DEPARTMENT XV PSYCHOLOGY 



(Hall 7, September 20, 2 p. m.) 



SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR J. McK. CATTELL, Columbia University. 



PROFESSOR J. MARK BALDWIN, Johns Hopkins University. 



THE CONCEPTIONS AND METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY 



BY JAMES MCKEEN CATTELL 



[James McKeen Cattell, Professor of Psychology, Columbia University, since 

 1891; and editor of Science; The Popular Science Monthly; The Library, 

 and Archives of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods ; formerly editor 

 of The Psychological Review, b. Easton, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1860. Grad- 

 uate, Lafayette, 1880; A.M. 1883; Ph.D. Leipzig, 1886; Student, Gottingen, 

 Leipzig, Geneva, Paris, 1880-82; Fellow, Johns Hopkins, 1882-83; Student 

 and Assistant, Leipzig, 1883-86; Student and Lecturer, Cambridge, 1886-88. 

 Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1888-91. Member of the 

 National Academy of Sciences; the American Society of Naturalists (President, 

 1902); Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences (President, 1902-03); 

 Member of the American Psychological Association (President, 1895); Fellow 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Vice-President, 

 1898); and member of various other scientific and learned societies.] 



ONE of the verses in the treasure-house of Greek letters warns 

 us against calling any man happy before he is dead. The greatest 

 living English author lets one of his favorite characters say: "But 

 does incessant battling keep the intellect clear? " Such reflections 

 may well lead us to distrust any attempt by one in the ranks to 

 sum up the fundamental conceptions and methods of a science, 

 especially of a young and growing science. It may be the preroga- 

 tive of the student of psychology to write the biography of an 

 infant, but he has not hitherto penetrated very far into its real 

 life. I disagree completely with the eminent psychologist to whom 

 the plan of this great Congress is chiefly due when he claims that 

 "the presuppositions with which a science starts decide for all 

 time the possibilities of its outer extension." Sciences are not im- 

 mutable species, but developing organisms. Their fundamental 

 conceptions and methods at any period can only be approached 

 by a research into work actually accomplished. Had time and 

 circumstance permitted, I should have attempted to make an 

 inductive study of the contents and methods of psychology rather 

 than to prepare three quarters of an hour of generalities and plati- 

 tudes. But, as even the pedant knows, "Die Kunst ist lang, und 

 kurz ist unser Leben." The court poet must console himself for 



