(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
(Awkward and unclassifiable facts are the bugbear of scien...)
Awkward and unclassifiable facts are the bugbear of scientific orthodoxy. They challenge its authority; the easy course is to ignore them. William James, deeply committee throughout his life to the spirit of science, insisted with passionate intensity that there is no place in science for rigid orthodoxy. It was precisely in the awkward facts of experience that he looked for clues to an enlargement of science and of our understanding of the very strange universe in which we live. Psychical phenomena caught his attention at an early age: telepathy, clairvoyance, faith healing, reports of communications from the dead. No one of these subjects had any standing in the eyes of orthodox scientists. To take them seriously, to propose scientific investigations of them, was to lay oneself open to suspicion. James the psychologist saw no unbridgeable gap between normal and paranormal experience. What he did see in the shadowy border region was an unexplored aspect of the human spirit. The whole force of his increasing prestige was put at the service of psychical research. If there were facts to be investigated, James the pragmatist would help ferret them out and appraise them. The record of his search and of the conclusions he came to is contained in these pages. With the detachment of a scientist and the fervor of a pioneer he sought out his elusive material wherever it was to be found. The great problem remains unsolved today, but James's definition of it - and his research - help us to understand its significance. (from the dust jacket)
(Beautiful collector's item that marks the 1950's as a tim...)
Beautiful collector's item that marks the 1950's as a time when Americans were called to action. Very enlightening in juxtaposition to our our current political and social contexts, This classic work (written by a former President of the American Psychological Association) draws from his political and social involvement in India researching religious & racial tensions between Hindus & Moslems.
(
This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Gardner Murphy was an American psychologist specialising in social and personality psychology and parapsychology.
Background
Gardner Murphy was born on July 8, 1895, in Chillicothe, Ohio. His father, Edgar Gardner Murphy, an Episcopal priest, had moved his family there from Laredo, Texas, earlier in 1895.
In 1899 the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where the father continued his career as a churchman until 1901. Gardner's mother, Maud King Murphy, was from Concord, Massachusetts. In 1902, Gardner and his older brother, DuBose, moved with their mother to Concord, from there to Branford (around 1904) and then to New Haven. His father, who remained in the South until 1908, had left the ministry to become executive secretary of the Southern Education Board. In this capacity he became involved in child-labor issues. In 1908 he retired because of ill health and rejoined his family in New Haven.
Education
In 1908, Murphy entered high school in New Haven, and in 1910 he received a scholarship to attend the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticutю
He graduated with honors in June 1912 and entered Yale College that fall.
After the death of his father in 1913, and possibly because of this event, Murphy developed an interest in psychic research and chose to major in psychology. He was also influenced by the writings of William James. Murphy received his Bachelor's degree from Yale in 1916 and went on to Harvard for graduate work in psychology, receiving his Master's degree in 1917.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia in 1923.
Career
The United States had entered the European war that spring, and Murphy enlisted in the Yale Mobile Hospital Unit, with which he served in France. Eventually he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Interpreters; he received his honorable discharge on July 7, 1919. Still wearing his uniform, Murphy visited the psychology department at Columbia University, where he met Robert S. Woodworth, chairman of the department. He began his doctoral studies there that fall.
In 1920, following Murphy's presentation of a research project without notes, Woodworth recommended him for a teaching position in the Columbia Extension Division.
In 1923 he introduced a course in the history of psychology that began with Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle. In 1925 he was promoted from lecturer to instructor.
Four years later, Murphy was promoted to assistant professor, having completed his classic study, An Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology, the previous year. This work and his published articles in the field of social psychology and personality theory, as well as his introductory psychology textbooks, established his scholarly reputation nationwide.
In 1939, Murphy was offered a full professorship at the City College of New York, where the department of psychology had at last been given its independence from the department of philosophy. The members of the department voted unanimously to elect Murphy as chairman if he would accept the professorship.
He accepted and arrived there in the fall of 1940. Murphy had conditioned his acceptance on a considerable expansion of laboratory and office space and the appropriation of $10, 000 for laboratory equipment. These conditions were met, and the offerings of the department were considerably expanded to include a two-semester course in experimental psychology and courses in social psychology and personality, the latter being taught by Murphy himself. As at Columbia, Murphy soon became known as an outstanding teacher and research mentor. Many of his students pursued experimental research in social psychology, perception, and personality under his guidance. Several became well-known psychologists in their own right, including Harold Proshansky, who later became president of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
By 1946, Murphy had assembled a brilliant staff of psychologists from the New York City area and established an M. A. program in clinical psychology. Its remarkable popularity and success led Murphy and his colleagues to propose a doctoral program in psychology as well; but by 1952 it had become clear that such approval could not be given to a single department in only one of the several city colleges. Consequently, Murphy accepted an offer to become director of research at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, in 1952, and he moved there that fall. He stayed with the foundation until 1968.
During his years at City College and with the Menninger Foundation, Murphy continued his interest in psychic research (begun in the 1920's while at Columbia) at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City, and he introduced rigorous scientific methodology to the research work done there.
In 1968, Murphy moved from Topeka to Washington, D. C. , where he remained until his death. For five years he was a guest professor at George Washington University there, lecturing on personality theory. Gardner Murphy died on March 18, 1979, in Washington, D. C. , United States.
Achievements
Gardner Murphy was an eminent psychologist, who studied personality and social psychology. However, he is best known for his research into parapsychology.
Quotations:
"It has become accepted doctrine that we must attempt to study the whole man. Actually we cannot study even a whole tree or a whole guinea pig. But it is a whole tree and a whole guinea pig that have survived and evolved, and we must make the attempt. "
"I have believed for a long time that human nature is a reciprocity of what is inside the skin and what is outside: that it is definitely not "rolled up inside us" but our way of being one with our fellows and our world. I call this field theory. "
Membership
Gardner Murphy was chosen president of the Eastern Psychology Association in 1941, and in 1943 he was elected president of the American Psychological Association.
Gardner Murphy served as president of the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City from 1962 to 1971.
Besides Murphy was president of the British Society for Psychical Research.
Connections
On November 27, 1926, Gardner Murphy married Lois Barclay, a graduate of Vassar College. They had two children.
