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General psychology stands to the special disciplines as algebra to arithmetic.

Arithmetic operates with specific, concrete quantities; algebra studies all kinds of gen-

eral forms of relations between qualities. Every arithmetical operation can, conse-

quently, be considered as a special case of an algebraic formula. From this it obviously

follows that for each special discipline and for each of its laws the question as to

which general formula they form a special case of is not at all indifferent. The general

science’s fundamentally guiding and supreme role, so to speak, does not follow from

the fact that it stands above the sciences, it does not come from above, from logic,

i.e., from the ultimate foundations of scientific knowledge, but from below, from the

sciences themselves which delegate the authorization of truth to the general science.

The general science, consequently, develops from the special position it occupies with

regard to the special ones: it integrates theft sovereignties, forms theft representative.

If we graphically represent the system of knowledge which covers all psychological

disciplines as a circle, general science will correspond to the center of the circumfer-

ence.