Abstract

Excerpt from The Psychology of Reasoning This little volume is based upon eight lectures given during my tenure of the Non-resident Lectureship in Psychology at Columbia University in January and February, 1909. The material has been somewhat rearranged and divided into chapters along more natural lines than was possible in the lectures. My purpose is to give a brief statement of the place of the logical processes, particularly judgment and inference, in the concrete individual consciousness. Confining my discussion to the facts of the individual consciousness has compelled me to omit in large measure a consideration of the social aspects of reasoning and of the results of the outcome of reasoning in action. This omission has not been due to any failure to appreciate the importance of these two sides of the reasoning process. Rather, Professor Baldwin and Professor Dewey have left little to be said on these topics. For my own immediate purpose, also, society and action are but two of the sources from which are drawn the materials of reasoning, and are but two of the influences that serve to affect the course of reasoning. My problem has been to determine the ways in which reasoning has grown out of the simpler mental operations, and to discuss the uses that have been made of the materials in reasoning, without reference to the sources from which the materials have been drawn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.