George Combe: A portrait of a heretofore generally unknown behaviorist
✍ Scribed by Anthony A. Walsh
- Book ID
- 102678146
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1971
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 743 KB
- Volume
- 7
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-5061
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
a book was published the title and author of which few contemporary psychologists would recognize. The work was entitled The Constitution of M a n Considered in Relation to External Objects-a work which was destined to have fortunes bequeathed in order that i t might be made available to a11,l a work which would be found on 19th Century shelves where only the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress could be found12 a work which would be translated into a t least six foreign languages, produced in an edition especially for the blind by Samuel Gridley Howe13 sell a t least 300,000 copies by 1854, and, according to many, immortalize its author and hand his name down to posterity with honor and lasting fame. The work was not the only-and, perhaps, was not the most important-contribution given to the world of ideas by its author, but it most certainly indicates the scope of his influence. The man was a psychologist, a philosopher, and a liberal reformer. The man was George Combe (1788-1858).
George Combe was born October 21, 1788 at Livingston's Yards, a locality within the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. His parents, George and Marion, were not well edbcated; however, his father was able to provide a modest income as a brewer and to househowever tightly quartered-George and his twelve brothers and sisters. Their residence, while not atypical within the "middle ranks" of Scottish Society a t the time, was described by Combe as being totally unhealthy, ". . . the laws of health, depending on ventilation, ablut,ion, and exercise. . .1'4 being totally unknown. Scotland during this period was stlrictly Calvinistic and Combe's parents were strict adherents to its tenets. They . . . believed, and taught their children to conceive, that the baleful effects of bad sewerage and overcrowded sleeping-closets were attributable, not to their own ignorance of sanitary laws, but to the primeval curse, as explained in the Shorter Catechism of the The early years were important ones for Combe. Later in life, he would attribute his frail coiistitution to the environment into which he was born. In regard to his