Wundt contested: The first crisis declaration in psychology

2019

This book reconstructs the rise and fall of Wilhelm Wundt’s fortunes, focusing for the first time on the role of Richard Avenarius as catalyst for the so-called “positivist repudiation of Wundt.” Krauss specifically looks at the progressive disavowal of Wundtian ideas in the world of scientific psychology, and especially by his former pupils. This book provides important historical context and a critical discussion of the current state of research, in addition to a detailed consideration of Wundt’s and Avenarius’ systems of thought, as well as on their personal relationship. The author outlines the reception of Avenarius’ conceptions among Wundt’s pupils, such as Külpe, Münsterberg and Titchener, and among other psychologists of the time, such as Ward, James and Ebbinghaus. Finally, this book presents Wundt’s two-fold attempt to respond to the new trend through a criticism of the “materialistic” psychology, and a reformulation of his own ideas.

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 2020

Ideal-RealIsTIc" appRoach Avenarius' ideas represented a radicalization of Wundt's position, thus undermining the fragile balance that was typical of the solutions proposed by the latter. Already Wundt had tried to merge idealism and realism. Already Wundt had stressed the link between cerebral processes and psychical phenomena. Already Wundt had sustained the complementarity of psychology and physiology. Nonetheless, Wundt approached these issues trying to find compromises. Conversely, Avenarius was not afraid to take them to their radical consequences. Concerning the first problem-the opposition between idealism and realism-Wundt dealt with it at the end of his Grundzüge der physiologischen psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychology): The facts of consciousness are the foundation of all our knowledge, and therefore, the outer experience is only a special domain of inner experience. Even though this leads to a necessary assumption of objective existence, still the form in which we apprehend that existence is in essence codetermined by the characteristics of consciousness. […] Idealism seizes hold of these results of the critique of knowledge. Since outer experience is a part of the inner experience, it views the world as a reflection of consciousness. As long as it combats the claim of the materialists, it keeps the upper hand, but when it passes on to attempts at explanation of nature, it runs aground on unyielding reality. Despite the ubiquitous traces of subjective influences on the forms in which we apprehend reality, they point CHAPTER 3 Wilhelm Wundt and the Crisis in the Relationship with Avenarius

International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 2021

In the 1970-80ies critical assessments of the problematic state of psychology as science were flourishing, stressing the theoretical disintegration and practical irrelevance of psychological basic research and connecting both defects to a misplaced dependence of mainstream psychology on a scientistic notion of scientific cognition. Talks of a crisis in psychology were gaining ground again. Controverting the paradigmatic maturity vs. the pre-/non-paradigmatic state of our discipline or, alternatively, its necessarily multi-paradigmatic character, the quest for unification as against a programmatic theoretical pluralism became a top issue of scholarly dispute. The institutionalisation of ISTP in 1985 and its initial epistemological and meta-theoretical core themes clearly reflected this pervasive trend. Some 35 years later, it has become noticeably quiet about such concerns, and there is no evidence of a renewal of large-scale discussions on a foundational crisis in psychology, let al...

Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 1995

Deals with disintegration of the psychology to a science based on experimentation according to the positivistic methodology of natural sciences, and another one founded on interpretation according to the hermeneutic methodology of historical sciences. Considers the possibilities to reintegrate the psychology by a Vy gotskian methodology that would deal with signs and tools as functionning within the same structure. key words: hermeneutic vs positivistic methodology; historical vs natural sciences; Vygotsky, Leontiev; signs and tools A psychologist in Hungary today does not necessarily want to be acknowledged for what he does as a scientist; actually, the number of those who fancy themselves artists or magicians is growing. On the other hand, those of us who make a point of our theoretical or practical work being of a scientific nature are willing to consider psychology a natural science. Indeed, how could something be scientific if not in the same way as physics, chemistry, biology are? But how could it be thought otherwise, when in our university studies the foundations of our major are laid by anatomy, physiology, ethology, and we graduate without having had to learn a bit of sociology, linguistics, economics, or history as areas relevant to our special subject. True, some time earlier a subject called Cultural History and Anthropology was introduced in psychologist training at Budapest University, for example, but a more recent reform swept if out of the curriculum.

Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless

We can discern at least two senses of crisis in psychology. First, a sense of crisis that is endemic to the discipline, one that adheres to the founding of psychology as a unified, or autonomous, discipline. Perhaps this sense of perpetual crisis was already evident in Wilhelm Wundt's careful distinction between the applicability of experimental and descriptive methods to the domains of their respective phenomena. If at times Wundt understood this distinction in terms of the empirical limits of experimentation, at other times he clearly understood the distinction as one that reflected the differences between psychology conceived of as a natural or human science.

Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, 2012

2016

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