276 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



two monumental works dealt with psychological pheno- 

 mena in a purely descriptive and analytical fashion, 

 working much with the principle of Association. General 

 questions as to the Soul, its nature and destiny, are 

 not discussed, being considered as metaphysical. But 

 about the same time the necessity was felt of dealing 

 with the general and fundamental problems of knowing 

 and being in an independent way. In the same degree 

 as psychology has been made a special science, general 

 philosophy and epistemology have received due attention 

 from a different point of view and not infrequently by 

 the same thinkers. 



The History of Philosophical Thought takes interest 

 in Psychology from two distinct points of view, which 

 are the same as it occupies with regard to all natural 

 science. This twofold aspect has become more clearly 

 defined, in the same degree as psychology has become a 

 distinct science. So far as the researches of this special 

 science are concerned, these lie outside and are inde- 

 pendent of philosophical reasoning, and will, like the 

 researches in other natural sciences, change with the 

 progress of empirical knowledge and the facts disclosed 

 by observation, experiment, and analysis. But, like all 

 other sciences, psychology must start with certain funda- 

 mental conceptions, in the light of which the growing 

 mass of detail accumulated by external and internal 

 observation, or by historical records, is arranged, classified, 

 and made accessible for the purpose of deductive reason- 

 ing. Philosophy interests itself, firstly, in clearly setting 

 out those fundamental notions, criticising them, and 

 defining their scope and value, just in the same way as 



