James Mill's Psychology

James Mill (6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. (wiki)

I write this article having read in full the work of James Mill, known as "Analysis of the phenomena of the human mind".

Mill distinguished between three cognitive factors, sensation, ideas, and trains of thought (later called the stream of consciousness by William James). He classified thought of things and their causes and effects, their ontology and their teleology. Ideas have resemblance or contrariety to other ideas or sensations (like or unlike), and these things each have cause and results.

(To borrow from the correspondence theory of Truth) There are concrete ideas, those having direct correspondence to external things, and abstract ideas, those ideas NOT having direct correspondence to an external thing. "External   Objects" are "From which sensation is derived." Inwardly or outwardly, as of ideas or sensations, they either are like or unlike particularly in their Qualities.

He thought in the same way as many ethical philosophers have, that we are equipped with pleasure and pain, desire and aversion, and that these direct our conduct. There are. "all sorts of pleasures and pains" which he goes on to define within the context of past, present, and future sensations.

"Will" is "the part of feeling of motion" also "the idea of action." Pleasure as Motive: "Pleasure is contemplated as the consequent of an action of one's own and not capable otherwise existing; a peculiar state of mind is generated which, as it is a tendency to action, is properly denominated Motive." This is changeable.

"Disposition," as "a readiness to obey one's motives." As pleasures, motives take on classes of their own such as written on as: Money, Power, Love, Beauty, Knowledge. Ideas of a cause of pleasurable or painful sensations and its effects, is called an Affection.  Likewise, we each have an idea of happiness, and to some extent know how to cause the effect of it. These also might be called by him, "objects of volition."  When ideas become operative they are said to be "the will." Compare this to declarative and procedural ideas in modern psychology.

"Man ought to be the cause of good for himself and the good for his species."

The will takes on an "ease" of acting because of "repetition." This idea was presented by some of the first behaviorists.

Defined "Power" as something economic, the extent to which one can buy commodities or services of other Men.

"Extensions" are "Lines in every direction."

"Things contain other things," and we can unite and divide wholes and parts.