Synthesized answer
James suggests that beginners omit several chapters on their first reading. These include chapters 6, 7, 8, 10 (specifically from page 330 to page 371), 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 21, and 28 [1].
He also notes that Chapter 20, on Space-perception, is particularly detailed and "a terrible thing" [1]. For beginners, James suggests an alternative order to awaken their interest: passing directly from chapter 4 to chapters 23, 24, 25, and 26, and then returning to the first volume [1].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
e sanguine who, in this crowded age, can hope to have many readers for fourteen hundred continuous pages from his pen. But _wer Vieles bringt wird Manchem etwas bringen_; and, by judiciously skipping according to their several needs, I am sure that many sorts of readers, even those who are just beginning the study of the subject, will find my book of use. Since the beginners are most in need of guidance, I suggest for their behoof that they omit altogether on a first reading chapters 6, 7, 8, 10 (from page 330 to page 371), 12, 13, 15, 17, 20, 21, and 28. The better to awaken the…
THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY BY WILLIAM JAMES PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1918 TO MY DEAR FRIEND FRANÇOIS PILLON. AS A TOKEN OF AFFECTION, AND AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF WHAT I OWE TO THE CRITIQUE PHILOSOPHIQUE. PREFACE. The treatise which follows has in the main grown up in connection with the author's class-room instruction…
ake, and unconscious that she is metaphysical, spoils two good things when she injects herself into a natural science. And it seems to me that the theories both of a spiritual agent and of associated 'ideas' are, as they figure in the psychology-books, just such metaphysics as this. Even if their results be true, it would be as well to keep them, _as thus presented_, out of psychology as it is to keep the results of idealism out of physics. I have therefore treated our passing thoughts as integers, and regarded the mere laws of their coexistence with brain-states as the ultimate laws…
d agree that abrupt acquisition of the new habit is the best way, _if there be a real possibility of carrying it out_. We must be careful not to give the will so stiff a task as to insure its defeat at the very outset; but, _provided one can stand it_, a sharp period of suffering, and then a free time, is the best thing to aim at, whether in giving up a habit like that of opium, or in simply changing one's hours of rising or of work. It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inanition if it be _never_ fed. "One must first learn, unmoved, looking neither to the right nor left,…
ited to the hemispheres. The restitution of function. Final correction of the Meynert scheme. Conclusions. CHAPTER III. ON SOME GENERAL CONDITIONS OF BRAIN-ACTIVITY The summation of Stimuli. Reaction-time. Cerebral blood-supply, 97. Cerebral Thermometry. Phosphorus and Thought. CHAPTER IV. HABIT Due to plasticity of neural matter. Produces ease of action. Diminishes attention, 115. Concatenated performances. Ethical implications and pedagogic maxims. CHAPTER V. THE AUTOMATON-THEORY The theory described. Reasons for it. Reasons against it. CHAPTER VI. THE MIND-STUFF…