The Foundations of Character: Being a Study of the Tendencies of the Emotions and Sentiments

A scientific treatment should not diminish, but increase the general interest taken in character. To bring together the various aspects of the subject, which, in literature, are treated in isolation from one another; to lead up to a general conception of it; to study the methods by which the knowledge of it may be increased in accuracy and extent; these are to make approaches to a scientific treatment of character. While I have had chiefly to confine myself to a study of the tendencies of the emotions and sentiments, this has been, throughout, my aim. This book, then, is a study of method. Yet I do not claim that this method is essentially new. It is in the main the hypothetical method of the sciences; it has had to be adapted to the treatment of character: that is all. A complete science of mind would include a science of character. The best approach to such a science is through the study of the primary emotions and their connected instincts. This study is to be directed to an analysis of tendencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).