This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...of which Locke and Hume were the leading representatives, gave to the world a consistent theory of the powers of the mind. As the principles of this school are accepted by most writers on social topics, it is necessary to contrast my picture of mental activity with that of this group of thinkers and to point out what appear to me to be defects in their mode of reasoning. I agree with them in thinking that the mind has not the power to originate ideas without the aid of sense perceptions, and that the purest and best thoughts and ideals of men are but complex forms of a few simple ideas which by themselves are insignificant and perhaps unworthy of attention. The defects in their conclusions are not the fault of their analytical mode of reasoning, but of their erroneous concept of the mechanism of the mind. It is assumed by the earlier writers of this school and clearly stated by the later writers that the nervous system conveys directly from the outer world to the self-conscious centre the impressions which the outer world makes on the nervous system. All the elaboration of these impressions takes place within the self-conscious centre under the eye of consciousness. Consciousness, therefore, is the judge of all mental processes beyond the creation of simple impressions. When the consciousness arranges its ideas for inspection it finds that they differ from the original impressions only im vividness and clearness. All ideas are copies of impressions, and any idea of which an original impression cannot be found within the field of consciousness is ruled out as fictitious. Such is the reasoning of Hume. Locke has the same mental picture, but his attention is attracted to another phase of the problem. He decides that there can be no innate ideas...