Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), German psychologist, generally recognized as the founder of scientific psychology as an independent discipline. Born in Neckarau (now part of Mannheim), he was educated at the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg and the Institute of Physiology in Berlin. After teaching physiology at the University of Heidelberg (1858-1874), he taught inductive philosophy at the University of Zurich (1874-1875) and was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig from 1875 to 1917. Wundt offered the first academic course in psychology in 1862 and established the first laboratory for experimental psychology in 1879. He founded the first psychological journal, Philosophische Studien (Studies in Philosophy), in 1881.

Wundt promoted what is known as structuralist or content psychology, emphasizing observations of the conscious mind rather than inference. Wundt also carried out extensive experimental research on perception, feeling, and apperception (a phase of perception where there is full recognition of what has been perceived). His more than 500 published works include Principles of Physiological Psychology (2 vols., 1873-1874; trans. 1904) and the monumental work Elements of Folk Psychology (10 vols., 1900-1920; trans. 1916). He also wrote Logik (1880), Ethik (1886), and System der Philosophie (1889).