Editing Wilhelm Wundt (section)

===Definition of psychology===

Wundt set himself the task of redefining the broad field of psychology between philosophy and physiology, between the humanities and the natural sciences. In place of the metaphysical definition as a science of the soul came the definition, based on scientific theory, of empirical psychology as a psychology of consciousness with its own categories and epistemological principles. Psychology examines the "entire experience in its immediately subjective reality."<ref>Wundt: Grundriss der Psychologie, 1920, 14th ed. p. 14.</ref> The task of psychology is to precisely analyse the processes of consciousness, to assess the complex connections (''psychische Verbindungen''), and to find the laws governing such relationships.

#Psychology is 'not a science of the individual soul . Life is a uniform mental and physical process that can be considered in a variety of ways in order to recognise general principles, particularly the psychological-historical and biological principles of [[Developmental psychology|development]]. Wundt demanded an understanding of the emotional and the volitional functions, in addition to cognitive features, as equally important aspects of the unitary (whole) psychophysical process.
#Psychology cannot be reduced to physiology. The tools of physiology remain fundamentally insufficient for the task of psychology. Such a project is meaningless "because the interrelations between mental processes would be incomprehensible even if the interrelations between brain processes were as clearly understood as the mechanism of a pocket watch."<ref>Wundt: Grundzüge, 1902–1903, Volume 3, S. 777.</ref>
#Psychology is concerned with conscious processes. Wundt rejected making [[subconscious]] mental processes a topic of scientific psychology for epistemological and methodological reasons. In his day there were, before [[Sigmund Freud]], influential authors such as the philosopher [[Eduard von Hartmann]] (1901), who postulated a metaphysics of ''the unconscious''. Wundt had two fundamental objections. He rejected all primarily metaphysically founded psychology and he saw no reliable methodological approach. He also soon revised his initial assumptions about unconscious judgements<ref>Saulo de F. Araujo: Why did Wundt abandon his early theory of the unconscious? 2012, Volume 15, pp. 33–49.</ref><ref>Saulo de F. Araujo: Wundt and the Philosophical Foundations of Psychology. A Reappraisal.  2016.</ref> When Wundt rejects the assumption of "the unconscious" he is also showing his scepticism regarding Fechner's theory of the unconscious and Wundt is perhaps even more greatly influenced by the flood of writing at the time on [[hypnotism]] and [[Spiritualism (beliefs)|spiritualism]] (Wundt, 1879, 1892). While Freud frequently quoted from Wundt's work, Wundt remained sceptical about all hypotheses that operated with the concept of "the unconscious".<ref>Christfried Tögel: Freud und Wundt. Von der Hypnose bis zur Völkerpsychologie. In: B. Nitzschke (Ed.). Freud und die akademische Psychologie. Urban & Schwarzenberg: München: 1989, pp. 97–105.</ref><ref>Fahrenberg: Theoretische Psychologie, 2015, pp. 310–314.</ref>{{pb}}For Wundt it would be just as much a misunderstanding to define psychology as a [[behavioural science]] in the sense of the later concept of strict [[behaviourism]]. Numerous behavioural and psychological variables had already been observed or measured at the Leipzig laboratory. Wundt stressed that physiological effects, for example the physiological changes accompanying [[feelings]], were only tools of psychology, as were the physical measurements of stimulus intensity in [[psychophysics]]. Further developing these methodological approaches one-sidedly would ultimately, however, lead to a behavioural physiology, i.e. a [[scientific reductionism]], and not to a general psychology and cultural psychology.
#Psychology is an empirical humanities science. Wundt was convinced of the triple status of psychology:
#* as a science of the direct experience it contrasts with the natural sciences that refer to the indirect content of experience and abstract from the subject;
#* as a science "of generally valid forms of direct human experience it is the foundation of the humanities";
#* among all the empirical sciences it was "the one whose results most benefit the examination of the general problems of epistemology and ethics – the two fundamental areas of philosophy."<ref>Wundt: Grundriss der Psychologie, 1920, 14th ed., pp. 18 f.</ref>

Wundt's concepts were developed during almost 60 years of research and teaching that led him from neurophysiology to psychology and philosophy. The interrelationships between physiology, philosophy, logic, epistemology and ethics are therefore essential for an understanding of Wundt's psychology. The core of Wundt's areas of interest and guiding ideas can already be seen in his ''Vorlesungen über die Menschen- und Tierseele'' (Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology) of 1863: ''individual psychology'' (now known as general psychology, i.e. areas such as perception, attention, apperception, volition, will, feelings and emotions); ''cultural psychology'' (Wundt's Völkerpsychologie) as development theory of the human mind); ''animal psychology''; and ''neuropsychology''. The initial conceptual outlines of the 30-year-old Wundt (1862, 1863) led to a long research program, to the founding of the first Institute and to the treatment of psychology as a discipline, as well as to a range of fundamental textbooks and numerous other publications.