Psychology has a long past, but only a short history.
Interpretation
Psychology has ancient roots but is a relatively new field of academic study.
The quote by Hermann Ebbinghaus highlights the idea that while the concepts and practices related to psychology have existed since ancient times, the formal study and recognition of psychology as a scientific discipline is quite recent. This indicates the evolution of understanding human behavior from philosophical musings to a structured field of research and application.
In practice
In a psychology lecture to illustrate the origins of the field.
Ideas which have been developed simultaneously or in immediate succession in the same mind mutually reproduce each other, and do this with greater ease in the direction of the original succession and with a certainty proportional to the frequency with which they were together
Often, even after years, mental states once present in consciousness return to it with apparent spontaneity and without any act of the will; that is, they are reproduced involuntarily.
Mental states of every kind, - sensations, feelings, ideas, - which were at one time present in consciousness and then have disappeared from it, have not with their disappearance absolutely ceased to exist.
What works most effectively for quelling disease outbreaks like Ebola is not quarantining huge populations. What works is focusing on and isolating the sick and those in direct contact with them as they are at highest risk of infection. This strategy worked with SARS, and it worked during the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
We need more science in the world. Train me.
What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school... It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't understand it. You see my physics students don't understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody does.
Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded.
I would be very ashamed of my civilization if we did not try to find out if there is life in outer space.
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