Was Wundt an Introspectionist?

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Hello All, I've recently been sent some information suggesting Wundt as an introspectionist (English writing, out of press). Did Wundt ever refer to himself as an introspectionist? Did he conduct research using a brand of introspectionism, while not calling it such explicitly? What do various people think about this if it is at all controversial? Thanks, Stefan.

-- Stefan Majumdar (cyclone@pathcom.com), May 23, 2001

Answers

[Forwarded for BW by CG]

See Danziger, Constructing the Subject, Ch. 3, for the most detailed treatment of introspection. Also his JHBS article in 1980, cited in n. 31, on "the history of introspectionism reconsidered."

-- Bill Woodward (woodward@CISUNIX.UNH.EDU), May 24, 2001.


In all my reading around this topic I've never come across anyone who called himself an introspectionist not even Titchener, and certainly not Wundt. Unlike the term "introspection" to refer to a method, the term "introspectionist", is purely a term of rhetoric; a bit like "fraud" - people don't call themselves that, it's something they are accused of. The references supplied by Bill Woodward should answer the second question. Re controversy, anyone who refers to Wundt as an introspectionist can't have read a word he wrote on this.

-- Kurt Danziger (kdanzig@yorku.ca), May 24, 2001.

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