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Wundt, Wilhelm (1832 - 1920)

German physiologist and psychologist, generally acknowledged as the founder of Experimental Psychology; subscribed to a theory of “psycho-physical parallelism” supposed to stand above both materialism and idealism; his epistemology was an eclectic mixture of the ideas of Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Hegel.

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).

It was during this period that Wundt offered the first course ever taught in scientific psychology. Until then, psychology had been regarded as a branch of philosophy to be conducted primarily by rational analysis. Wundt instead stressed 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.

By-passed in 1871 for the appointment to succeed Helmholtz, Wundt then 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. The methodology Wundt applied was introspection. Although many of the greatest developments of psychology were to come through introspection, many psychologists regard introspection as inherently unscientific. Wundt eclectically combined the ideas of Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Hegel, basing himself on "psycho-physical parallelism".

In 1871, Wundt began publication of a scientific journal of psychology, Philosophical Studies. In 1875 took up a position at the University of Leipzig where, in 1879, he established the first psychological laboratory in the world. See Wundt's 1896 Outline of Psychology.