Frank Angell

“ But it seems to us that in this respect the author has gone a trifle too far, — his pages bristle with 'coefficients' of all kinds — coefficients of reality, of belief, of right — coefficients ethical, æsthetical and logical.
It must not be forgotten too, that at this stage of Psychology, full, clear descriptions of the contents of consciousness are desirable, even at the risk of clumsiness of construction, and that time and space-saving terms are, even for practical psychologists, too apt to be thought-saving terms. ”

“ Münsterberg discusses the methods that he considers fruitful, and first of all self-observation. It will scarcely surprise those who have read the article on the "Time-sense" in the Beiträge to find that a very broad scope is given to the method of introspection. The rejection of self-observation as an independent method in Psychology is held to spring from the theory which regards consciousness as made up of contents, and activities related to these contents; as an activity cannot make itself the object of its own action, it can only be examined in the more or less deceptive memory image. ”

“ In the section on Ideal Feeling, interest, reality, and belief are discussed. In marking off 'reality feeling' from belief, the author introduces a new distinction into Psychology. "The phrase 'reality feeling' denotes the fundamental modification of consciousness which attaches to the presentative side of sensational states — the feeling which means, as the child afterwards learns, that an object is really there" (p. 149) . Belief is more representative, and "indicates the amount of assurance we have at the time that an object is there." ”

“ Consciousness is divided into passive, reactive, and voluntary, and it seems to us that the recognition given to 'passive consciousness,' i.e. the purely affective state of mind, must influence future theories of sense-attention. In combating Maudsley's theory of the organic unity of consciousness, the author has taken full space, and given an acute analysis that makes us regret the more the compression of other parts of his work. ”

“ In calling attention to 'suggestion' as a motor stimulus, a valuable contribution is made to Psychology, but in terming instinctive action 'reflex' the popular conception of the mechanical precision and invariability of instincts is made too prominent. In the fiat of voluntary action Professor Baldwin finds seven distinct elements, and in the 'neget' of negative volition the element of 'conflict' in addition. Volition in muscular action is marked off from the volition of attention and it is shown that the two forms may often be distinguished in consciousness. ”

“ We have not space to discuss this highly interesting subject in full, but we cannot agree with the author in identifying reality feeling with passive consciousness; to say that existence (at the dawn of consciousness) is simply presence, that presence is existence and that whatever is in consciousness is real (p. 150) , seems simply a matter, not of fact, but of dialectics. ”

“ Attention, discrimination, and comparison, and the other so-called activities of consciousness, are for the most part open to observation as being made up of changes in conscious states along with a certain integrating play of associative elements. ”

“ The time has come, or is fast coining, when a text-book of psychology will devote itself wholly to psychological problems, and will not be loaded down with elementary physics and nerve-physiology. But a glance at the table of contents of the book before us does not seem to indicate that it is for the sake of limiting himself to purely psychological questions that Professor Davis has so little to say about nerves, and ether-waves, and sound-waves. ”

“ Here it seems to us that the reality feeling was present, i.e. not in the passive consciousness, but in the reactive sense, consciousness containing as a germ the element of volition, which later on forms an essential part of belief. ”

“ As Mill says, "We must ever be living in habitual contemplation of the phenomena themselves, and not resting in our familiarity with the words which express them." Further condensation is effected by the frequent use of compact general statements without much illustration — a practice which we surmise will make the book fairly hard reading for those whose training has been limited to the usual collegiate term of Psychology. ”

“ Ten people, say, sit in a circle, and a stimulus is passed from one to another as soon as it is discriminated: the time is measured by the first reacter starting the chronoscope, when he stimulates the second, and stopping it as soon as the stimulus travels back to him. ”

“ The facts of psychology presented are the main ones — according to the "consensus of the latest and best authorities." Those latest and best authorities run from Reid and Stewart to McCosh via Hopkins, and the straight Scottish character of the route is unbroken by a reference to German psychology. As "the work is intended for a one-term study " only, its influence either for good or bad will be limited, except that it renders possible another of those superficial courses which are the bane of higher and lower education alike in America. ”

“ If it cannot be said that the work is as it would have been had no advance in psychological investigation been made during the last fifteen years, it must be said that neither by references to literature nor by summaries of results is there any indication of the existence of most of the later experimental researches. ”

“ Here the definitions of the older psychologists are supplemented by the addition of the development factor. "Pleasure is the conscious effect of that which makes for the continuance of the bodily life or its advancement" (p. 126) , 'life' being here equivalent to life-development as well as to simple life. ”