Psychologism is a family ofphilosophical positions, according to which certainpsychological facts, laws, or entities play a central role in grounding or explaining certain non-psychological facts, laws, or entities. The word was coined byJohann Eduard Erdmann asPsychologismus, being translated into English aspsychologism.[1][2]
TheOxford English Dictionary definespsychologism as: "The view or doctrine that a theory of psychology or ideas forms the basis of an account of metaphysics, epistemology, or meaning; (sometimes) spec. the explanation or derivation of mathematical or logical laws in terms of psychological facts."[3] Psychologism inepistemology, the idea that its problems "can be solved satisfactorily by the psychological study of the development of mental processes", was argued inJohn Locke'sAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690).[4]
Other forms of psychologism are logical psychologism and mathematical psychologism. Logical psychologism is a position inlogic (or thephilosophy of logic) according to whichlogical laws andmathematical laws are grounded in, derived from, explained or exhausted by psychological facts or laws. Psychologism in thephilosophy of mathematics is the position that mathematical concepts and/or truths are grounded in, derived from or explained by psychological facts or laws.[5]
John Stuart Mill was accused byEdmund Husserl of being an advocate of a type of logical psychologism, although this may not have been the case.[6] So were many nineteenth-century German philosophers such asChristoph von Sigwart,Benno Erdmann,Theodor Lipps,Gerardus Heymans,Wilhelm Jerusalem, andTheodor Elsenhans,[7] as well as a number of psychologists, past and present (e.g.,Wilhelm Wundt[7] andGustave Le Bon).[8]
Psychologism was notably criticized byGottlob Frege in hisanti-psychologistic workThe Foundations of Arithmetic, and many of his works and essays, including his review of Husserl'sPhilosophy of Arithmetic.[9] Husserl, in the first volume of hisLogical Investigations, called "The Prolegomena of Pure Logic", criticized psychologism thoroughly and sought to distance himself from it. Frege's arguments were largely ignored, while Husserl's were widely discussed.[1]
In "Psychologism and Behaviorism",Ned Block describes psychologism in thephilosophy of mind as the view that "whether behavior is intelligent behavior depends on the character of the internal information processing that produces it." This is in contrast to a behavioral view which would state that intelligence can be ascribed to a being solely via observing its behavior. This latter type of behavioral view is strongly associated with theTuring test.[10][11]
