Mental science - 1868 Author:Alexander Bain Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The present treatise contains a Systematic Exposition of Mind, and a History of the leading Questions in Mental Philosophy. The Expositio... more »n of Mind is, for the most part, an abridgment of my two volumes on the subject. I have singled out, and put in conspicuous type, the leading positions; and have given a sufficient number of examples to make them understood. It is not to be expected that the full effect of the larger exposition can be produced in the shorter; still, there may be an occasional advantage in the more succinct presentation of complicated doctrines. As regards the controverted Questions, I have entered fully into the history of opinion, so as to exhibit the different views, both formerly, and at present, entertained on each. Nominalism and Realism, the Origin of Knowledge in the mind, External Perception, Beauty, and Freewill, are the chief subjects thus treated. Aberdeen, April, 1868. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO THE AMERICAS EDITION. The author of the present volume, Mr. Alexander Jlain, is Professor of Logic, Mental Philosophy, and English Literature, in the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and is also Examiner in Logic and Moral Philosophy in the University of London. His contributions to the Science of Mind have given him a high reputation in Europe both as an original inquirer and as an authoritative expositor of the most advanced views; and as this is his first work upon these subjects which has been repub- lished in this country, a few words respecting its claims and the author's position will be appropriate in this place. It is now generally admitted that, as regards its capability of progress, expansion, and the improvement of its methods, Mental Science forms no exception to the other branches of growing knowledge. Those w...« less