Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

HARTLEY, DAVID (1705–1757)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 35 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

HARTLEY, See also:DAVID (1705–1757) , See also:English philosopher, and founder of the Associationist school of psychologists, was See also:born on the 3oth of See also:August 1705. He was educated at See also:Bradford See also:grammar school and Jesus See also:College, See also:Cambridge, of which society he became a See also:fellow in 1727. Originally intended for the See also:Church, he was deterred from taking orders by certain scruples as to See also:signing the See also:Thirty-nine Articles, and took up the study of See also:medicine. Nevertheless, he remained in the communion of the English Church, living on intimate terms with the most distinguished churchmen of his See also:day. Indeed he asserted it to be a See also:duty to obey ecclesiastical as well as See also:civil authorities. The See also:doctrine to which he most strongly objected was that of eternal See also:punishment. Hartley practised as a physician at See also:Newark, See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, See also:London, and lastly at See also:Bath, where he died on the 28th of August 1757. His Observations on See also:Man was published in 1749, three years after See also:Condillac's Essai sur l'origine See also:des connaissances humaines, in which theories essentially similar to his were expounded. It is in two parts—the first dealing with the See also:frame of the human See also:body and mind, and their mutual connexions and influences, the second with the duty and expectations of mankind. His two See also:main theories are the doctrine of vibrations and the doctrine of associations. His See also:physical theory, he tells us, was See also:drawn from certain speculations as to See also:nervous See also:action which See also:Newton had published in his Principia. His psychological theory was suggested by the Dissertation concerning the Fundamental Principles of Virtue or Morality, which was written by a clergyman named See also:John See also:Gay (1699–1745), and prefixed by See also:Bishop See also:Law to his See also:translation 1 of See also:Archbishop See also:King's Latin See also:work on the Origin of E&, its See also:chief See also:object being to show that sympathy and See also:conscience are developments by means of association from the selfish feelings.

The outlines of Hartley's theory are as follows. With See also:

Locke he asserted that, See also:prior to sensation, the human mind is a See also:blank. By a growth from See also:simple sensations those states of consciousness which appear most remote from sensation come into being. And the one 1 Anonymously in the 1731 ed., with See also:acknowledgment in 1758 ed.law of growth of which Hartley took See also:account was the law of contiguity, synchronous and successive. By this law he sought to explain, not only the phenomena of memory, which others had similarly explained before him, but also the phenomena of emotion, of reasoning, and of voluntary and involuntary action (see AssocIATION OF IDEAS). By his physical theory Hartley gave the first strong impulse to the See also:modern study of the intimate connexion of physiological and psychical facts which has proved so fruitful, though his physical theory in itself is inadequate, and has not been largely adopted. He held that sensation is the result of a vibration of the See also:minute particles of the medullary substance of the nerves, to account for which he postulated, with Newton, a subtle elastic See also:ether, rare in the interstices of solid bodies and in their See also:close neighbourhood, and denser as it recedes from them. See also:Pleasure is the result of moderate vibrations, See also:pain of vibrations so violent as to break the continuity of the nerves. These vibrations leave behind them in the See also:brain a tendency to fainter vibrations or " vibratiuncles " of a similar See also:kind, which correspond to " ideas of sensation." Thus memory is accounted for. The course of See also:reminiscence and of the thoughts generally, when not immediately dependent upon See also:external sensation, is accounted for on the ground that there are always vibrations in the brain on account of its See also:heat and the pulsation of its See also:arteries. What these vibrations shall be is determined by the nature of each man's past experience, and by the See also:influence of the circumstances of the moment, which causes now one now another tendency to prevail over the See also:rest. Sensations which are often associated together become each associated with the ideas corresponding to the others; and the ideas corresponding to the associated sensations become associated together, sometimes so intimately that they See also:form what appears to be a new simple See also:idea, not without careful See also:analysis resolvable into its component parts.

Starting, like the modern Associationists, from a detailed account of the phenomena of the senses, Hartley tries to show how, by the above See also:

laws, all the emotions, which he analyses with considerable skill, may be explained. Locke's phrase " association of ideas " is employed throughout, " idea " being taken as including every See also:mental See also:state but sensation. He emphatically asserts the existence of pure disinterested sentiment, while declaring it to be a growth from the self-regarding feelings. Voluntary action is explained as the result of a See also:firm connexion between a See also:motion and a sensation or " idea," and, on the physical See also:side, between an " ideal " and a motory vibration. Therefore in the Freewill controversy Hartley took his See also:place as a determinist. It is singular that, as he tells us, it was only with reluctance, and when his speculations were nearly See also:complete, that he came to a conclusion on this subject in accordance with his theory. See See also:life of Hartley by his son in the 18o1 edition of the Observations, which also contains notes and additions translated from the See also:German of H. A. Pistorius; See also:Sir See also:Leslie See also:Stephen, See also:History of English Thought in the Eighteenth See also:Century (3rd ed., 1902), and See also:article in the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography; G. S. See also:Bower, Hartley and See also:James See also:Mill (1881); B. Schonlank, Hartley and See also:Priestley See also:die Begrunder des Assozialionismus in See also:England (1882).

See also the histories of See also:

philosophy and bibliography in J. M. See also:Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and See also:Psychology (1905), vol. iii.

End of Article: HARTLEY, DAVID (1705–1757)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
HARTLEPOOL 		[next]
HARTLEY, JONATHAN SCOTT (1845– )

Site © 2006 - Net Industries