PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 79 



The old intellectualist theory, the theory on which 

 indeed modern democracy was founded, taking no 

 account of the irrationality of mind under certain 

 stimuli, is more and more discredited by observa- 

 tion, though possibly other equally valid new founda- 

 tions may be discovered in the future for the system 

 to which it gave birth. 



In the introspective part of psychology, though far 

 older in point of time, less general agreement has 

 been reached than in the experimental branch of 

 the subject. Since the time of Kant (1724-1804), 

 it has been usual to divide our direct mental relation 

 with objects into three types of conscious activity. 

 We know or apprehend an object, we feel pleased or 

 pained by our perception, and consequently we form 

 some wish or desire about it. These three states 

 are sometimes termed cognition (or knowing), feel- 

 ing, and conation (or willing). Since feeling and 

 willing seem more nearly allied than either of them 

 is to knowing, there is now a tendency to revert to 

 a dual classification, feeling and willing being grouped 

 as sub-divisions of interest. 



The special characteristic of the human mind is 

 its power of constructing complex ideas and of follow- 

 ing trains of thought. In this process association 

 plays a part : association not only of impressions 

 which have chanced to coincide or follow each other 

 regularly in the past, but also association of similars 



