The Project Gutenberg EBook of Clever Hans, by Oskar Pfungst

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Title: Clever Hans
(The horse of Mr. Von Osten): A contribution to experimental
animal and human psychology

Author: Oskar Pfungst

Translator: Carl L. Rahn

Release Date: October 11, 2010 [EBook #33936]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: CLEVER HANS]

CLEVER HANS

(THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN)

_A CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIMENTAL
ANIMAL AND HUMAN
PSYCHOLOGY_

BY
OSKAR PFUNGST

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PROF. C. STUMPF,
AND ONE ILLUSTRATION AND FIFTEEN FIGURES

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
CARL L. RAHN
_Fellow in Psychology in the University of Chicago_

WITH A PREFATORY NOTE BY
JAMES R. ANGELL
_Professor of Psychology in the University of Chicago_

[Illustration]

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1911

COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

PREFATORY NOTE

[BY JAMES R. ANGELL]

_The University of Chicago_

It gives me great pleasure to accept the invitation of the publishers to
write a word of introduction for Mr. Rahn's excellent translation of
"Der Kluge Hans", a book which in the original has been but little known
to American readers. The present wave of interest in animal life and
behavior renders its appearance peculiarly appropriate.

No more remarkable tale of credulity founded on unconscious deceit was
ever told, and were it offered as fiction, it would take high rank as a
work of imagination. Being in reality a record of sober fact, it verges
on the miraculous. After reading Mr. Pfungst's story one can quite
understand how sedate and sober Germany was for months thrown into a
turmoil of newspaper debate, which for intensity and range of feeling
finds its only parallel in a heated political campaign. That the subject
of the controversy was the alleged ability of a trained horse to solve
complex arithmetical problems may excite gaiety and even derision, until