Psychologism

Bauch, B. (1917) Immanuel Kant, Berlin and Leipzig: Göschen. (Interpretation of Kant that privileges the ‘Critique of Judgement’ and makes evident the ‘objectivist’ radicalisation of anti-psychologism.)

Beneke, F.E. (1833) Die Philosophie in ihrem Verhältnis zur Erfahrung, zur Spekulation und zum Leben, Berlin: Posen und Bromberg. (Classic of the reductionist variant of the psychological method and psychologism.)

Blumenberg, H. (1959) ‘Transzendenz und Immanenz’, in H. von Campenhausen, E. Dinkler, G. Gloeger, and K. Galling (eds), Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Handwörterbuch für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 989–997. (Definition of the immanence principle.)

Bolzano, B. (1834) ‘Der Briefwechsel B. Bolzano’s mit F. Exner’, in E. Winter (ed.), Bernhard Bolzano’s Schriften, Prague: Königlichen Böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1935. (Important document on the origins of the opposition between psychologism and objectivism.)

Bolzano, B. (1837) Wissenschaftslehre. Versuch einer ausführlichen und grösstenteils neue Darstellung der Logik mit steter Rücksicht auf deren bisherige Bearbeiter, Sulzbach: J.E. Seidelschen Buchhandlung. (Classic on logical realism and its characteristic anti-psychologism.)

Bosanquet, B. (1888) Logic or the Morphology of Knowledge, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Idealist logic that documents the English reception of German logic.)

Bradley, F.H. (1883) The Principles of Logic, London: Oxford University Press. (Idealist logic that contains one of the first registers of English anti-psychologism.)

Braunstein, J.-F. (2012) ‘The French Invention of “Psychologisme” in 1828’, Revue d’histoire des sciences 65(2): 197–212. (Historical revision of the Psychologismusstreit that shows French antecedents.)

Brentano, F. (1874) Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkt, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1971. (Classic of the descriptive tradition of the psychological method, wherein a notion of intentionality is reintroduced and a response to Husserl’s critique of psychologism is found in one of its appendices.)

Brentano, F. (1925) Versuch über die Erkenntnis, Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1970.

Carnap, R. (1928) Der Logische Aufbau der Welt, Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag. (Classic of constitution theory from the perspective of logical neo-positivism.)

Carnap, R. (1936) ‘Von der Erkenntnistheorie zur Wissenschaftslogik’, in Actes du Congrés international de philosophie scientifique, Sorbonne, Paris, Paris: Hermann and Cie, pp. 36–41. (Fundamental text to establish Carnap’s position regarding psychologism.)

Carnap, R. (1950) Logical Foundations of Probability, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press and Routledge. (Analysis of the concept of probability from the perspective of logical science, representative of the rejection of psychologism.)

Cohen, H. (1871) Kants Theorie der Erfahrung, Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler, 1885. (Foundational work of Marburgean Neo-Kantianism, which yields the first proposal of the transcendental method and, through its successive editions, makes evident the ripening process of the rejection of psychologism.)

Cohen, H. (1877) Kants Begründung der Ethik, Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler. (Marburgean interpretation of Kantian ethics and first document of mature Marburgean anti-psychologism.)

Cohen, H. (1881) ‘Einleitung’, in F.A. Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart, Iserlohn and Leipzig: Baedeker, 1887. (Important for understanding the historical horizon of Marburgean Neo-Kantianism, in which the transcendental method is proposed.)

Cohen, H. (1902) Logik der reinen Erkenntnis, Berlin: Bruno Cassirer Verlag, 1922. (Evidence of the logicist radicalisation process of Marburgean Neo-Kantianism.)

Couturat, L. (1906) ‘La Logique et la philosophie contemporaine’, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 14(3): 318–341. (Important text for the French revival of the question of psychologism at the turn of the century.)

Drobisch, M.W. (1834) Beiträge zur Orientierung über Herbarts System der Philosophie, Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Voss. (Synthesis work of one of the main exponents of the Herbartian school and containing one of the first documents of the German Psychologismusstreit.)

Drobisch, M.W. (1842) Empirische Psychologie nach naturwissenschaftlicher Methode, Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Voss. (Reworking of Herbartian psychology that contains some paradigmatic texts of the first phase of German Psychologismusstreit.)

Erdmann, B. (1892) Logik: Logische Elementarlehre, Halle: Verlag von Max Niemeyer. (Classic text of logical psychologism derived from the logische Frage.)

Fischer, K. (1862) Die beiden kantischen Schulen in Jena, Stuttgart: Cottascher Verlag. (Fundamental text for the beginning of the controversy around psychologism in Neo-Kantianism.)

Frege, G. (1884) Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Eine logisch mathematische Untersuchung über den Begriff der Zahl, ed. Christian Thiel, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1988. (Informal exposition of the logical derivation of number and first Fregean text that introduces distinctions and innovative arguments in the controversy surrounding psychology.)

Frege, G. (1893) Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, Jena: Pohl. (Formal and most complete realisation of the logicist programme and exhibition of Fregean anti-psychologism.)

Frege, G. (1897) ‘Logik’, in G. Gabriel (ed.), Schriften zur Logik und Sprachphilosophie. Aus dem Nachlass, Hamburg: Meiner, 1980. (Fundamental text for the philosophy of Fregean logic, including its anti-psychologism, and anticipating in several respects the subsequent essay Der Gedanke.)

Frege, G. (1918) ‘Der Gedanke’, in G. Patzig (ed.), Logische Untersuchungen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 3. Auflage, 1986. (Mature text of Fregean epistemology and philosophy of logic, including its anti-psychologism.)

Fries, J.F. (1803) Reinhold, Fichte und Schelling, Leipzig: August Lebrecht Reineicke. (First expression of the Friesean reaction to the speculative orientation of post-Kantian philosophy.)

Fries, J.F. (1824) System der Metaphysik. Ein Handbuch für Lehrer und zum Selbstgebrauch, Heidelberg: Christian Friedrich Winter. (Synthesizes the essential points of metaphysics conceived as a system of a priori principles and underlines its empirical-psychological foundation.)

Fries, J.F. (1840) Die Geschichte der Philosophie dargestellt nach den Fortschritten ihrer wissenschaftlichen Entwicklung, Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. (Locates Fries’s philosophy in a historical-philosophical perspective, taking critical distance from his rivals (among them Beneke).)

Godden, D. (2005) ‘Psychologism in the Logic of John Stuart Mill: Mill on the Subject Matter and Foundations of Ratiocinative Logic’, Journal of the History and Philosophy of Logic 26(2): 115–143. (Text that combats some simplifications regarding Millean psychologism.)

Heidegger, M. (1927) ‘Letter to Husserl 22.10.1927’, in E. Husserl, Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger (1927–1931), ed. T. Sheehan and R.E. Palmer, Dordrecht, Boston, and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997. (Documents the Heideggerian turn to facticity.)

Herbart, J.F. (1816) Lehrbuch zur Psychologie, ed. G. Hartenstein, Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Voss, 1882. (One of the foundational works of psychology as science and expression of an extremely influential school in the nineteenth century.)

Herbart, J.F. (1830) Jenaische Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, Nr. 6. 42–48; Nr. 7. 49–54. (Document of the first expressions of the Psychologismusstreit between Herbart and Beneke.)

Höfler, A. (1906) ‘Sind wir Psychologisten?’ in Atti die V Convegno internazionale de Psicologia, Rome: Forzani, pp. 322–328. (Expression of the reaction to the criticism of psychologism in a thinker close to Meinong.)

Husserl, E. (1900) Logische Untersuchungen. Prolegomena zur reinen Logik, Husserliana 18, ed. E. Holenstein, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975. (Classic work, absolute reference for the Psychologismusstreit and its study and that has decisively conditioned its understanding.)

Husserl, E. (1903) Besprechung von M. Palágyi. Der Streit der Psychologisten und Formalisten in der modernen Logik, Husserliana 22, ed. B. Rang, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979. (Husserl’s response to critical reaction to the Prolegomena.)

Husserl, E. (1906–7) Einleitung in die Logik und Erkenntnistheorie, Husserliana 24, ed. U. Melle, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987. (Beginning of Husserl’s path to transcendental phenomenology and his new variant of anti-psychologism.)

Husserl, E. (1911) Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft, Husserliana 25, ed. T. Nenon and H.R. Sepp, Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987. (Proposal of the constitution of philosophy as a rigorous science that has naturalism and historicism as its main enemies.)

Husserl, E. (1913a) Introduction to the Logical Investigations: A Draft of a Preface to the Logical Investigations, ed. Eugen Fink, trans. P. Bossert and C. Peters, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975. (Drafted preface to a new edition of the Logical Investigations that takes a position regarding critical reactions to the first edition of said work.)

Husserl, E. (1913b) Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch: Allgemeine Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie, Husserliana 3, ed. K. Schuhmann. Nachdruck. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976. (Text that makes the turn to phenomenological idealism and transcendental phenomenology.)

Husserl, E. (1925/1927–31) Phänomenologische Psychologie, Husserliana 9, ed. W. Biemel, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962. (Set of texts in which Husserl repeatedly returns to discuss the relationship between psychology and phenomenology.)

Kerry, B. (1887) ‘Über Anschauung und ihre psychische Verarbeitung’, Vierter Artikel, Vierteljahresschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie 11: 249–307. (Proposal of a philosophy of mathematics based on the psychological method of Brentanian inspiration and critical criticism of Frege’s logic and anti-psychologism.)

Lipps, T. (1880) ‘Die Aufgabe der Erkenntnistheorie und die Wundt‘sche Logik’, Philosophische Monatshefte 16: 529–539. (Representative text of the internal controversies between variants of psychologism.)

Lipps, T. (1883) Grundtatsachen des Seelenlebens, Bonn: Verlag von Max Cohen und Sohn. (Work that can be considered the greatest expression of the psychologism of the 1880s.)

Lipps, T. (1893) Grundzüge der Logik, Hamburg and Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Voss. (Work that can be considered the greatest expression of logical psychologism of the 1880s.)

Locke, J. (1689–90) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, collected and annotated by Alexander Campbell Fraser, New York: Dover, 1950. (Foundational work of English empiricism that inaugurates the ‘way of ideas’ and that exerted a decisive influence on the predominant role of the principle of immanence in modern philosophy.)

Lotze, H. (1874) Logik. Drei Bücher vom Denken vom Untersuchen und vom Erkennen, ed. G. Misch, Leipzig: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1912. (One of the most influential logics of the nineteenth century that makes the classical interpretation of platonic ideas from the idea of validity (Geltung).)

Marty, A. (1908) Untersuchungen zur Grundlegung der allgemeinen Grammatik und Sprachphilosophie, Halle: Verlag von Max Niemeyer. (Language philosophy founded on the Brentanian psychological-descriptive method that opposes the accusations of psychologism directed at such a method.)

Meinong, A. (1902) Über Annahmen, Leipzig: J.A. Barth. (Meinong’s work of rupture with the Brentanian theory of psychic acts that requires his position against psychologism.)

Meinong, A. (1904) ‘Über Gegenstandstheorie’, in A. Meinong (ed.), Untersuchungen zur Gegenstandtheorie und Psychologie, Leipzig: J.A. Barth. (Influential work of Brentano’s heterodox disciple who reformulates the primacy of psychology in philosophy fighting psychologism without completely abandoning the psychological method.)

Meyer, J.B. (1870) Kants Psychologie. Dargestellt und erörtert, Berlin: Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz. (First great synthesis about the controversies about psychological method and psychologism that will constitute reference work of all the later Neo-Kantian discussion.)

Mill, J.S. (1865) An examination of Sir William Hamilton’s philosophy, London and Toronto: Routledge and University of Toronto Press, 1979. (Mill’s criticism of the psychological method of the Scottish school.)

Mill, J.S. (1869) System of Logic: Raciocinative and Inductive, New York: Harper and Brother Publishers. (Work that offers a logic of an inductivist orientation based on a radicalisation of empiricism which will have decisive influence in the nineteenth century, being considered by some as a model of logical psychologism.)

Moore, G.E. (1899) ‘The Nature of Judgment’, Mind 8(30): 176–193. (Decisive text in overcoming the idealistic theory of judgement and elaborating a realistic alternative.)

Moore, G.E. (1903) ‘The Refutation of Idealism’, Mind 12(48): 433–453. (Classic work of English realist anti-psychologism that takes it to its maximum expression.)

Natorp, P. (1887) ‘Über objektive und subjektive Begründung der Erkenntnis’, Philosophische Monatsheft 23: 257–286. (Defence of the necessary priority of transcendental reflection against any subjective-psychological approach to knowledge.)

Natorp, P. (1888) Einleitung in die Psychologie nach kritischer Methode, Freiburg: J.C.B. Mohr (Pauls Siebeck). (Establishment of the programme of a theory of subjectivity according to anti-psychologism.)

Natorp, P. (1901) ‘Zur Frage der logischen Methode. M. Bez. auf E. Husserls Prolegomena zur reinen Logik’, Kant Studien 6: 270–283. (One of the first reactions to the Husserlian Prolegomena from a relevant contemporary and direct interlocutor of Husserl.)

Natorp, P. (1911) Philosophie. Ihr Problem und ihre Probleme. Einführung in den kritischen Idealismus, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. (Introductory exposition to philosophy in the Marburgean perspective.)

Natorp, P. (1912a) Allgemeine Psychologie nach kritischer Methode, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Pauls Siebeck). (The most mature expression of the realisation of the programme of a theory of subjectivity consistent with Marburgean anti-psychologism and based on the reconstructive method.)

Natorp, P. (1912b) ‘Kant und die Marburger Schule’, Kant Studien 17: 196–221. (Most influential programmatic manifesto of Kant’s Marburgean interpretation.)

Natorp, P. (1918) ‘Bruno Bauchs “Immanuel Kant” und die Fortbildung des Systems des Idealismus’, Kant Studien 22: 426–459. (Document of the existence of a controversy between different variants of anti-psychologism within Neo-Kantianism.)

Notturno, M.A. (1985) Objectivity, Rationality and the Third Realm: Justification and the Grounds of Psychologism. A Study of Frege and Popper, Dordrecht, Boston and Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. (Decisive text for establishing the link between Frege’s and Popper’s third realm.)

Palagy, M. (1902) Der Streit des Psychologisten und Formalisten in der modernen Logik, Leipzig: Engelmann. (One of the most important reactions to the anti-psychologism of the Husserlian Prolegomena among his contemporaries.)

Pelletier, F., Elio, R., and Hanson, P. (2008) ‘Is Logic All In Our Heads: From Naturalism to Psychologism’, Studia Logica 88(1): 3–66. (Discusses the situation of psychologism from a contemporary perspective reconsidering the validity of the arguments provided.)

Popper, K. (1935) Logik der Forschung. Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft, Wien: Springer. (Discusses the problem of the science-metaphysic demarcation and decisively reviews empiricism by establishing falsifiability as a scientific criterion of a theory, positioning itself with respect to the question of psychologism.)

Popper, K. (2005) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London and New York: Routledge. (English version with an important new preface to the previous work with a position on the problem of psychologism.)

Quine, W.V.O. (1969) ‘Epistemology Naturalized’, in Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 69–90. (Essential reference for the naturalisation movement of philosophy and the current status of the issue of psychologism.)

Rickert, H. (1896) Die Grenzen der naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildung, 4. Aufl., Tübingen: Mohr, 1921. (One of the most important texts of the Baden school that exemplifies several peculiar positions around psychology.)

Russell, B. (1895) ‘Review of G. Heymanns “Die Gesetze und Elemente des wissenschaftlichen Denkens”’, Mind, new series, 4(14): 245–249. (Text that demonstrates Russell’s knowledge of continental to contemporary tradition, especially phenomenology, and the Psychologismusstreit.)

Russell, B. (1899) ‘On the Distinction between the Psychological and the Metaphysical Point of View’, in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell. Volume 1: Cambridge Essays, ed. Kenneth Blackwell, Andrew Brink, and Nicholas Griffin. London: Blackwell, pp. 196–198. (Establishment of an opposition between psychological and metaphysical method or point of view and unequivocal adoption of the second.)

Russell, B. (1903) The Principles of Mathematics, London: Routledge, 1992. (Fundamental text for the realisation of the logicist programme that touches on important questions of philosophy of logic and logical realism.)

Schlick, M. (1918) Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre, Berlin: Springer. (Discussion from the neo-positivist point of view of the interpretation of the science of Neo-Kantianism and idealism with treatment of the relationship between psychology and logic.)

Sigwart, C. (1873–8) Logik, 2 vols, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Pauls Siebeck), 1904. (A classic of logical psychologism derived from the logische Frage.)

Skorupski, J. (1989) John Stuart Mill, London: Routledge. (Important text for the review of the interpretation of Stuart Mill and, in particular, of his psychology.)

Stout, G.F. (1893) ‘The Philosophy of Mr. Shadworth Hodgson’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 2: 107–120. (Text that introduces the decisive content-object (Inhalt-Gegenstand) distinction.)

Stout, G.F. (1896) Analytical Psychology, London: Sonnenschein. (Important text for the English reception of German psychology and the English anti-psychologism of the late nineteenth century, which develops the decisive Inhalt-Gegenstand distinction.)

Stumpf, C. (1892) ‘Psychologie und Erkenntnistheorie,’ Abhandlungen der Philosophisch-Philologischen Classe der königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften IXX, München: Verlag der K. Akademie. (Discussion with Neo-Kantianism about the psychological method and psychologism regarding the theory of knowledge that embodies an important ordering of the topic.)

Stumpf, C. (1939) Erkenntnislehre, Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers, 2011. (Work that develops the concept of epistemology based on Brentano’s descriptive psychological method.)

Trendelenburg, A. (1843) Die logische Frage in Hegels System, Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus. (Text that gives decisive contours to the logische Frage and plays a fundamental role in placing it at the centre of subsequent philosophical discussion.)

Windelband, W. (1880) Die Geschichte der neueren Philosophie in ihrem Zusammenhang mit der Allgemeinen Cultur und den besonderen Wissenschaften: Von Kant bis Hegel und Herbart, Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von Breitkopf und Härtel. (Important history of philosophy in the nineteenth century, decisive for the term ‘psychologism’ to take on a critical-condemnatory sense.)

Windelband, W. (1884) ‘Kritische oder genetische Methode?’, in Präludien: Aufsätze und Reden zur Einleitung in die Philosophie, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Pauls Siebeck), 1907, pp. 247–279. (One of the foundational texts of Neo-Kantian anti-psychologism that exerted enormous influence.)

Wundt, W. (1893) Logik. Eine Untersuchung der Prinzipien der Erkenntnis und der Methode wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Tübingen: Verlag von Ferdinand Enke. (A classic of logical psychologism derived from the logische Frage.)

Brisart, R. (ed.) (2002) Husserl et Frege. Les ambiguïtés de l’antipsychologisme, Paris: Vrin. (Important compilation of texts by several authors.)

Gyemant, M. (ed.) (2015) Psychologie et psychologisme, Paris: Vrin. (Important compilation of texts by several authors.)

Gurland-Eljaschoff, E. (1910) Erkenntnistheoretische Studien auf anti-psychologistischer Grundlage. Erster Teil. Die Voraussetzungen des modernen Psychologismus und der Ausgangspunkt Kants, inaugural dissertation, Bern: Buchdruckerei Scheitlin and Co. (Classic study of the Psychologismusstreit by one of its participants and contemporary with a critical perspective on anti-psychologism.)

Heidegger, M. (1914) ‘Die Lehre vom Urteil im Psychologismus. Ein kritisch-positiver Beitrag zur Logik’, in Frühe Schriften, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1972. (Text that shows the problem of psychologism as an important starting point of Heidegger’s thinking with a decisive position on the Brentano school.)

Jacquette, D. (ed.) (2003) Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychologism: Critical and Historical Readings on the Psychological Turn in Philosophy, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (Important compilation of texts by several authors about psychologism and Psychologismusstreit.)

Kusch, M. (1995) Psychologism: A Case Study in the Sociology of Philosophical Knowledge, London: Routledge. (One of the most complete monographs on the subject with an essential reconstruction of the discussion unleashed by the Husserlian Prolegomena.)

Michaltschew, D. (1909) Philosophische Studien. Beiträge zur Kritik des modernen Psychologismus, Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. (Another classic study of the Psychologismusstreit by one of its participants and contemporary with critical perspective on anti-psychologism.)

Moog, W. (1919) Logik, Psychologie, Psychologismus. Wissenschaftssystematischen Untersuchungen, Halle: Niemeier. (Another classic study of the Psychologismusstreit by one of its participants and contemporary with critical perspective on anti-psychologism.)

Notturno, M.A. (ed.) (1989) Perspectives on Psychologism, Leiden, New York, Kobenhavn, and Köln: E.J. Brill. (Important compilation of texts by several authors about psychologism and Psychologismusstreit.)

Rath, M. (1994) Der Psychologismusstreit in der deutschen Philosophie, Freiburg and München: Alber. (One of the most complete monographs on the subject.)

Scheler, M. (1901) ‘Die transzendentale und die psychologische Methode. Eine grundsätzliche Erörterung zur philosophischen Methodik’, in M. Scheler and M.S. Frings (eds), Frühe Schriften, Bern: Francke, 1971, pp. 197–336. (Classic study of the Psychologismusstreit as contemporary to the Husserlian Prolegomena.)