Thought-Culture; or, Practical Mental Training

the business of the practical study of the mechanism and activities of the mind itself. As some writer has said, psychology has no more concern with solving the eternal riddle of "What is Mind?" than physics has with the twin riddle of "What is Matter?" Both riddles, and their answers, belong to entirely different branches and fields of thought than those concerned with their laws of operation and principles of activity. As Halleck original: "Halleck"; referring to Reuben Post Halleck (1859–1936), an American educator and psychologist whose work was foundational in early 20th-century teacher training. says: "Psychology studies the phenomena of mind, just as physics investigates those of matter." And, likewise, just as the science of physics holds true in spite of the varying and changing ideas original: "conceptions" regarding the nature of matter, so does the science of psychology hold true in spite of the varying and changing ideas regarding the nature of Mind.

Halleck has well said: "If a materialist materialist In this context, a philosopher who believes that only physical matter exists and that mental states are simply results of material interactions. should hold that the mind was nothing but the brain, and that the brain was a vast collection original: "aggregation" of molecular sheep herding together in various ways, his hypothesis would not change the fact that sensation must precede perception, memory, and thought; nor would the laws of the association of ideas The psychological theory that mental processes operate by the interaction of one mental state with successor states. be