Pessimism: A History and a Criticism

London: Henry S. King & Co, 1877. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. First edition. Formerly Westminster College's Paton Library copy, with bookplate and ink stamp inside, edges lightly worn. 1877 Hard Cover. xv, 477, [3] pp. James Sully was a founding member of the British Psychological Society, and wrote some of the first English-language psychology textbooks. This is his second book, preceding the 1881 Illusions, which was admired by Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Wundt. Sully later became a leading figure in the Child Study movement. Here he discusses optimism and pessimism, with an analysis of the life and character of Arthur Schopenhauer, Edward von Hartmann, and other well-known thinkers of the era, and descriptions of the basis of pessimism in science and experience. Also included are a lengthy discussion of pleasure and happiness, and appendices on consciousness and the physiology of pleasure and pain.