Attention: A Historical Summary of the Discussion Concerning the Subject; A Dissertation

When studying the views of mankind on a particular subject of attention, these difficulties are unusually great. There is something in modern writings on psychology and psychology - some of them a lot - to say about attention, but this was not in such works even in the eighteenth century, let alone in earlier periods. Not surprisingly, attention is variously described as sensation, feeling, intellectual activity, or willpower; even less surprising is that confusing and opposing concepts arose from partial views of attention and are rooted in one-sided views of the human mind. However, in these conflicting theories there is always a dualistic view, expressed or implied, and the purpose of this work is, in part, to indicate and separate the two; at the same time, no conscious attempt is made either to project into any opinion some incomprehensible concept in it, or to combine all opinions into one scheme. We strive to use the word "physiological" where there is any mention of the body, its organs and their activity. On the contrary, we use the word psychic to refer to mental facts that come or may come to consciousness. In this distinction, we are warned that the psychological and physiological fields merge, and that ultimately all attempts to distinguish between them fail, both in theory and experimentally. Many authors and the author himself have stated that Chapter 4 of this work has deliberately omitted the theories and conclusions of a large number of experimental psychologists. These findings are outlined only briefly, while they are also included in the theories of others summarized in this paper. The author is aware that there are some points of view that, for this reason, may be omitted, while others are not mentioned, and which may need to have been presented. The purpose of this survey is twofold: to systematically present different views of attention over the centuries, and also to discover more specifically what is meant by attention in relation to each person.