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A New Interpretation of Herbart's Psychology and Educational Theory Through the Philosophy of Leibnis
A New Interpretation of Herbart's Psychology and Educational Theory Through the Philosophy of Leibnis Author:John Davidson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1906 Original Publisher: W. Blackwood and sons Subjects: Educational psychology Education / Educational Psychology Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edi... more »tion of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STANDPOINT IMPLICIT IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES OF LEIBNIZ. According to Leibniz, the real is spiritual. But the spiritual with him is not the antithesis of matter. Matter is not a something set over against the " force " called " monad." Matter is simply an imperfect or confused perception; and the clearer and more distinct the monad's perception becomes, the less does it perceive the universe in the guise of matter. But even with Leibniz's admission that what we call external matter is " phenomena bene fundata," the theory still seems to be one of subjective idealism, whereby the universe is resolved into a series of perceptions which, being evolved from each monad by itself, have nothing about them which could be called objective or at least " external." The perceptions are operations or activities of the monad; and if matter is simply a name for the imperfect modes of these activities, we seem to be presented with a theory that explains the meaning of " external" by denying that there is externality. Now, according to the theory, the life of the monad consists in its perceptions. But these are not abstract perceptions; they are perceptions of the universe, eventhough it is a universe within the monad itself. There is, first, a perceiving activity of the monad; and second, an object perceived. But the perceiving activity is not an activity that stands over against and may be separated from a something acted upon. The very essence of the so-called ind...« less