenomena of sensation and perception, has already become part of that general fund of facts and laws which belongs alike to all students of the subject. But by quoting certain author-