Hickok’s Rational Psychology (1849) — Laurens Hickok was a Union
College professor, and college vice president. His philosophy, a blending
of Christian thought with contemporary trends in German philosophy, was
very influential on Ludlow’s outlook. One writer noted that Hickok
“attempts to reconcile an original interpretation of post-Kantian idealism
with orthodox theology” which is much the mission of this chapter of
Ludlow’s. Much as Ludlow complains here, the New Englander and Yale
review of 1849 dismissed Rational Psychology with complaints
about its dense language:
This is a ponderous octavo, with one very obvious excellence which we hold
to be essential in works on metaphysics, and that is, it is printed in a
large open type… We fear that if for no other reason than the strange
and uncouth language in which this work is written, it will be thoroughly
read by but few. We believe also that the manner in which the discussion
is conducted, will make it neither interesting nor intelligible to any
except those who are adepts in German metaphysics.
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