New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-02-09
LADD'S PSYCHOLOGY.
AN ELABORATE CONTRIBUTION TO A
GROWING SCIENCE.

yelopment Of Human Life. BY George lI IN
University PIP. xiii. &C. Charles ScrohrrS
sons
Tho ,,yo most obvious special features or ITO
fessor lndd's massive work are the insis'e"0e
on the paramount Importance OF testimony ~
consciousness IN its own case ana Inv ""'''"e
inside Of the old-fashoned doctrine OF iacui'ieS'
The latter popularity OF his method IS 'he nav
ural result OF the former. But II ally one "'ii"'
tia: II Is as easy 10 persist in me Fea'i'e" "
.n,sc,ous,ess "a a unity as It IS to assert this
unity at the outset the notion can DE olspe"eo
bv tho str,ple inspection Of some Proiooho
,yor,s Ike Su,lv's Human Mind wherc me
,..,,,. 80 ,,,rosnection Is as empnatcaly AS
e.r,a, ~ Professor Ladd himself could w.ah'
,,, ,,,ere the different aspects CT mental He
.aLo on {, sni;o Of the author the appearance
=, s.,or.,ac ontities The divisions in a 'hins
.r,,,,, ,ndvsihje are made all the more SitirlHe
~, .bos. 70 whom, consciousness Is merely
succession Of physiological effects Yer IL Is
true enough, as Professor Ladd says "at 10
nSvchologis.. whatever theory h" 'nay Aoid Oh
the origin and development OF mnc' 'h'''NS Vi
maintaining the separate reality OF the factors
q, mental life" No one does MAINTAIN H. pu'
r.v.-theless much Is written just as II tne
factors OF mental life were really separate II
4. o,,lv in number that Professor Ladd cohceoeS
, truth In the old theory. In place Oh '"e
,hree faculties. knowledge, feeling and WILL ne
will have consciousness view itseH III 'ipo
ASPECT Every psychic fact is complex win
n threefod complexity: 1t is fact OF inteliecuo''
foo, of feeling. fact Of conation." We cannot
feel without knowing II, we cannot exert 'he
will without both knowing and feeling When-
$780,. nm. 60 conscious of himself it is perceiv-
ing or thinking something feeling somehow ana
these
can he expressed In terms suitable to either or
tho others To imagine a being or pure
Lronledpe a mere intellectual machine. Is to
,maeine creature incapable Of feeling For
In know what feeling is 1t must be feit. YET
these three phases OF mental activity, always
present together. fade into each other. so tha'
when the author comes to speak OF attention.
this seems TO be all three at once. For the
higher exercise Of the intellectual powers Is VOL
untary. not involuntary. We perceive, rernem-
her or think Of what we choose. within limits
and the effect Of voluntary attention is so I'M
nortar+ that az Professor Ladd acknowledges.
some PSYCHOLOGISTS stand ready to write volition
and attention as exactly equal to each other
an the most fundamental and comprehensive
meaning Of both words" But attention is not
an attribute of consciousness. 1t IS conscious
ness itself on the alert. The effort to define 1t
az q function has led Professor Ladd to per-
sonfy consciousness In measure, as the being
70 which attention belongs. But do variation
and distribution Of attention mean anything
more than that given human being Is more
conscious Of things or conscious OF more Things
at one time than at another? IT is diihcuit TO
describe mental facts or phenomena save by
figures Of speech. Professor Ladd depicts
consciousness more than once as flowing
stream But when the effort Is TO ascertain
the relation Of knowing. wishing and willing
to each other. would like to think OF con-
seriousness as some beautiful living vessel like
those which Hephaistos made to attend at the
feasts Of the Oympians. The outer side of
this living vessel should be will. the inside
knowledge and feeling. For the outer aspect
of human nature is not knowledge and sensi-
bility, but activity.
Professor Ladds definition Of psychology shows
at once the value which ne places upon intro
specton as a means OF investigating alleged
facts in mental science. He describes psychology
as 1.-The science which describes and explains the
phenomena of consciousness as such" Appar-
entity this phraseology excludes the phenomena
of sub-conscousness or Of unconsciousness- But
It will be found that in practice 1t excludes
nothing. 1t comedies even to the amoeba some
thing like will OF Its own It accepts the evil
dence Of experiment with infantile life with
abnormal COnOluOnS ike tnOSe OF tne lulOt OF tne
madman. But 1t maintains that all the data
obtained by experiment must be in the nature of
things subject to revision and Interpretation by
, the individual consciousness. Professor Ladd
represents the votaries OF an exclusively ex-
perimental method as summoning Aristotle 10
testify that there can be science Of the indi-
vidua and as declaring that acknowledge can
never be anything else than an individual affair.
AS the evidence Of introspection cannot be sub
United to the test OF comparison under the con-
ditions in which 1t was obtained. they would deny
It the name OF knowledge altogether. And So "
adds Professor Ladd, 1--WE are brought to the
papably absurd proposal that We should aban-
don all effort to certify the facts of conscious
ness as facts. by the method Of considering what
they Immediately In mental life -
He ridcules those who would say to the ordinary
man. you cannot discern in detail before the
minds eye your mental conditions" IN
the interest Of mere theory they contradict the
actual experience Of life, just those do who
deny the continuity OF consciousness in the name
Of a physiological hypothesis. The very diff
culties Of sef-inspecion enhance the value Of the
correct results due to long effort, since self
knowledge reacts upon the indirect observation
OF others. ut Is not arrogant to claim" says
Professor Ladd. that the trained psychologist
understands not only the child the idiot. the
mailman. and the hypnotic subject, but also the
artist. the scientist the statesman and the
thinker. as psychical beings, far better than any
of these classes Of persons understand each other
or even themselves" On the other hand he
weakens his somewhat by condemning APP
peals to the adult consciousness alone. even
though these appeals were the crude efforts OF
a philosophy 20 which experimental psychology
was unknown. For the normal adult conscious
ness is the standard by which everything mus,
be tested.
The only aspect Of his treatment Of the theme
III which Professor Ladd seems to bark back 10
the "old ard vicious theory OF faculties Is in
his method OF exemplifying the evolution OF
knowing. feeling and will. He takes the three
up separately, whereas there could have been