Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Max Wundt (August 16, 1832–August 31, 1920) was a German physiologist and psychologist. He is generally acknowledged as the founder of experimental psychology and cognitive psychology.

Wundt's life and works

Wundt was born August 16, 1832 at Neckarau, in Baden. He studied from 1851 to 1856 at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Heidelberg in 1856, Wundt studied briefly with Johannes Müller before joining the University of Heidelberg, where he became an assistant to the physicist and physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz in 1858. There he wrote Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception (1858-62).

Related Topics:
Medicine - University of Heidelberg - Johannes Müller - Heidelberg - Physicist - Hermann von Helmholtz

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It was during this period that Wundt offered the first course ever taught in scientific psychology, stressing the use of experimental methods drawn from the natural sciences. His lectures on psychology were published as Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals (1863). He was promoted to Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1864.

Related Topics:
Methods - Natural sciences

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Bypassed in 1871 for the appointment to succeed Helmholtz, Wundt applied himself to writing a work that came to be one of the most important in the history of psychology, Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874). The Principles advanced a system of psychology that sought to investigate the immediate experiences of consciousness, including sensations, feelings, volitions, apperception, and ideas.

Related Topics:
Volitions - Apperception - Ideas

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In 1875 he took up a position at the University of Leipzig, and almost immediately set up one of the first two psychological laboratories in the world (the other was created by William James, in the United States, that same year). Two years later he founded a journal of psychology, Philosophical Studies. He remained in Leipzig until his death, supervising 186 doctoral dissertations in various disciplines.

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Wundt died in 1920, having completed his 10-volume masterwork, Völkerpsychologie (social psychology). In 1874, he published Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie, English translation, Principles of Physiological Psychology, which is the standard textbook of the science. His works include: Die Lehre von der Muskelbewegung (1858); Beiträge zur Theorie der Sinneswahrnehmung (1862); Vorlesungen über die Menschen- und Tierseele (1863), English translation, Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology; Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (1865); Die physikalischen A?iome und ihre Beziehung zum Kausalprincip (1866); Handbuch der medizinischen Physik (1867); Untersuchungen zur Mechanik der Nerven und Nervencentren (1871-76); Der Spiritismus, eine sogenannte wissenschaftliche Frage (1879); Logik, eine Untersuchung der Principien der Erkenntnis und der Methode wissenschaftlicher Forschung (1880-83); Essays (1885); Ethik, eine Untersuchung der Thatsachen und Gesetze des sittlichen Lebens (1886), English translation, Ethics: An Investigation of the Facts and Laws of the Moral Life; Zur Moral der literarischen Kritik (1887); System der Philosophie (1889); Hypnotismus und Suggestion (1892); Grundriss der Psychologie (1896), English translation, Outlines of Psychology; Völkerpsychologie, eine Untersuchung der Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache, Mythus, und Sitte (1900); Einleitung in die Philosophie (1901); Sprachgeschichte und Sprachpsychologie (1901); Festrede zur fünfhundert jährigen Jubelfeier der Universität Leipzig (1909); Principien der mechanischen Naturlehre (1910); Kleine Schriften (1910); Probleme der Völkerpsychologie (1911); Einführung in die Psychologie (1911), English translation, Introduction to Psychology; Elemente der Völkerpsychologie (1912); Reden und Aufsätze (1913); Anfänge der Phylosophie und die Philosophie der primitiven Völker (1913); Sinnliche und übersinnliche Welt (1914); Deutschland im Lichte des neutralen und des feindlichen Auslandes (1915); and Die Nationen und ihre Philosophie (1915).

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An optical illusion described by him is called Wundt illusion.

Related Topics:
Optical illusion - Wundt illusion

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