AUTHOR OF "SENSATION AND INTUITION," "PESSIMISM," ETC.
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1887
(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved)
The present volume takes a wide survey of the field of error, embracingin its view not only the illusions of sense dealt with in treatises onphysiological optics, etc., but also other errors familiarly known asillusions, and resembling the former in their structure and mode oforigin. I have throughout endeavoured to keep to a strictly scientifictreatment, that is to say, the description and classification ofacknowledged errors, and the explanation of these by a reference totheir psychical and physical conditions. At the same time, I was notable, at the close of my exposition, to avoid pointing out how thepsychology leads on to the philosophy of the subject. Some of thechapters were first roughly sketched out in articles published inmagazines and reviews; but these have been not only greatly enlarged,but, to a considerable extent, rewritten.
Hampstead, April, 1881.
CHAPTER I.
THE STUDY OF ILLUSION.
Vulgar idea of Illusion, 1, 2; Psychological treatment of subject, 3, 4;
definition of Illusion, 4-7; Philosophic extension of idea, 7, 8.
CHAPTER II.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF ILLUSIONS.
Popular and Scientific conceptions of Mind, 9, 10; Illusion and
Hallucination, 11-13; varieties of Immediate Knowledge, 13-16; four-fold
division of Illusions, 16-18.
CHAPTER III.
ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION: GENERAL.
Psychology of Perception:—The Psychological analysis of Perception, 19,
20; Sensation and its discrimination, etc., 20, 21; interpretation of
Sensation, 22, 23; construction of material object, 23, 24; recognition
...