Mary Whiton Calkins Quotes on Knowledge
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) was the first woman president of both the American Psychological Association (1905) and the American Philosophical Association (1918), and the author of The Persistent Problems of Philosophy (1907) and The Good Man and the Good (1918). The framework defends an explicit personalist idealism — the ultimate categories of being are selves and their relations, and the conditions of knowledge are the conditions of personal experience — against the rising behaviorist and naturalist tendencies of the period. Harvard completed her PhD coursework under Royce and James but refused the degree on the ground of her sex, an offer Calkins declined from Radcliffe.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Mary Whiton Calkins:
“The self is the most fundamental category of psychology.”
-
“Consciousness is always self-consciousness.”
A First Book in Psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan. 1917. p. 1. (1st edition, 1909) -
Attributed to Mary Whiton Calkins:
“To study a person is the highest task of philosophy.”
-
Attributed to Mary Whiton Calkins:
“The recognition of women as philosophers is overdue, not extraordinary.”
-
“The phenomenon of dreaming has rarely been discussed or investigated in a thorough and in an experimental manner; of description, of theory , of discussion, of poetic analogy and illustration there has been no end; of accurate observation almost nothing. ... The most scientific books—those of Maury and of Tissié —have been wholly or chiefly the result of the observations of abnormal subjects and in the interest, more or less distinctly, of pathology. The fullest discussion of the subject—the works of Radestock and of Spitta —are largely compilations of the recorded dreams of other people.”
(1893) . "Statistics of Dreams". The American Journal of Psychology 5 (3): 311–343. DOI : 10.2307/1410996 . -
“(1893) . "Statistics of Dreams". The American Journal of Psychology 5 (3): 311–343. DOI : 10.2307/1410996 .”
The phenomenon of dreaming has rarely been discussed or investigated in a thorough and in an experimental manner; of description, of theory , of discussion, of poetic analogy and illustration there has been no end; of accurate observation almost nothing. ... The most scientific books—those of Maury and of Tissié —have been wholly or chiefly the result of the observations of abnormal subjects and i -
“An Introduction to Psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan. 1908. p. 3. (1st edition, 1901)”
All psychologists would agree to define their subject, at least in an introductory way, as the science of consciousness . But this definition is not enlightening unless its terms are thoroughly understood, and we must at once, therefore, proceed to discuss the nature of a science. -
“(1907) . "Psychology: What is it About?". The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 4 (25): 673–683. DOI : 10.2307/2011639 .”
Any serious attempt to define and to classify forms of consciousness will act as a "red flag" waved in the face of many critics. The effort to define accurately and to classify in any detail is bound, they will urge, to result in a conservative clinging to conclusions once reached and in a love of schedules and schemes for their own sake. The system maker, they will insist, is likely to subordinat -
“A First Book in Psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan. 1917. p. 1. (1st edition, 1909)”
Psychology has most often been defined as science of consciousness, but this definition does not go far enough. For consciousness does not occur impersonally. Consciousness, on the contrary, always is a somebody-being-conscious. There is never perception without a somebody who perceives, and there never is thinking unless some one thinks. And this somebody is not an isolated self but a self which