Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-24
THE HERBART CLUB
Discusses "Some Fruitful Lines of lnyestga- ton in Psychology and the Diff
 ferent Systems.


 The Herbart club met in the library rooms at the high school building last Tuesday night The basis of the work of the club for the evening consisted Of a paper in the Educational Review by Dr. w. T. Harris, entitled, Some Fruitful Lines of Investigation in Psychology"
 After the reading of the paper Princi- pal A. c. Moore, president of the club, in a concise and analytical manner review ed the lines of thought presented by the author, and summarized the subdivis- ions given of the various treatises that have been published on the subject Of psychology. The first division given by the author is what is familiarly known as the common sense system or psycnolo- gy or the Scottish school, whose pest representative in the opinion of the au- thor Is Cousin, although there are many treaties based upon this system to be found in this country and in England and France.
 The second division is materialistic; subdiYided into two classes, known as the sensational and the physiological. The first of these is represented by Locke and his followers, Hamilton, Mansel and Spencer while the second is set forth by various philosophers, ranging from the moderate presentation of Wundt to the extreme responsiveness of that Of Caba- his and Vogt. The third division, or the rational is represented by the philosophy of Aristotle and the transcendentalism Of Kaut The article recommended the study of the common sense system as presented by Compayre and Cousin in the light of treaties that deal with the subject from the rational standpoint.
 President Moore then called on Dr. Phillips to explain the philosophy of Cousin as the representative of the com mon sense system and the place of that system in the history of philosophy. pr Phillips said that there was danger In reading the article of supposing that Cousin was the originator of the com mon sense system. He is simply one of its chief advocates. In order to under stand the position occupied by this sys- tem in history Dr. Phillips said that we must go back to Locke. He then briefly summarized the philosophy of Locke as presented in the Essay on the Human Understanding" He then explained how Locke's theory of representative percep- tion and his denial of innate faculties led hiS followers into extreme materiallstlc tendencies. Bishop Berkeley, to counter act this negative tendency, presented his ddealistic theory and denied the existence of matter and the external world, claim ung that ideas only have real existence. Hume admitted the ideal theory of Berkeley, but pushed that system to the extreme of skepticism by the denial of mind as well as matter. This was the logical outcome of the philosophy of Locke In France we find the same re- suit. Locke's ideas, expanded by Condil- lac and Condorcet, culminate in the re- pulsive skepticism of Voltaire. The com mon sense of many philosophers revolted lat the outcome of logical system which they could not controvert and many set to work to examine the premises consti- tutng its basis. Simultaneous move ments in another direction started both dn Scotland and in Germany. Dr. Reid of the University of Glasgow outlined the common sense system of philosophy. which was further elaborated by Dugald Stewart, Sir William Hamilton and Vic tor Cousin. The movement in Germany was the development of the critical phil hosophy of Immanuel Kant as presented bn his 'Critique of Pure Reason" h Professor Cunningham maintained lthat the study of physiological psychol- Dgy had already proved of immense value to the study of philosophy in general. hnd Is destined to strengthen true science rather than to lead to materialistic ten- dencies. The intimate relations between the physical and the psychical necessi- tate the study of mind as manifested through the medium of the body. To the finite mind thought and psychical energy must be studied as related to and ex- pressed by our sense organs. Observa- tion and experiment must thus come to the aid of consciousness in any ideal sys- tenn of psychology.
 An informal discussion was then had with regard to some special lines pre- scented by the paper. The relative amount of synthesis required in forming the idea of thing as compared with that of force; of force as compared with cause: of cause with sensation of sen- sation with life. presented topic of lively discussion participated In by Pro- fessors DuBose, Brown, Allgood and Cunningham.
 The paper was criticized by Dr. Phil lips ard Professor DuBose on account of the classification of Sir William Hamil- ton in the ranks Of materialistlc philos- . ophers. It was maintained that al- though his love of the nditioned" and hs denial of the capacity of the human mind to know or conceive of the cate .gories of space and time, the absolute land the Infinite. which is the basis of Speneer's doctrine of the "unknowa- ble," he was. in fact, natural realist on the theory of perception and one of the staunchest defenders of the doctrines of the Scottish school.
 The discussions of various members of the club with regard to the position of pr. Harris on important topics present ed in the paper were exceedingly inter esting and evinced an enthusiastic study of psychology on the part of those present M !,
 The next meeting of the club will be held on Tuesday night, December 3. when Prof. J. c. DuBose will present resumd of the philosophy of Aristotle, and Prof. IA. c. Moore will present the doctrines of Plato. The presentations of the doctrines of these two great founders of philoso- phy will prove of great interest to the club, and will constitute the basis of future study in the subject matter and h'-tc--- ce ~hiIosophy.