Abstract

LEONARDI, Jan Luiz. Brief considerations on the conception of the subject matter of Psychology for Wundt and for Brentano. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2011, vol.17, n.1, pp.1-15. ISSN 1677-1168.

The 19th century has witnessed several attempts to constitute a scientific Psychology, with the birth of several psychological systems. Among those, the ones proposed by Wilhelm Wundt and by Franz Brentano stand out. Both Wundt and Brentano attempt to impute scientificity to Psychology, but they disagree on the starting point for the elaboration of a project of Psychology. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the conception of the subject matter of Psychology as it is presented in their main works. Wundt defends that the subject matter of Psychology is the immediate conscious experience, composed of basic mental elements that can be divided into sensations and feelings. Brentano postulates that Psychology is the science of psychic phenomena, mental acts which have direction toward objects whose existence depends on such acts

Keywords : Wundt; Brentano; subject matter of Psychology; History of Psychology.

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