Format:
Online-Ressource (214 p.)
,
20 cm
Content:
""We should be surprised, and probably reject with contempt, the labours of an astronomer who should place full reliance on his observation of the stars, without having first verified the accuracy of his instruments." When, some seventeen years ago, I read this remark of a very profound English writer, I was composing the present volume, and I thought an analogy existed between the supposed astronomer and men generally who rely on the senses without any previous verification of their reliability. Without, however, regarding this analogy, I had long previously assumed, that to understand definitely, our sensible powers would improve our knowledge of the external universe, it being derived wholly from our senses. To obtain the desired understanding, I commenced with the simplest truisms I could conceive, as, for instance, that hearing informs me of sounds, seeing informs me of sights, etc.; and as a sight, sound, taste, etc., are as discriminable from each other as a triangle and a circle, I sought to ascertain how many different theorems the truisms would constitute by a method which I invented after the manner of geometrical demonstration. The theorems in the two sections of the book manifest the knowledge I can derive from reading, seeing of pictures, etc.: the degree in which any given sensible knowledge is common to different men; our progress in the acquisition of sensible information; rules for the facilitation thereof; the limits and latitude of sensible knowledge; its discrimination from intellectual inferences and the demarcation of both intellectual and sensible knowledge from our emotional manifestations. Indeed, the topics of the book can hardly be condensed into a less compass than the book itself, for as I despaired of making it pleasant reading, I made it as brief as possible; except that, aware of the incapacity of language to communicate abstractly, I have attempted to communicate by only familiar examples, which are necessarily more diffuse than abstract propositions"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Note:
Electronic reproduction; Washington, D.C; American Psychological Association; 2010; Available via World Wide Web; Access limited by licensing agreement; s2010 dcunns
Language:
English
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