Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind

New York: Eastburn, Kirk & Co., 1814. First American Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Contemporary tree calf, gilt-stamped lettering in red leather spine label in second compartment (spine ruled in gilt); complete set of two volumes, 8vo; pp. vii, [1], 492; xii, 528. Both volumes scuffed and lightly chipped along spine, joints, and edges of boards. Text blocks a bit foxed, but otherwise clean and unmarked; a few small spots of soiling along edges of text block of Volume 2, nowhere infringing into the margins or text itself. A handsome set, if a bit rugged.

Stewart's "Elements" was published in 3 installments in London and Edinburgh over the course of 35 years (1972, 1814, 1827). The two-volume set offered here is the first American printing of the second installment, issued simultaneously with the Boston edition published by Wells and Lilly. Stewart was a disciple of Thomas Reid and it was largely through Stewart's "Elements" that the intuitionalism of Reid, which combined a methodological empiricism of self-observation with a nativism of psychological process, came to dominate 19th century American mental philosophy.