A tale of two psychologies: The Høffding-Lehmann controversy and the establishment of experimental psychology at the University of Copenhagen.
Alfred Lehmann (1858-1921) was the pioneer of experimental psychology in Denmark. He established a laboratory of psychophysics in Copenhagen in 1886 after spending a winter in Wundt's laboratory. Philosophical psychology had been taught for the better part of the nineteenth century at the University of Copenhagen and had enjoyed a positivistic turn with the philosophers Harald Høffding (1843-1931) and Kristian Kroman (1846-1925). Shortly after establishing his laboratory, Lehmann criticized Høffding's theory of "unmediated recognition," which led to a sharp dispute between them on the nature of recognition. It has been claimed that this was a direct cause of Lehmann's slow advance at the University of Copenhagen. Archival sources show that Høffding, though having a very different conception of psychology from Lehmann, was on most occasions supportive of Lehmann and thus played an important role in establishing experimental psychology at the University of Copenhagen. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Pind
Jörgen L
JL
Psychology, University of Iceland.
D003718:Denmark; D034462:Dissent and Disputes / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011589:Psychology, Experimental / Q000266:history*; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000266:history; D014495:Universities / Q000266:history*