Reviews
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1927.tb02284.x |
| Date | 01 January 1927 |
| Published date | 01 January 1927 |
nt
will
be
the object
of
the Reviews
of
Books
in the
JOURNAL
to cover the
whole ground
of
the literature produced in
the
preceding quarter which
may
have
a
bearing upon public administration.
By
this means, it
is
hoped, some assistance
wdl
be
given to the student and some direction
to
the general reader.
A
judgment
of
the value
of
the books
will
be attempted, as
a
portion
of
the ordinary duty
of
criticism, but the particular value
of
the book in its relation to the advance
of
the science
of
public administration will be regarded
as
the paramount criterion.]
BRITISH
BOOKS
I
The
Art
of
Thought
By
GRAHAM
WALLAS.
AN
experienced reader opening
a
new book
by
Graham Wallas knows that
he will at once come into contact with
a
mind operating on the frontiers
of knowledge,
a
mind familiar with what has been done, but eager to
reduce to order and usefulness the most recent results of speculation
on the borderlands of the social sciences. The
Art
of
Thought
resumes
and advances certain tentative studies of the author’s preceding books
:
Hztinait
IValzire
itt
Politics, The
Grcat
Society,
and
Oztr
Social Heritage.
He
is
once more concerned
“
to explore the problem how far the know-
ledge
accumulated by modem psychology can be made useful for the
improvement
of
though t-processes
of
the working thinker.”
Some
of
our readers will recall that aspects of this problem formed the subject
of
a
lecture to the Institute
by
Professor Wallas-the very first lecture,
in fact, after Lord Haldane’s inaugural address. Thisvolume is
a
con-
siderable development
of
the inquiry, a closer analysis
oi
our mental
processes, together with
a
richness of illustration from literature and life
which is one
of
the most attractive gdts
of
the author.
He obviously cannot
draw up
a
simple prescription guaranteed to achieve the desired result.
But he can and does indicate lines
of
observation and reflection kvhich
if
pursued will be
of
help to us. He makes no exaggerated claims for
this tentative and pioneering survey.
It
is not
so
easy a matter
as
learn-
ing the right stroke in cricket or rowing.
“
Success in the self-stimulation
of
mental energy requires the co-ordination of innumerable psychological
factors of whose nature and working we are largely ignorant, and often
the overcoming of unconscious inhibitions.” But Professor Wallas
refuses to sit down under this ignorance. He breaks
up
the processes
of
creative thought in
a
most helpful way into the stages: Preparation,
Incubation, Illuminatjon (and its accompaniments), and Verification.
114
(London, Jonathan Cape.)
320
pp.
;
gs.
net.
The author’s aim is to make
us
better thinkers.
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