Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/156

 140 PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS. properly speaking, psychological. In nine Opuscula, which may be re- garded as a complement to this treatise, he discusses questions of a psychologico- physiological character. Amongst these Opuscula is a treatise on dreams. In his article, ' Aristote et la psychologie physio- logique du reve,' A. Thiery, taking this treatise, hich has been de- clared by Bartheleiny St. Hilaire to contain the best explanation of dreams which has yet been suggested, as his basis, sets forth Aristotle's view of the nature of dreaming. In an article entitled ' Le Socialisme scientifique d'apres le manifeste communiste,' C. Van Overbergh, after comparing the various older forms of Socialism with the so-called scientific Socialism as expounded in the ' Manifeste Communiste,' which was drawn up in 1848 by Marx and Engels at the request of the Inter- national Congress of the Ligue des Comrnunistes, proceeds to state the general theory of scientific Socialism, and indicates what would result from an application of this theory to family life and religion. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR PSYCHOLOGIE UXD PHYSIOLOGIE DER SIXXESORGAXE. Bd. xi., Heft 2. A. Meinong. ' Ueber die Bedeutung des "NVeber'schen Gesetzes. Beitrage zur Psychologie des Yergleichens und Messens.' [I. Vom Grossengedanken und dessen Anwendungsgebiet. 1. Magni- tudes always lie within a series, continuous or discrete, which is bounded in one direction by zero, and in the other by infinity. A magnitude, then, is that which ' gegen Null limitiert '. 2. Magnitudes are either perceptual (' anschaulich ') or not : thus movement and velocity can be perceptually thought, by aid of ' fundierte Inhalte,' but are ' im eigent- lichsten Sinne ' non-perceptual magnitudes. 3. Magnitudes are divisible or indivisible : sound intensity, distance, and (among relations) difference and similarity are indivisible magnitudes. Most non -perceptual magni- tudes are indivisible : c/., however, multitude, (physical) mass, etc. II. Ueber Vergleichung, insbesondere Grossenvergleichung. 4. Comparison is the activity directed upon the formation of judgments of likeness or difference, similarity or dissimilarity. On this definition, all things are comparable. 5. Comparison is direct (gas and electric light) or indirect (length of Rhine and Danube). Direct comparison, which gives results, is restricted to certain classes of objects, and depends upon their sur- roundings. 6. The ' like ' and ' different ' of comparison need no pre- liminary and arbitrary definition (against von Kries). 7. The notion that certain things, e.g., sound and light, are incomparable, arises where the things compared are magnitudes, and is due to the change of ' like ' and ' different ' into ' greater,' ' equal,' ' less '. As magnitudes, they are series coincide : this is in every case neither self-evident nor demon- strable. 8. At the same time, the objects of comparison m&y need de- fining (c/. 6), and where we do compare for greater or less, the objects must be qualitatively nearly related (cf. 4, 7). This holds where, as for us, the magnitudes of comparison are differences. It does not mean, however, that the relation of difference is atypical (von Kries), i.e., liable to variation in kind. 9. The judgment ' hike ' is episteniologically in- ferior to the judgment ' different '. The limit of apparent likeness is the difference limen. 10. In the comparison of sensations and of sensation differences nothing is gained, in very many cases, by speaking of ' notice- ableness of difference ' in place of 'difference '. 11. Theory and practice unite in favour of the expression ' just noticeable ' difference. Note, however, that two j. n. d. need not be equal or even equally noticeable, a statement borne out by the factual variability of the sensible dis- crimination. We must distinguish s. d. of stimulus from s. d. of contents (judgment limen). Difference of s. d. means inequality of j. n. d. ; equality of s. d. is presumptive evidence of equality of j. n. (i.e., equally
 * like '. The more definite predicates presuppose that the zeros of their