Where does Helmholtz stand on the body-mind conceptualization? What are illustrations that deal with this issue?

-- Amy Jones (amy-jones@bethel.edu), October 22, 2002

Answers

If you're interested in the mind-body question in general, there is a wonderful little book by Robert H. Wozniak, Mind and Body: Rene Descartes to William James (National Library of Medicine, 1992) that summarizes the major psychological approaches. Many historians of psychology describe Helmholtz as a materialist monist, in part because of his "anti-vitalist pact" (see Boring's A History of Experimental Psychology for a discussion of this). But Wozniak describes him as "top down cognitive psychologist" and thus some type of interactionist. For examples, I would consult some history of psychology texts and/or an encyclopedia of psychology, where you'll find articles on the mind-body problem.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 23, 2002.