In opposition to phenomenology and other currents of recent philosophy, Farber holds that the progress of science and the accumulation of human experience furnish a foundation on which philosophy can safely build, and which it is a waste of time to question. Among the basic truths are.

Since James defined emotion as consciousness of bodily reactions and Cannon and others detailed the nature of these reactions, there has been an increasing tendency among behaviorists to equate emotions with visceral reactions and to neglect some of the genetic and adaptive aspects of emotion which had been discussed by Darwin.

This is a discussion of the claim by certain recent philosophers to have established universal human abilities and disabilities on "logical" grounds, or as a priori necessary. These traits would be independent of empirical conditions, and not of the sort which could be disproved by psychology which, accordingly, would share its field with the a priori philosopher. The author agues, using a series of examples, that these supposed traits do, or could, vary with empirical conditions, and that it is unlikely (...) that in this psychological area there is any good alternative to inductive methods. (shrink)

What is disappointing of course is not the dispersion of psychology into so many diverse subjects, but their apparent lack of relation to a central core of laws and theories. The topics of psychology, such as sensation, perception, cognition and emotion, which are treated in the first section of the present book, do not appear to constitute a general base for the branches of psychology, for clinical psychology, nor for the so-called borderland subjects. The branch--Animal and Comparative Psychology--does not carry (...) over from general psychology a basic theory of learning, which it then adapts or applies to its own special field. On the contrary, contemporary theory of learning, or rather theories, have been largely evolved within this branch. Similarly, Psychometrics, Child Psychology, and Applied and Social Psychology have, to a great extent, developed their own principles and methods. (shrink)

Tradition usually assigns greater importance to the so-called laws of thought than to other logical principles. Since these laws could apparently not be deduced from the other principles without circularity and all deductions appeared to make use of them, their priority was considered well established. Generally, it was held that the laws of thought have no proof and need none, that as universal constitutive or transcendental principles they are self-evident.

Case-based, multidisciplinary seminars provided a vehicle for clinicians, philosophers and students to debate current problems in medical ethics in a manner which ensured maximum learning and interest for all participants. Prior training in philosophical medical ethics was an essential prerequisite, giving students the knowledge and skills to take part in the discussions at an appropriate level of sophistication.

In Aeneid 7. 1–285 Vergil colours his picture of early Latium with a religious atmosphere which can be fully appreciated only if these verses are read with an attentive awareness of Roman religious beliefs and practices. A detailed exegesis of all 285 verses would hardly be possible here, and I will limit myself to two major points, the account of Latinus' ancestry and the description of the royal palace , both because these passages are interesting in themselves for the way (...) they apparently contradict each other, and because they are good illustrations of how Vergil draws on the data of Roman religion, both its folklore and its cult, to fix in his reader's mind certain definite impressions about Latinus and the Latins. (shrink)

To whom is Aeschinus speaking? Editors in general follow Eugraphius and have Aeschinus address his lines to the psaltria. According to this interpretation, it would be the psaltria who anxiously looks back ; since Sannio is the only person on stage whom the girl would have reason to fear, the leno would have to be standing behind her, and hence must have followed the psaltria on to the stage.