SECTION B EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 



(Hall 2, September 23, 10 a. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR EDWARD A. PACE, Catholic University of America. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR ROBERT MACDOUGALL, New York University. 



PROFESSOR EDWARD B. TITCHENER, Cornell University. 

 SECRETARY: DR. R. S. WOODWORTH, Columbia University. 



THE RELATIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY TO 

 OTHER BRANCHES OF SCIENCE 



BY ROBERT MACDOUGALL 



[Robert MacDougall, Professor of Descriptive Psychology, New York University. 

 b. June 12, 1866, Dewitville, Quebec, Canada. A.B. McGill University, 1890; 

 A.M. Harvard, 1893; Ph.D. ibid. 1895; Morgan Fellow (Harvard), 1894-95; 

 at University of Berlin, and The Sorbonne, Paris, 1895-96; Walker Fellow, 

 ibid. 1895-96. Member of Field Staff of Canadian Geological Survey, 1891-92; 

 Instructor in Philosophy, Western Reserve University, 1896-97; Associate 

 Professor of Pedagogy, ibid. 1897-98; Instructor in Philosophy and Assist- 

 ant Director of Psychological Laboratory, Harvard University, 1898-1901; 

 Professor of Descriptive Psychology, New York University since 1901. Mem- 

 ber of American Philosophical Association; American Psychological Associa- 

 tion; American Natural History Society; Fellow of American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, and Vice-president, of New York 

 Academy of Science. Author of numerous articles in scientific journals.] 



IN this paper it is my privilege to present briefly those aspects 

 of the science which it seems important to keep in mind in char- 

 acterizing the place and function of experimental psychology. I 

 shall first point out the considerations which influenced me in the 

 choice of that particular class of relations which has been selected 

 for comment. A series of distinctions will next be made, defining 

 the relation of psychology to philosophy, of experimental to the- 

 oretical psychology, and of physiological psychology to physio- 

 logy. Thereafter will be taken up in succession the bearing of ex- 

 perimental psychology upon the normative and historical sciences; 

 and the paper will close with a short consideration of its contribu- 

 tion to utilitarian science and the arts of practical life. 



Classification of the sciences proceeds by a logical analysis of 

 their functions in relation to certain general concepts. The form 

 of the resulting arrangement depends upon the nature of the funda- 

 mental principle assumed; and as this determining point of view is 

 a reflection of the thinker's purpose, which is not necessarily fixed 

 by any set of objective conditions, the scheme which results must 

 be called subjective. All classification, however, is in this sense 

 subjective. Some regulative principle must be assumed, and the 



