The insanity of genius and the general inequality of human faculty physiologically considered / by J.F. Nisbet ; with a preface by Bernard Hollander.
"Men of genius have exercised a powerful influence in the world since history began. Yet they are still more or less of an enigma even to themselves. As chiefs and warriors among savage tribes, as men of letters, art, or science, statesmen or military commanders in civilised communities, they w...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Corporate Author: | |
| Format: | Ebook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Charles Scribner's,
1912.
|
| Edition: | Sixth edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | APA PsycBooks |
| Summary: | "Men of genius have exercised a powerful influence in the world since history began. Yet they are still more or less of an enigma even to themselves. As chiefs and warriors among savage tribes, as men of letters, art, or science, statesmen or military commanders in civilised communities, they win the admiration of their fellows without furnishing in their own lives any conclusive indication of the means by which their success is achieved. They strike out a path for themselves, and seem to owe little or nothing to help or example. Genius has never been the monopoly of any class or system. It is as likely to manifest itself in the peasant as in the peer, and, indeed, in any list that might be drawn up of the great men of the world, examples would be found of intellectual capacity asserting itself in all conditions of life, and quite independently of the much-vaunted advantages of education. By what fatality a small number of individuals thus find themselves born to pre-eminence in every successive generation -- carrying, so to speak, the marshal's baton in their knapsack -- is one of the most interesting questions that can engage the human mind, and many, accordingly, have been the speculations indulged in with regard to the nature and origin of the gifts which lift the favoured few above the general level of their species"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved). |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 2, 2008). |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xlii, 341 pages) Also issued in print. |
| Format: | Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |