Abstract
Russo Krauss exposes Wilhelm Wundt’s position on some fundamental issues of the philosophical and psychological debate at the turn of the century, such as: the antinomy between idealism and realism; the apparent contradiction between physiological explanation and psychical causality; the difference between natural and spiritual sciences. Russo Krauss highlights Wundt’s inclination to seek compromises, in opposition to Richard Avenarius’ tendency to adopt radical positions (especially regarding the cerebral explanation of mental life). Russo Krauss reconstructs how the growing distance between the two thinkers ultimately resulted in the end of their decade-long collaboration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This is a reference to Eduard Pflüger’s famous experiment of 1853, that supposedly demonstrated that decapitated frogs exhibit purposive behavior. Avenarius repeatedly mentions this experiment as a proof that the “purposiveness” is not a mark of consciousness, rather a biological-physiological feature. For a history of the philosophical debate that resulted from Pflüger’s experiment, see Klein (2017).
- 2.
Avenarius to Heinze, December 9, 1891. This and all other Avenarius’ letters quoted below are in Avenarius Archive, box 12.
- 3.
Avenarius to Riehl, December 13, 1891.
- 4.
Avenarius to Heinze, December 21, 1891.
- 5.
Avenarius to Wundt, December 27, 1891.
- 6.
Stumpf to James , September 8, 1886 (Perry 1935, 67). In passing, the fact that Stumpf calls the Vierteljahrsschrift Wundt’s “own” journal is a further proof of the close collaboration between the latter and Avenarius at the beginning of their careers.
- 7.
Avenarius to Wundt, February 8, 1886.
- 8.
Avenarius to Marty, October 26, 1886.
- 9.
- 10.
Avenarius Archive, box 4, n. 21 (Exerpte).
- 11.
Concerning the will , Avenarius recorded in his notebook that “Wundt silently pleads for the will as metaphysical being.”
- 12.
The best example of James ’ opinion on Wundt is this letter to Stumpf from February 6, 1887: “[Wundt] aims at being a sort of Napoleon of the intellectual world. Unfortunately, he will never have a Waterloo, for he is a Napoleon without genius and with no central idea which, if defeated, brings down the whole fabric in ruin. […] Cut him up like a worm, and each fragment crawls; there is no nœud vital in his mental medulla oblongata, so that you can’t kill him all at once. But surely you must admit that, since there must be professors in the world, Wundt is the most praiseworthy and never-too-much-to be-respected type of the species. He isn’t a genius, he is a professor—a being whose duty is to know everything, and have his own opinion about everything, connected with his Fach [department]. Wundt has the most prodigious faculty of appropriating and preserving knowledge, and as for opinions, he takes au grand serieux [in all seriousness] his duties there. He says of each possible subject, ‘Here I must have an opinion. Let’s see! What shall it be? How many possible opinions are there? three? four? Yes! Just four! Shall I take one of these? It will seem more original to take a higher position, a sort of Vermittelungsansicht [synthesis] between them all. That I will do, etc., etc.’ So he acquires a complete assortment of opinions of his own; and, as his memory is so good, he seldom forgets which they are! But this is not reprehensible; it is admirable from the professorial point of view” (Perry 1935, 68–69).
References
Avenarius Archive. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Handschriftenabteilung.
Avenarius, Richard. 1888. Kritik der reinen Erfahrung. Vol. 1. 2 vols. Leipzig: Fues.
———. 1890. Kritik der reinen Erfahrung. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Leipzig: Fues.
———. [1891] 1905. Der menschliche Weltbegriff. Leipzig: Reisland.
James, William. 1999. The Correspondence of William James: 1890–1894. Edited by Ignas K. Skrupskelis and Elizabeth M. Berkeley. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Klein, Alexander. 2017. “The Curious Case of the Decapitated Frog: On Experiment and Philosophy.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (5): 890–917.
Laas, Ernst. 1879. Idealismus und Positivismus: eine kritische Auseinandersetzung. Idealistische und positivistische Ethik. Berlin: Weidmann.
Mach, Ernst. 1886. Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen. Jena: Fischer.
Marty, Anton. 1886. “Über Sprachreflex, Nativismus und absichtliche Sprachbildung.” Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 8: 69–105; 10: 346–64.
Perry, Ralph B., ed. 1935. The Thought and Character of William James. Vol II. Philosophy and Psychology. Vol. 2. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press.
Riehl, Alois. 1879. Der philosophische Kriticismus und seine Bedeutung für die positive Wissenschaft. Vol 2: Die sinnlichen und logischen Grundlagen der Erkenntnis. Leipzig: Engelmann.
Schmidkunz, Hans. 1891. “Der Hypnotismus in der neuesten ‘Psychologie’.” Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 15: 210–15.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. 1859. Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. Leipzig: Baedeker.
Wundt, Wilhelm. 1874. Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie. 1st ed. Leipzig: Engelmann.
———. 1880a. Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie. 2nd ed. Leipzig: Engelmann.
———. 1880b. Logik: eine Untersuchung der Principien der Erkenntniss und der Methoden wissenschaftlicher Forschung. I. Erkenntnislehre. 1st ed. Stuttgart: Enke.
———. 1883. Logik: eine Untersuchung der Principien der Erkenntniss und der Methoden wissenschaftlicher Forschung. II. Methodenlehre. 1st ed. Stuttgart: Enke.
———. 1888. “Ueber Ziele und Wege der Völkerpsychologie.” Philosophische Studien 4: 1–27.
———. 1889a. System der Philosophie. 1st ed. Leipzig: Engelmann.
———. 1889b. “Über die Eintheilung der Wissenschaften.” Philosophische Studien 5: 1–55.
———. 1980. “Selected Texts from Writings of Wilhelm Wund,” translated by Solomon Diamond. In Wilhelm Wundt and the Making of a Scientific Psychology, edited by Robert Rieber, 155–77. Path in Psychology. Boston, MA: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Russo Krauss, C. (2019). Wilhelm Wundt and the Crisis in the Relationship with Avenarius. In: Wundt, Avenarius, and Scientific Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12637-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12637-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12636-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12637-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)