Psychology
The very important article on Psychology (Vol. 22, p. 54), equal to nearly 200 pages of this Guide was contributed by James Ward, professor of mental philosophy, Cambridge, who has devoted his whole life to psychological research. In addition to Psychology he also contributed the articles Herbart (Vol. 13, p. 335), and Naturalism (Vol. 19, p. 274). James Sully, the well-known psychologist, former professor of the philosophy of the mind and logic, at University College, London, contributes the article Aesthetics (Vol. 1, p. 277). The article Ethics (Vol. 8, p. 808), equivalent to about 100 pages of this Guide, and Will (Vol. 28, p. 648), both of primary importance, were the work of the Rev. H. H. Williams, lecturer in philosophy, Hertford College, Oxford.
Very interesting articles are Association of Ideas (Vol. 2, p. 784), Dream (Vol. 8, p. 588), Instinct (Vol. 14, p. 648) and, very important, Weber’s Law (Vol. 28, p. 458), which expresses the relation between sensation and the stimulus which induces it.
Of recent years the psychology of crowds has received a good deal of attention; in fact, the need of an understanding of the phenomena attending it is of increasing importance in this age of universal suffrage. Interesting light is thrown upon the subject in the articles Suggestion (Vol. 26, p. 48), by W. M. McDougall, Wilde reader in mental philosophy at Oxford; Imitation (Vol. 14, p. 332); and Religion (Vol. 23, p. 66). A line of inquiry of vital importance to the social body is examined in the articles Criminology (Vol. 7, p. 464), by Major Griffith, for many years H. M. Inspector of Prisons, in which Lombroso’s theory of the possession by criminals of special anatomical and physiological characteristics is criticized, and the problem is shown to be one of abnormal psychology; see also Cesare Lombroso (Vol. 16, p. 936). For discussions of other forms of abnormal psychology, see the chapter For Physicians and Surgeons in this Guide, and in particular the article Insanity (Vol. 14, p. 597).
Psychical Research
Perhaps more popular, certainly more sensational, than the more legitimate branches of psychology, is that classed under Psychical Research (Vol. 22, p. 544). The title article was written by Andrew Lang, who wrote Poltergeist (Vol. 22, p. 14), as well as articles on Second Sight (Vol. 24, p. 570), Apparitions (Vol. 2, p. 209), etc. The article Divination (Vol. 8, p. 332) was written by Northcote Thomas, government anthropologist to Southern Nigeria, and author of Thought Transference and other books; and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, formerly principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and secretary to the Society for Psychical Research, was responsible for the article Spiritualism (Vol. 25, p. 705). Among the biographical articles in this section, interest will be felt in the biography of Daniel Dunglas Home, the original of Robert Browning’s poem, “Sludge the Medium.”
Classification
We now may classify the principal subjects belonging to the main divisions of philosophy, the sciences of epistemology, metaphysics, and psychology. The wider phases of thought roughly belonging to the division of metaphysics are, in their historical order: Platonism (see Plato, Vol. 21, p. 808), and Aristotelianism (see Aristotle, Vol. 2, p. 501), the two great Greek systems of the classical period; Neoplatonism (Vol. 19, p. 372), the last school of pagan philosophy, which grew up mainly among the Greeks of Alexandria from the 3rd century A.D. onwards; Scholasticism (Vol. 24, p. 346), which gave expression to the most typical products of medieval thought; Idealism (Vol. 14, p. 281), the philosophy of the “absolute,” which, though it has given a tinge to philosophic thought from the days of Socrates to the present time, is in its self-conscious form a modern doctrine; Materialism (Vol. 17, p. 878), which regards all the facts of the universe as explainable in terms of matter and motion; Realism (Vol. 22, p. 941), which is a sort of half-way house between Idealism and Materialism; Pragmatism (Vol. 22, p. 246), the philosophy of the “real,” which expresses the reaction against the intellectualistic speculation that has characterized most of modern metaphysics. Logic (Vol. 16, p. 879), the art of reasoning, or, as Ueberweg expresses it, “the science of the regulative laws of thought,” clearly belongs to the division of epistemology. Aspects of psychology, since they depend essentially upon perceptions of the human mind in relation to itself or its environment, are Ethics (Vol. 9, p. 808), or moral philosophy, the investigation of theories of good and evil; and Aesthetics (Vol. 1, p. 277), the philosophy or science of the beautiful, of taste, or of the fine arts.
History of Thought Personal
The articles enumerated will give the reader a clear idea of the drift of thought currents throughout the course of history, and they will introduce him to the detailed discussions of the various systems which have been propounded by the little band of men who have contributed something vital to the treasury of thought. Each has been in and out of fashion at different times. In the Britannica the contributions to philosophic thought by the great philosophers are discussed in biographical articles, to which we now turn.