- Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf (21 April 1848 – 25 December 1936) was a German philosopher and psychologist.
Born in
Wiesentheid , he studied withFranz Brentano andRudolf Hermann Lotze . He had an important influence onEdmund Husserl , the founder of modern phenomenology,Max Wertheimer ,Wolfgang Köhler andKurt Koffka , co-founders of "Gestalt" psychology, as well as the renowned Austrian novelistRobert Musil who was his doctoral student. Stumpf is also credited with the introduction in current philosophy of the concept ofstate of affairs ("Sachverhalt"), which was later popularised through Husserl's works. He also formed a panel of 13 eminent scientists, known as the "Hans Commission", to study the claims that a horse namedClever Hans could count. PsychologistOskar Pfungst eventually proved that the horse could not really count.Stumpf was one of the earliest students of Brentano and always remained quite close to his early teachings. He wrote his dissertation under the supervision of Lotze at the
university of Göttingen (1868) and also did hishabilitation there (1870). Later in his life he became more and more interested in empirical methods in experimental psychology and effectively became one of the pioneers in this discipline. He held a teaching position in Göttingen, then became a professor atWürzburg and later atPrague , Halle,Munich and finallyBerlin , where he founded theBerlin School of experimental psychology, which was later to become the base of operation for "Gestalt" psychology. Stumpf famously quarreled withWilhelm Wundt , then the most prominent figure in German experimental psychology (and by extension, the world), over the psychology of audio tones andComparative musicology . With recording a Siamese theater ensemble that visited Berlin in September 1900, Stumpf founded theBerliner Phonogramm-Archiv . Stumpf was a good friend and frequent correspondent with the American psychologist and philosopherWilliam James , who also had issues with Wundt.ee also
*
School of Brentano External links
* [http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/references?id=per307 Short biography, bibliography, and links on digitized sources] in the
Virtual Laboratory of theMax Planck Institute for the History of Science
* [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Stumpf/murchison.htm Autobiography] from "History of Psychology in Autobiography" Vol. 1 (1930), p. 389-441, atYork University "Classics in the History of Psychology"
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