The Science of Human Nature / A Psychology for Beginners

Education should also do what it can to make people able to enjoy the world and life to the fullest and highest extent.

To understand all the aspects of the world, we must study all the sciences.

We study about things instead of studying things

It is a lawful world; it is not a world of chance. Everything is related to everything else.

If we wish to remember knowledge, the knowledge must be seen in the clearest light, really be knowledge, at the outset

The man is sensitive and has the power of action, the power of moving himself.

We learn about the human mind by observing our own mind. We learn that we see under certain objective conditions, hear under certain objective conditions, taste, smell, feel cold and warm under certain objective conditions. In the case of ourselves, we can know both our actions and our mind. In the case of others, we can know only their actions, and must infer their mental states from our own in similar circumstances. With certain restrictions and precautions this inference is legitimate.

the method of observation and experiment.

Educational psychology is that division of psychology which undertakes to discover those aspects of human nature most closely related to education. These are (1) the original nature of the child—what it is and how it can be modified; (2) the problem of acquiring and organizing experience—habit-formation, memory, thinking, and the various factors related to these processes.

There are four main questions which the science of education must solve: (1) What is the aim of education? (2) What is the nature of education? (3) What is the nature of the child? (4) What are the most economical methods of changing the child from what it is into what it ought to be?