What Is Psychology About? the Philosophical Foundations of Its Subject-Matter

This book examines the subject-matter of psychology against the background of the philosophical problem of reality. It locates the core of the issue in the dualistic conception of reality which, it argues, has left psychologists with a conceptually constrained choice of subject-matter, for instance between experience and behavior, not to mention philosophically incomplete ways of discussing its possible subject-matters. By drawing on the work of philosophers and philosophically informed psychologists, the book seeks to explain and advance the long-standing debate by introducing the under-utilized perspective of ideal-realism. The historical origins and trajectory of ideal-realism are recovered from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. The exposition of this tradition, especially in the little-known German Realpsychologie, provides theoretical psychology with a philosophically founded understanding of its subject-matter.

Alexander Nicolai Wendt, PhD (Psychology), PhD (Philosophy), is Postdoctoral Researcher of Psychology at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Austria, and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany. His research is focused on the renewal of phenomenological psychology as well as the theory and history of psychology. Dr. Wendt is also Executive Chairman of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Philosophie & Psychologie (Association of Philosophy and Psychology) which promotes the exchange of knowledge between these disciplines.