Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/810

* BATH. 716 RATIONALISM. Jand nach dem heiligen Land, and yaturwisscn- schaftliche Studien (1879). RATHBONE SISTERS, Obdeb of. See Pythias, Knights of. RATHENOW, ja'te-116. or RATHENAU. A town in the Province of Brandenburg, Prussia, on the Havel, 45 miles west-northwest of Berlin (Map: Prussia, E 2). It manufactures optical instruments, furniture, asbestos, and stoves. Population, in ISOO. 1G,.353; in 1000. :21,04;i. RATHMINES (rathminz') AND RATH- GAR, -gar'. A municipality of Leinster, Ire- land, suburban to Dublin (q.v.). Population, in 18111, 27,700; in 1901, 32,602. RATIBOR, ril'te-bOr. A city in the Province of Silesia, Prussia, on the Oder, 44 miles south- southeast of Oppeln (Map: Prussia, H 3). It has a handsome courthouse, a theatre, and a gymnasium. It has manufactures of iron-foun- dry and machine-shop products, snuff, sugar, chocolate, paper, furniture, and chemicals. The town was the capital of the former Principality of Ratibor. Population, in 1900, 25,230. RATICHItrS, ra-tik'i-us (Ger. Katke, or Katich), Wolfgaxu (1571-1635). A celebrated educational reformer, born at Wilster, in Holstein, and educated at the Hamburg Johanncum and the University of Rostock. While sojourning in Holland "(1603-11) he devised a new method for teaching languages quickly. He tried to enlist the Prince of Orange in his cause, but failing, he betook himself to Germany. At Amsterdam, Basel, Strassburg, Frankfort, Weimar, Augsburg. Kothen, and various other places he put into operation his method of instruction. His execu- tive ability, however, was not commensurate with the scope of his ideas, and he consequently failed in all his undertakings. His personality, more- over, alienated both assistants and patrons. He advocated, above all, the use of the vernacular as the proper means for approaching all subjects, and demanded the establishment of a vernacular school on the basis of the Latin school. His fundamental idea of method was that nature should be followed, meaning b.v that that there is a natural sequence along which the mind moves in the acquisition of knowledge, through particulars to the general, thus for the first time applying the Baconian theory of induction in education. Consult: Barnard, Oennan Teach- ers and Educators (Hartford. 1878) ; Quick, Edu- cational Kefoniiers (New York, 1890). See Education ; Pedagogv. RATIFICATION (ML. ratificatio. from raliftrare. to ratify, from Lat. ratus. fixed, set- tled -h faccrc. to make). In law, acts or words by which a person adopts as his own obligation the legal effect of an unauthorized act done by another on his behalf or for his benefit, or by which a person confirms and assents to be bound by a voidable obligation. If a person ratifies and accepts the benefits of an act. he must also be responsible for any consequences of the act, such as damage committed by the unauthorized person in doing it. Ratification may be express. that is, by assent expressed in positive terms, or implied, from acts from which a reasonable per- son would infer assent. In Scotch law the term is applied to the separate acknowledgment of a married woman that a deed executed by her is voluntary and made with full knowledge of its legal effect. See Contkact; Infant; and consult the authori- ties referred to under Contbact. RATING, in naval service. See Rate. RATIOCINATION (Lat. ratiocinatio, from ratiocinuri. to reason, from ratio, reckoning, re- lation, reason), or Re.soning. Reasoning, in psychology', is a successive association of judg- ments. Suppose that a complex of ideas (say, the look of a cloudy sky) is presented to con- sciousness. The attention plays upon this com- plex, and in obedience to some one of its various conditions ( see Attention ) fixes upon some one of the constituent ideas. This idea is therefore drawn out of the mass, and rendered more promi- nent; at the same time, it becomes liable to asso- ciative supplementing. The complex of ideas is then reconstituted; we have what is technically known as an 'association after disjunction.' When this association takes place in verbal terms, we call the resulting complex a judgment. Thus, to work out the instance taken : I look at the sky, and say, "It is going to rain!" Certain of the visual ideas have attracted my attention; the,v have been drawn out from the general mass of visual ideas present in consciousness, and have been supplemented by the idea of rain. The whole situation has then been put together again; there has been a reassociation after the disjunc- tion ; and the prominent idea in the reconstitiited consciousness is the idea of rain. The association takes a verbal form; the promise of rain is 'pred- icated' of the total look of the sky, so that we describe it as a judgment. In saying, then, that reasoning is a successive association of judgments, we are saying, first, that it is an extremely complicated process. For the judgments that are successively associated are themselves the products of association after disjunction. In the instance given, the disjunc- tion may well have been the work of the passive attention ; in the typical judgment of logic, the work of an active attention is presupposed, and the whole process thus becomes, on its psychologi- cal side, much more complicated than we have represented it to be. As, however, the further complication is a matter not of kind, but simply of degree, we need not go into it in detail. Again, in defining reasoning as we have defined it, we are saying, secondly, that it is a process that must have appeared relatively late in the history of mind. For the ideas in terms of which the constituent judgments are couched are sym- bolic (verbal) ideas, not reproductions or pic- torial ideas; and a long mental history separates the reproductive from the symbolic idea. The reproductive counterpart of reasoning is to be found in the constructions of the creative or ac- tive imagination. See Imagination. Consult: .James. Principles of Psychology (Xew York. 1890) ; Titchener. Outline of Pst/chol- oai/ (ib.. 1899); Ladd. Psiicholofnj. Descriptive and Explanatory (ib., 1894) : Wundt. Physiolo- (lischc Psychologic (Leipzig. 1893). For reason- ing as a logical process, see Deduction ; Induc- tion : Syllogism. RATIONALISM (Lat. rationalis. from ratio, reason). A term employed in philosophy and theology to denote a system in which the reason is supreme. In theologv' it is contrasted with supcrnatiiralism, and is used to describe a move- ment of thought, which had its important repre-