20 Wilhelm Wundt Quotes

Anuoluwa Soneye
Mar 15, 2023 By Anuoluwa Soneye
Originally Published on Feb 27, 2023
Edited by Spandana Kantam
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Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt German philosopher, professor & psychologist

Why Wilhelm Wundt Quotes

Wilhelm Wundt was a German psychologist and philosopher known as the father of psychology. Wundt approached psychology as a unique science.

He was the first person ever to refer to himself as a psychologist. In 1879, Wundt established the first formal experimental laboratory to perform psychological research at the University of Leipzig.

This new development made psychology an independent field of study. In 1862, Wundt taught the first scientific psychology course.

In the same year, he popularized experimental psychology in the book 'Contributions To The Theory Of Sensory Perception: On The Methods In Psychology'. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern psychology and his work has had a significant impact on the field.

Learning quotes from Wilhelm Wundt can help students gain insight into the ideas and theories that shaped the early development of psychology. Additionally, studying the work of influential figures like Wilhelm Wundt can help students understand the history and evolution of psychology as a discipline.

What Parents Should Know

  • Wundt is known for establishing the first psychology laboratory in 1879, which was located at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
  • Wundt's work focused on studying the structure of the mind and the conscious experience. He believed psychology should be an empirical science that studied the mind systematically and objectively.
  • Wundt's theories and methods significantly impacted the development of psychology as a discipline, and his work continues to be studied and discussed by psychologists even today.

What To Discuss With Kids

  • How Wundt's work shaped the field of psychology and how his ideas are still influential today.
  • The methods that Wundt used to study the mind and conscious experience, such as introspection and the use of experimental methods.
  • Ways in which psychology can help us understand and improve mental health and how it can be applied in other areas, such as education, business, and sports.
  • Wundt's work is an opportunity to discuss the evolution of psychology as a discipline and the contributions of other influential figures in the field.

Famous Wilhelm Wundt Quotes

"Our mind is so fortunately equipped, that it brings us the most important bases for our thoughts without our having the least knowledge of this work of elaboration. Only the results of it become unconscious."

"The old metaphysical prejudice that man 'always thinks' has not yet entirely disappeared. I am myself inclined to hold that man really thinks very little and very seldom."

"Contractile movements arise, sometimes at the instigation of external stimuli but sometimes also in the absence of any apparent external influence."

"We speak of virtue, honour, reason; but our thought does not translate any one of these concepts into a substance."

"In Aristotle the mind, regarded as the principle of life, divides into nutrition, sensation, and faculty of thought, corresponding to the inner most important stages in the succession of vital phenomena."

"In the animal world, on the other hand, the process of evolution is characterised by the progressive discrimination of the animal and vegetative functions, and a consequent differentiation of these two great provinces into their separate departments."

"Hence, even in the domain of natural science, the aid of the experimental method becomes indispensable whenever the problem set is the analysis of transient and impermanent phenomena, and not merely the observation of persistent and relatively constant objects."

"From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large."

"Philosophical reflection could not leave the relation of mind and spirit in the obscurity which had satisfied the needs of the naive consciousness."

Wilhelm Wundt Quotes About Psychology

"The results of ethnic psychology constitute, at the same time, our chief source of information regarding the general psychology of the complex mental processes."

"On the other hand, ethnic psychology must always come to the assistance of individual psychology, when the developmental forms of the complex mental processes are in question."

"Experimental psychology itself has, it is true, now and again suffered relapse into a metaphysical treatment of its problems."

"Child psychology and animal psychology are of relatively slight importance, as compared with the sciences which deal with the corresponding physiological problems of ontogeny and phylogeny."

"The materialistic point of view in psychology can claim, at best, only the value of an heuristic hypothesis."

"The attitude of physiological psychology to sensations and feelings, considered as psychical elements, is, naturally, the attitude of psychology at large."

"Physiology and psychology cover, between them, the field of vital phenomena; they deal with the facts of life at large, and in particular with the facts of human life."

"The general statement that the mental faculties are class concepts, belonging to descriptive psychology, relieves us of the necessity of discussing them and their significance at the present stage of our inquiry."

"The task of physiological psychology remains the same in the analysis of ideas that it was in the investigation of sensations: to act as mediator between the neighbouring sciences of physiology and psychology."

"Physiology, in its analysis of the physiological functions of the sense organs, must use the results of subjective observation of sensations; and psychology, in its turn, needs to know the physiological aspects of sensory function, in order rightly to appreciate the psychological."

"Psychology, on the other hand, seeks to give account of the interconnection of processes which are evinced by our own consciousness, or which we infer from such manifestations of the bodily life in other creatures as indicate the presence of a consciousness similar to our own."

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Sources

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/wilhelm-wundt-quotes

https://todayinsci.com/W/Wundt_Wilhelm/WundtWilhelm-Quotations.htm

https://libquotes.com/wilhelm-wundt/quote/lbi6x5v

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Written by Anuoluwa Soneye

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English

Anuoluwa Soneye picture

Anuoluwa SoneyeBachelor of Arts specializing in English

With a Bachelor's in English from Obafemi Awolowo University and extensive experience as an editor and tutor, Anuoluwa is an award-winning poet who now serves as a content writer for Kidadl. In his spare time, he enjoys online gaming, playing the piano, table tennis, writing poetry, and graphic design. Anuoluwa also serves as vice president of his local branch of the National Youth Service Corps (CDS).

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