Rational Psychology

...follows. Despite this, human beings have still been produced, by doing those things which experience dictates should be done.

§. 7.

Why Rational Psychology sheds light upon Empirical Psychology.

Through Rational Psychology, those things taught in the empirical branch are understood more fully and correctly. In Rational Psychology, a reason original: "ratio redditur." In Wolff’s system, this refers to providing a "sufficient reason"—the logical explanation for why something is the way it is. is given for those things which are in the soul, or can be in it (§ 4). Since, therefore, "reason" is defined as understanding why something is rather than not being (§ 56, Ontology), the things handed down in Rational Psychology allow us to more fully understand the things taught in Empirical Psychology The branch of psychology based on observation and experience.. This was the first point.

And since whoever knows why something is rather than not being perceives most clearly whether a predicate predicate A quality, property, or characteristic attributed to a subject.—which is claimed for a subject by the force of experience—should be granted to that subject by the power of its definition, or under some added condition, or because of certain accidental characteristics that arise (§ 130, Ontology and § 4, Rational Psychology). Rational Psychology teaches the limits within which the predicates of the soul are confined. For this reason, there is no fear that one will ever attribute a quality to the soul in a case where it cannot apply. Therefore, one understands the teachings of the empirical branch more correctly through the rational branch. This was the second point.

It is necessary for us to demonstrate the usefulness of Rational Psychology, lest anyone think it can be utterly despised as a thing of no importance; rather, it should be understood as something worthy of cultivation. Among the benefits of Rational Psychology, therefore, I first mention that the doctrines concerning the soul are understood both more fully and more correctly. Neither benefit is to be looked down upon. For the former Understanding the soul "more fully." not only satisfies a mind eager for knowledge, allowing it to rest in a truth it has recognized, but it also provides a more solid foundation for agreement. The latter benefit Understanding the soul "more correctly." promises immunity from the error that is feared to arise from a perverse application of psychological principles. I do not deny that it is assumed that Rational Psychology cannot provide these benefits unless it hits the mark of truth exactly original: "acu tangitur veritas"—literally, "the truth is touched with a needle," a Latin idiom for being perfectly accurate or "hitting the nail on the head.".