Psychology without a soul

pp. 17-46

in: Jörgen Pind, Edgar Rubin and psychology in Denmark, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

This chapter describes Edgar Rubin's education in philosophical psychology at the University of Copenhagen from 1904–1910. Here, he was taught by professors Kristian Kroman (1846–1925) and Harald Høffding (1843–1931). Both were representatives of the positivistic turn in Danish philosophy at the end of the nineteenth century. Psychology was a required subject for all first-year students at the University of Copenhagen. The chapter compares and contrasts the approaches of Høffding and Kroman to psychology. Both are broadly based on associationist principles, and yet they also reveal interesting differences. The chapter also deals in broad outline with some aspects of Danish intellectual life at the turn of the twentieth century.