Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Firm scholarly conviction has it that psychology began as a scientific discipline only in the last part of the nineteenth century. Fernando Vidal thoroughly overturns that assumption in his compelling historical reconstruction of the development of psychology from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. He shows how the concept of soul, initially caught in scholastic rationalism, underwent an empirical transformation from the form of the body to the activities of the mind, a mind whose intense thought had been compared to ‘a ligature applied to all of the nerves.’ By contrast, Vidal’s work—linguistically adroit, amazingly comprehensive, and scholarly satisfying—releases the nervous fluids to invigorate the mind of the reader. No other history comes close to his exquisite accomplishment.” -- Robert J. Richards, University of Chicago
“This is a very impressive book, a work of high and original scholarship. Vidal follows the history of the concept of ‘psychologia’ from the sixteenth century and argues that even without there being already a ‘discipline,’ one can talk of a sound psychological thinking from that time on. Vidal demonstrates how key ideas of eighteenth-century ‘psychology’—the concept of the
esprit humain; the connections between anthropology, psychology, and moral sciences; and the notion of perfectibility—found their beginnings in the sixteenth century.
The Sciences of the Soul will be the standard reference work on early modern ‘psychology’ for specialists in psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and the history of science.” -- Martin Mulsow, University of Erfurt
“[A] highly significant contribution to the early history of psychology. It will be indispensable for any further study of the origins of modern psychology.” -- Jörgen L. Pind, University of Iceland * British Journal for the History of Science *
“[Vidal] draws a compelling picture of psychology’s shift from philosophy and religion to science. . . . Recommended.”
-- B. C. Beins, Ithaca College * Choice *
“
The Sciences of the Soul is clearly the product of a substantial period of sustained research. It will set the framework for research in the history of psychology in the period from 1600 to 1850 for many years to come and will also entail changes in the usual discussion of the ‘origin’ of psychology as a discipline.” -- Gary Hatfield, author of Perception & Cognition: Essays in the Philosophy of Psychology
"Highly informative and well-documented. . . . A great book, which has the merit of reshaping completely the historical framework within which the early modern origins of psychology must be understood." -- Paul J. J. M. Bakker, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. * Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *
"Ambitious, erudite, and stimulating." -- Michael Edwards * Social History of Medicine *
"It brings to light a lost continent of literature that has yet to make its appearance in the standard textbooks on the history of psychology. It also provides us with the missing link between Aristotle’s work on the soul and the modern discipline of psychology that usually considers itself to be a science." -- Adrian Brock * Centaurus *
"A much more nuanced and textured view of the eighteenth-century sciences of mind than has hitherto been available." -- L. S. Jacyna * Annals of Science *
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables
Ad Limen
Chapter 1 The “Century of Psychology” Psychology as a “discipline”
A long past but a short history?
Chapter 2 “Psychology” in the Sixteenth Century: A Project in the Making? The function of the neologism “psychology”
Aristotelianism and Galenism
Psychologia and the
scientia de anima
Rudolph Goclenius’s
PsychologiaChapter 3 From the Science of the Living Being to the Science of the Human Mind Psychology as the generic science of the living being
Psychologia and
empsychologia On whether
de anima books can themselves constitute a science
From soul-form to soul-mind
Psychology as a metaphysics of the rational soul
The new psychology: Christian Wolff
Chapter 4 Psychology in the Age of Enlightenment Psychology, anthropology and the human sciences
A Republic of Letters
Methodological discussions in Enlightenment psychology
“The best way to perfect this fine Science”
Chapter 5 Historicizing Psychology
Inventing a bibliographic tradition
Constructing a history for psychology
“Psychologiae historico-criticae speciminae”
The history of the “theory of ideas”
Philosophers write the history of psychology
Chapter 6 Psychology and the History of Humankind
Friedrich August Carus and the “history of humanity”
The primitives and the ancients
Toward a total history of psychology
The psychology of the Hebrews
Homeric psychology
Chapter 7 Anthropology’s Place in the Encyclopedias
Enlightenment encyclopedias
The Syntax of the
Encyclopédies The Paris and Yverdon
Encyclopédies The “Systèmes figurés”
Anthropology in the text
The anthropological transformation of morals
Chapter 8 Human Perfectibility and the Primacy of Psychology
Psychology in the Paris
Encyclopédie Psychology in the Yverdon
Encyclopédie The fields claimed for psychology
Metaphysics
Logic
Morals
The psycho-anthropology of perfectibility
The union and interaction of the soul and the body
Chapter 9 Psychology, the Body and Personal Identity
The soul, the body and the “completeness of the nerve”
Psycho-theology and “modern identity”
The body in resurrection
The loss of the body
The seed and the brain
The emergence of the cerebral subject
Appendix I The Two Editions of Goclenius’s
PsychologiaAppendix II ANTHROPOLOGIE and PSYCHOLOGIE in the Paris and Yverdon
EncyclopédiesAppendix III Articles from the Yverdon
Encyclopédie Belonging to Psychology and Their Place in the Paris
EncyclopédieBibliography
Index
