NOTES AND LITERATURE. 



PSYCHOLOGY. 



Natural Science and Psychology.^— For the convenience of 

 those who do not have access to his "Grundzuge der physiologischen 

 Psychologie" Prof. Wundt has reprinted under the above title the last 

 two chapters of the third volume of his great work. In the space of 

 a hundred pages there is given a clear statement of what the author 

 believes concerning : (i) The logical foundations of natural science, 

 (2) Mechanics and energetics, (3) Mechanism and vitalism, (4) 

 Causality and teleology of the psychophysical life-processes, (5) The 

 concept of mind, (6) The principles of psychical causality. 



Of special interest to biologists are the discussions of mechanics and 

 energetics, and of the mechanistic and the vitalistic theories. Such 

 a book is valuable to most natural sciences in that it serves to call 

 attention to the too much neglected presuppositions on which special- 

 istic work in the natural sciences rests, as well as to the principles of 

 the sciences. Wundt wTites in a patient, plodding, persistent man- 

 ner ; his sanity is all the more evident because of the lack of any 

 brilliancy of treatment. 



In view of the appearance of this reprint it is worth while to notice 

 the interest, especially among the German biologists, in the psychic 

 "as an elemental factor in nature," as Driesch in a recent book has 

 stated it. Whether one agrees with Wundt's conception of the rela- 

 tions of the physical and the psychical, with Driesch's, with Ost- 

 wald's, with Schneider's may not seem of much consequence to 

 most students of natural science; nevertheless, there can be no 

 doubt that only those who hold theories and see or seek principles 

 can do more than assemble facts whose meaning is clear only in the 

 light of the generalizations which are called laws. No one can study 

 Wundt's book without gaining an interest in the various forms of 

 organic processes that the mere search for facts would not give. 

 To state the content of the book would defeat iny purpose to arouse 

 an interest which may lead many to the work itself. 



ROF.KRT M. YeRKES. 



