Abstract
DR. LLOYD'S thesis is that thought, which is verbal, “takes certain definite directions which are the directions of human behaviour, but circumstance does not lie around us in a definite order. How, then, can we take our thought from circumstance? It is, therefore, not taken from things, but given mysteriously.” The very statement of the thesis would seem to exclude the problem from the purview of science; and, indeed, the book is rather one of philosophical reflection than otherwise, though it contains many acute observations of scientific relevance. The author raises the very ancient problem of the universals in a somewhat novel modern form; but his attempt to classify “humanity” by identifying it with “verbal-thought” will scarcely convince contemporary psychologists. This “verbal-thought” is looked upon by Dr. Lloyd as a function distributed among individuals, in a way similar to that in which a quality or characteristic is distributed among the members of a species, in that, as a whole, it is partly identical and partly different in any given individual.
Life and Word: an Essay in Psychology.
By Dr. R. E. Lloyd. Pp. xvi + 139. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1924.) 7s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Life and Word: an Essay in Psychology . Nature 115, 760 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115760c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115760c0