Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind

8vo, two volumes. Bound in recent stained half calf with marbled boards and marbled sides and edges, red morocco titles to spines and raised bands. FIRST EDITION of this great work Written by James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind theorizes that the human mind is a store of associations of ideas derived from experience (for example, between burn and fire ). Reasoning, remembering and other mental phenomena consist of calling up and recombining these associations (ODNB). Mill was greatly influenced by Hobbes, Locke, Hume and by the French writers, such as Condillac, Helvetius and Cabanis; but his chief master was Hartley, whose theory of association he applied and extended. The book marks a distinct stage in the development of the empirical school, and many of J.S. Mill s logical and ethical doctrines are evidently suggested by the attempt to solve problems to which his father s answers appeared unsatisfactory (DNB). In Analysis, his magnum opus, Mill tries to show how all mental activity can be explained by the ways in which the sensations obtained through sense receptors, such as ears, eyes and nose, associate with each other in an organized way, and form more complex emotions, ideas and capacities. It is largely an exercise in logical construction rather than a psychological account… The result is what Mill intended to produce: a small set of general principles derived from an examination of the structure of the human mind, a set that we can then use to formulate practical measures for the improvement of human welfare (Mander & Sell, 790-91). Contemporary owner inscription of John Scott Porter (1801-80), a prominent minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Belfast, Ireland, who wrote extensively on theological issues and was devoted to the preservation of the Irish language. A nicely bound set. Quite uncommon.