Excerpt from The Psychology of Conviction: A Study of Beliefs and Attitudes<br><br>As a consequence, though we share a common order of reasoning and a common human nature, we reach very different conclusions, approach the same prob lems in different attitudes, with difierent inclinations. Yet equally are we affected by the beliefs of others. Conviction is a social process, follows the herd instincts. Tradition and convention bear heavily upon us, and determine what we believe almost as rigidly as what we eat or what we wear. We are in the stream and are borne along by the general current, and caught -in the eddies and tossed by the waves of our immediate sur rounding. Still we must each sink or swim by our indi vidual strokes of efiort and give them the direction of our purpose. We cannot escape the obligation of set ting a course, and in following it we show the impress of our psychology, the loyalty of our minds.<br><br>The subject of this volume is concerned with the interaction of our logical and our psychological nature. It attempts to deal with the psychology of our most complex logical products. It follows the case method as the only pragmatic procedure, the only one that does justice to the rich content of a concrete issue. In the course of the analysis principles emerge and are em phasized; as in a trial at court, the judge and jury.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.