| HÖFFDING'S OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY.[1] |
THE translation of Höffding's Psychology which is now offered to English readers is not from the original Danish, but from the German translation. Dr. Höffding has, however, taken a cordial interest in the preparation of the English edition, and accepts it as adequately representing the original. The work contains seven chapters, of which the first four are general and introductory. Chapter I, on the Subject and Method of Psychology, shows that the author is in close sympathy with the English school in making analysis precede synthetic speculation. And in this connection we noted with interest a marginal reference to another work of Prof. Höffding, that on The English Philosophy of our Times (Copenhagen, 1874; German translation, 1889). We have consequently given much heed to his occasional remarks upon the contrast between the German and English schools, of which we give the following as examples:
The English school devotes attention rather to the elementary real side of conscious life, to the manner in which the mental structure is raised by the combination of fundamental elements; the German school, on the contrary, attends more to the connection and unity which from beginning to end are the marks of consciousness. . . . German psychology has often exhibited a tendency to approach metaphysics; English psychology, on the other hand, has approached the mechanical sciences, and has transferred analogies from them to the conception of mental phenomena.
Chapter II treats of Mind and Body; Chapter III, of the Conscious and Unconscious; Chapter IV is a short one on the Classification of the Psychological Elements; and the remainder of the volume contains three long chapters on the Psychology of Cognition, the Psychology of Feeling, and the Psychology of the Will. His evident familiarity with all the schools of philosophy and with the evolution of mental science in all times and countries gives a characteristic breadth and adequacy to his views upon disputed questions.
In his chapter upon Mind and Body Prof. Höffding discusses the relation between these two different provinces of experience. Using the word mind in the sense of consciousness—as a collective term for sensations, thoughts, feelings, and resolutions—he asks what experience teaches as to the connection of consciousness with that other province of experience whose content is what moves in space. His standpoint is purely empirical or phenomenal. He
- ↑ Outlines of Psychology. By Harold Höffding, Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Translated by Mary E. Lowndes. London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 375 pages, small octavo. Price, $1.50.
