278 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



modern psychological work. In the carrying out of 

 some parts of this programme no one has been more 

 successful than Prof. Stout. 1 The new programme breaks 

 with all the older psychologies, which it nevertheless 

 estimates at their full value as preparatory phases in 

 the development of the independent science of psychology. 

 It will be useful to state shortly the main characteristics 

 as they have been most clearly explained by Prof. Ward 

 on repeated occasions. To begin with, the new psychology 

 should discard all metaphysical questions as to the soul, 

 its substance, essence, or destiny. At the same time it 

 has regard to, and implies, a subjective reference. 2 It 



1 Notably in his 'Analytic Psy- 

 chology ' (2 vols., 1896). It is sur- 

 prising to see how little the original 

 contributions of Prof. Ward, in lay- 

 ing new foundations for psycho- 

 logical research, have so far been 

 noticed in German and French 

 literature. Prof. Stout himself 

 admits Ward's great influence on 

 his own work, and Prof. Wm. James 

 in his ' Principles of Psychology ' 

 (vol. ii. p. 282, 1891) refers to 

 Ward's article in the ' Britannica ' 

 as one to which he would have owed 

 much had it appeared before his 

 own thoughts were written down. 

 Through his psychological treatises, 

 as well as through his epistemo- 

 logical work (' Naturalism and 

 Agnosticism,' being the Gifford 

 Lectures for 1896-1898 at Aber- 

 deen), we may consider Ward as 

 occupying a position similar to 

 that of Lotze in German and of 

 Renouvier in French philosophical 

 literature, representing on a com- 

 prehensive scale the inevitable 

 criticism called forth by the un- 

 critical use, as fundamental notions, 

 of a great variety of conceptions in 

 psychological, logical, and epistemo- 

 logical discussions in the existing 



schools of philosophical thought. 

 This work had already been begun 

 by John Stuart Mill, and to some 

 extent by Sir Wm. Hamilton in 

 Scottish philosophy. The fact, 

 however, that Mill had somewhat 

 prematurely adopted his father's 

 Associationism in psychology, and 

 Hamilton similarly a somewhat con- 

 fused version of Kantism, had pre- 

 vented both these thinkers from 

 impartially and exhaustively re- 

 viewing the situation before they 

 ventured on their own constructive 

 speculations. In both cases, how- 

 ever, very striking dilemmas or 

 paradoxes were the result of 

 premature generalisations, and 

 these as well as those handed down 

 in the writings of Hume have fur- 

 nished valuable material to Prof. 

 Ward for his timely criticism. 



2 Prof. Sorley informs me that 

 in one of his earliest writings ('A 

 General Analysis of Mind,' privately 

 printed in 1880, published in the 

 'Journal of Speculative Philosophy,' 

 1882) Ward remarks that, in previ- 

 ous works on psychology, " though 

 the special analyses and descrip- 

 tions are excellent, the tout ensemble 

 of mind is never exhibited at all ; 



