Editing Samuel Bailey (section)

==Thought==
[[File:Bailey Essays1821.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Title page: ''Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions'' 1st ed. (1821)]]
[[File:Bailey - Critical dissertation on the nature, measures, and causes of value, 1931 - 5784078.tif |thumb|''Critical dissertation on the nature, measures, and causes of value'', 1931]]
His first work, ''Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions'', published anonymously in 1821, attracted more attention than any of his other writings. A sequel to it appeared in 1829, ''Essays on the Pursuit of Truth''. Between these two were ''Questions in Political Economy, Politics, Morals, &c.'' (1823), and a ''Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measure, and Causes of Value'' (1825), directed against the opinions of [[David Ricardo]] and his school.

His next publications also were on economic or political subjects, ''Rationale of Political Representation'' (1835), and ''Money and its Vicissitudes'' (1837) and he has been regarded as one of the main theorists of [[Free banking]].<ref name="EWFB">{{cite book|last=White|first=Lawrence|title=Free Banking in Britain|url=https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/upldbook115pdf.pdf|edition=2nd|year=1995|publisher=Institute of Economic Affairs|isbn=9780255363754}}</ref>{{rp|79}} About the same time, there also appeared some of his [[pamphlet]]s, ''Discussion of Parliamentary Reform'', ''Right of Primogeniture Examined'', ''Defence of Joint-Stock Banks''. In 1842 appeared his ''Review of [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]]'s Theory of Vision'' which called forth rejoinders from [[John Stuart Mill]] in the ''[[Westminster Review]]''<ref>Mill's review appeared in the October 1842 issue of the ''Westminster Review''. It was reprinted in his ''Dissertations and Discussions'' (1859), [https://books.google.com/books?id=RqCrvijeeUQC&pg=PA84 vol. 2, pp. 84–119].</ref> and from [[James Frederick Ferrier]] in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]''.<ref>Ferrier's review appeared in the June 1842 issue of ''Blackwood's Magazine''. It was reprinted in his ''Lectures on Greek Philosophy and Other Philosophical Remains'' (1866), [https://archive.org/details/lecturesongreek02ferrgoog vol. 2, pp. 291–347].</ref> Bailey replied to his critics in a ''Letter to a Philosopher'' (1843), &c.

In 1851 he published ''Theory of Reasoning'', a discussion of the nature of [[inference]], and an able criticism of the functions and value of the [[syllogism]]. In 1852 he published ''Discourses on Various Subjects''; and finally summed up his philosophic views in the ''Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind'' (three series, 1855, 1858, 1863). The ''Letters'' contain a discussion of many of the principal problems in [[psychology]] and ethics. Bailey can hardly be classed as belonging either to the strictly [[Empiricism|empirical]] or to the [[Idealism|idealist]] school, but his general tendency is towards the former.

In regard to method, he founds [[psychology]] entirely on [[introspection]]. He thus, to a certain extent, agrees with the [[Scottish School of Common Sense|Scottish School]], but he differs from them in rejecting altogether the doctrine of [[Mind|mental faculties]]. What have been designated faculties are, upon his view, merely classified facts or phenomena of [[consciousness]]. He criticizes very severely the habitual use of [[metaphor]]ical language in describing mental operations.

His doctrine of [[perception]], which is, in brief, that "the perception of external things through the organs of sense is a direct mental act or phenomenon of consciousness not susceptible of being resolved into anything else,"<ref>Bain, Alexander.''The Senses and the Intellect''. London: Parker & Son, 1855. [https://archive.org/details/sensesandintell00baingoog Page 370]</ref> and the reality of which can be neither proved nor disproved, is not worked out in detail, but is supported by elaborate and sometimes subtle criticisms of all other theories. With regard to general and abstract [[idea]]s and general [[proposition]]s, his opinions are those of the [[Empiricism|empirical school]], but his analysis frequently puts the matter in a new light.

In the theory of [[Morality|morals]], Bailey is an advocate of [[utilitarianism]] (though he objects to the term "utility" as being narrow and, to the unthinking, of sordid content), and works out with great skill the steps in the formation of the "complex" [[mental fact]]s involved in the recognition of [[duty]], [[moral obligation|obligation]], right.

He bases all moral phenomena on five facts:
* Man is susceptible to [[pleasure]] (and [[pain]]);
* he likes (or dislikes) their causes;
* he desires to reciprocate pleasure and pain received;
* he expects such reciprocation from others;
* he feels more or less sympathy with the same feelings in his fellows (cf. ''Letters'', 3rd series).

In 1845 he published ''Maro'' a poem in four [[canto]]s (85 pp., Longmans), containing a description of a young poet who printed 1000 copies of his first poem, of which only 10 were sold. He was a diligent student of [[Shakespeare]], and his last literary work was ''On the Received Text of Shakespeare's Dramatic Writings and its Improvement'' (1862).