The Principles of Psychology
E36047
The Principles of Psychology is an influential 19th-century work by Herbert Spencer that applies evolutionary theory to explain mental processes and the development of the mind.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Principles of Psychology canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T277076 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Principles of Psychology Context triple: [Herbert Spencer, notableWork, The Principles of Psychology]
-
A.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is Charles Darwin’s influential 1872 work that explores how human and animal emotional expressions evolved and are biologically rooted.
-
B.
The Mind of Primitive Man
The Mind of Primitive Man is a foundational anthropological work by Franz Boas that challenged scientific racism and argued for the cultural and historical basis of human differences.
-
C.
A System of Logic
A System of Logic is John Stuart Mill’s influential 1843 philosophical treatise that systematically develops inductive logic and the empirical foundations of scientific reasoning.
-
D.
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought is George Boole’s foundational 1854 treatise that established Boolean algebra and helped lay the groundwork for modern mathematical logic and computer science.
-
E.
The Problems of Philosophy
The Problems of Philosophy is a short, accessible 1912 book by Bertrand Russell that introduces key issues in epistemology and metaphysics, such as the nature of reality, knowledge, and appearance versus reality.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Principles of Psychology Target entity description: The Principles of Psychology is an influential 19th-century work by Herbert Spencer that applies evolutionary theory to explain mental processes and the development of the mind.
-
A.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals is Charles Darwin’s influential 1872 work that explores how human and animal emotional expressions evolved and are biologically rooted.
-
B.
The Mind of Primitive Man
The Mind of Primitive Man is a foundational anthropological work by Franz Boas that challenged scientific racism and argued for the cultural and historical basis of human differences.
-
C.
A System of Logic
A System of Logic is John Stuart Mill’s influential 1843 philosophical treatise that systematically develops inductive logic and the empirical foundations of scientific reasoning.
-
D.
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought is George Boole’s foundational 1854 treatise that established Boolean algebra and helped lay the groundwork for modern mathematical logic and computer science.
-
E.
The Problems of Philosophy
The Problems of Philosophy is a short, accessible 1912 book by Bertrand Russell that introduces key issues in epistemology and metaphysics, such as the nature of reality, knowledge, and appearance versus reality.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ psychology book ⓘ |
| addresses |
adaptation of behavior to environment
ⓘ
gradual differentiation of mental functions ⓘ relation between nervous system and consciousness ⓘ |
| appliesTheory | evolutionary theory ⓘ |
| author | Herbert Spencer ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| field |
philosophy
ⓘ
psychology ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
adaptation of mental processes
ⓘ
development of the mind ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophical work
ⓘ
scientific treatise ⓘ |
| hasTheoreticalOrientation |
evolutionism
ⓘ
naturalism ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
important in the development of scientific psychology
ⓘ
one of the earliest systematic evolutionary accounts of mind ⓘ |
| influenced |
William James
ⓘ
early evolutionary psychology ⓘ functionalism (psychology) ⓘ late 19th-century psychology ⓘ social theory ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
British empiricism
ⓘ
Charles Darwin ⓘ evolutionary biology ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
evolutionary psychology
ⓘ
evolutionary theory ⓘ mental processes ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ psychology ⓘ |
| partOf | Herbert Spencer's synthetic philosophy system ⓘ |
| philosophicalStance |
anti-dualism
ⓘ
monism ⓘ |
| proposes |
gradual development of mental complexity
ⓘ
mental life as continuous with biological life ⓘ mind as product of evolutionary adaptation ⓘ |
| publicationCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| relatedWorkByAuthor |
First Principles
ⓘ
surface form:
First Principles (Herbert Spencer)
The Principles of Ethics ⓘ The Principles of Sociology ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
philosophers
ⓘ
scholars ⓘ scientists ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Principles of Psychology Description of subject: The Principles of Psychology is an influential 19th-century work by Herbert Spencer that applies evolutionary theory to explain mental processes and the development of the mind.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.