Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals

by William James

TALKS TO TEACHERS

ON PSYCHOLOGY:

AND TO STUDENTS ON SOME OF LIFE'S IDEALS,

By WILLIAM JAMES

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1925

COPYRIGHT, 1899, 1900

BY WILLIAM JAMES

PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. (INC.) BOSTON

PREFACE.

In 1892 I was asked by the Harvard Corporation to give a few public lectures on psychology to the Cambridge teachers. The talks now printed form the substance of that course, which has since then been delivered at various places to various teacher-audiences. I have found by experience that what my hearers seem least to relish is analytical technicality, and what they most care for is concrete practical application. So I have gradually weeded out the former, and left the latter unreduced; and now, that I have at last written out the lectures, they contain a minimum of what is deemed 'scientific' in psychology, and are practical and popular in the extreme.