Excerpt from Natural Science, Vol. 15: A Monthly Review of Scientific ProgressIn the June number of Natural Science, we had occasion to remark that comparative psychology is the most anarchic department within the naturalist's province. This is due to several causes: in part to the fact that, as we said, this field is often a happy hunting-ground for the crank, in part to a lamentable want of agre...
Hardcover: 510 pages
Publisher: Forgotten Books (October 11, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0266156916
ISBN-13: 978-0266156918
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
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e use of psychological terms, and in part to the lack of any co-ordinated body of critical and adequately-trained opinion on the subject. The average press critique of a work on the instincts and intelligence of animals reveals the fact that there are comparatively few men to whom an editor can appeal with confidence that they have a sufficient background of knowledge to enable them to realise the true nature of the problems which are discussed. The more popular and superficial the interpretation in a work under review, and the more closely it accords with the current prejudices of those who, without special study, think they understand, not only mental products, but (a far more difficult matter) the subtle processes by which they are reached, the more likely is it to be hailed as the expression of the "plain common sense view of the question."Two articles are devoted to comparative psychology in the May number of the Psychological Review: one by Prof. Wesley Mills on "The Nature of Animal Intelligence, and the Methods of investigating it"; the other by Prof. E. Thorndike on "The Instinctive Reaction of Young Chicks." The main object of the former writer is to criticise some of the previous work of the latter. The monograph by Prof. Thorndike thus criticised was reviewed in these pages by Prof. Lloyd Morgan, who urged, inter alia, that the method adopted by its author, that of placing starving cats in cramped cages, was unsatisfactory. This, too, is the burden of much of Prof. Wesley Mills' criticism. And so far he is on safe ground - ground which, as an independent observer, he knows well. But when he deals with psychological criticism the plane of his analysis is so different from Prof. Thorndike's, that little of value comes out of his discussion.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
