Association, Laws of
Association, Laws of
The psychological laws in accordance with which association takes place. The classical enumeration of the laws of association is contained in Aristotle’s De Memoria et Reminiscentia, II, 451, b 18-20 which lists similarity, contrast and contiguity as the methods of reviving memories. Hume (A Treatise on Human Nature, Part I, 4 and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 3) slightly revised the Aristotelian list by enumerating as the sole principles of association, resemblance, contiguity in time or place and causality; contrast was considered by Hume, “a mixture of causation and resemblance.” — L.W.