ABSTRACT
Psychology is at once the oldest and the youngest of the sciences. It is the oldest in that a systematic study of the mental functions of men and animals was made by Aristotle, and with such success that the psychology fashioned by him was more deserving of the name of a science than any other body of natural knowledge at that time. All politics and all economics, like all education and most of medicine, must deal at every point with problems that are mainly psychological. Psychology, under the name of mental philosophy, has long been taught in the Scottish and English universities, especially in the former, where such instruction was regarded as a proper part of the education of all students. In Scotland especially a succession of distinguished men made considerable progress, notably Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, Hutcheson, and Dugald Stewart, and were in course of developing a useful and sound psychology.
