Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life's Ideals

by William James, Gerald E. Myers

Overview

Despite the modesty of its title, the publication of this book in 1899 was a significant event. It marked the first application of the relatively new discipline of psychology, and specifically of James's theses in The Principles of Psychology, to educational theory and classroom practice. The book went through twelve printings in as many years and has never been out of print. Among its innovative features were James's maxims "No reception without reaction" and "No impression without expression"; a new emphasis on the biology of behavior and on the role of instincts; and discussions of the relevance to elementary school education of what is known about will, attention, memory, apperception, and the association of ideas.

Appended to the fifteen talks to schoolteachers were three talks to college students, as pertinent today as when they were written: "The Gospel of Relaxation," "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings," and "What Makes a Life Significant?"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674867857
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/25/1983
Series:	The Works of William James , #14
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction by Gerald E. Myers

TALKS TO TEACHERS ON PSYCHOLOGY

TALKS TO STUDENTS

Notes

Appendixes

I. Notes and Draft for Talks to Teachers

II. John Pierce's Summaries in the Journal of Education of James's Lectures

A Note on the Editorial Method

The Text of Talks to Teachers on Psychology

I. The History

II. The Documents

III. The Editorial Problem

Apparatus

Emendations

Textual Notes

Historical Collation

Alterations in the Manuscript

Word-Division

General Index

Key to the Pagination of Editions