Summary
The pessmusm, aspirations, and approaches of certain historical texts are outlined. The ratio of treatment to available material is estimated for the most hopeful and least hopeful fields (short-term reviews and comprehensive brief texts). Principles of: selection as suggested by the terms used, are outlined. Evaluation is identified as being more objective than personal interest, but less so than scientific sampling, through the presence of accident, not chance. Sampling proper, it is suggested, will not be feasible while accident remains a constituent of selection, and while the unit of treatment (e.g. author, work) remains literary, not scientific. The establishment of genuine units for historical studies is suggested in principle as the next step towards scientific status for this branch of psychology, though in view of the varying skills of historians, concurrent pursuit of literary (e.g. bibliographical) and. scientific studies may in fact prove more rapidly fruitful.
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Cardno, J.A. Inclusion, exclusion, emphasis: Selection in the history of psychology. Psychol Rec 11, 321–331 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393418
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393418