Format:
Online-Ressource (xv, 256 p.)
,
23 cm
ISBN:
9781136323973
,
9781136324048
,
9781315009902
Series Statement:
International library of psychology, philosophy and scientific method
Content:
"Psychology is a science and its subject-matter concerns man. With the materials of which men's bodies are built, with the genetic relation of these bodies to others in the organic kingdom, with the delineations of the courses of nerve and other currents and with the various physical events occurring in them, other sciences are concerned. In spite of much resolute treading upon the toes of these fellow-workers by many modern psychologists we must maintain that psychology's proper business is the investigation of those processes in man which we are accustomed to call conscious and of those, if any, which resemble conscious processes. In the most general terms possible, the subject-matter of psychology is that which is implied in the question: what are we? or perhaps better, what is a man? As C. K, Ogden puts it, "Conchology cannot (answer), nor yet Ontology; nor can Physics. Physiology can help us only in part. Psychology is the only means by which this momentous question can ever be fully answered." And the significance of "this momentous question" is only intensified when it is put in the concrete form in which it applies to each of us as individuals--"Who am 'I'?--Foreword." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
Content:
"The Psychology of Consciousness points up as well as down, forward as well as backward. It calls to the attention of thinking readers a little-recognized fact: namely, the fact that consciousness is not merely an accidental by-product of human life but rather constitutes the chief goal of living. Psychoanalysts talk freely about several divisions of consciousness, such as the sub-conscious, the foreconscious, and the unconscious; but they persistently evade direct inquiry into the nature of the phenomenon itself, just as they evade the scientific approach to other psychological problems. To assume that the nature of consciousness is self-evident is precisely as unproductive as to argue that the non-existence of consciousness is demonstrated by the behaviorist's inability to kick it. This book expounds and ably criticizes these and many other views of consciousness. In workmanlike manner the author examines both the premises and conclusions of practically all existing theories, selecting and rejecting in accordance with his own criteria
Note:
Electronic reproduction; Washington, D.C; American Psychological Association; 2005; Available via the World Wide Web; Access limited by licensing agreement; s2005 dcunns
Language:
English
