Abstract
This chapter presents my translation of a text that William Stern originally published in 1906 as the third chapter in a book setting out the philosophical foundations of the comprehensive system of thought he was developing under the name of ‘critical personalism.’ In this text, Stern lays out in detailed and nuanced fashion the fundamental tenets of impersonalism, toward the end of explaining how that -ism effectively reduces persons to things—the antithesis of his critically personalistic view. Here, Stern also offers an historical discussion of how the impersonalistic outlook came to dominate thinking in scientific circles generally, and, by extension, in psychology around the turn of the twentieth century.
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Notes
- 1.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: For ease of discourse, it is this term, ‘mechanistic’ (or, at times, a cognate thereof) that will be used in this translation in most places where Stern has referred to ‘the thing perspective.’
- 2.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: In brackets I present here what Stern included as the first and only footnote that he included in this chapter. [In contrast to energic theory, for example, physicalistic theory conceptualizes the material world as a system of moving atoms. In (the older and more comprehensive sense of; JL) metaphysics, both energic theory and physicalistic theory belong together in the camp of ‘mechanistic’—i.e., impersonal—world theories, with both views rejecting the notion of teleological causation.]
- 3.
TRANSLATER’S NOTE: Here and throughout, Stern meant by ‘analysis’ the process of segmenting some object of investigation into its component elements. In effect, the intended meaning here was the opposite of ‘synthesis.’
- 4.
Alles Sein in der Welt und alles Geschehen in der Welt ist schlechthin vergleichbar.
- 5.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Stern’s reference here was to Herbert Spencer (1820–1903).
- 6.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Stern’s reference here was to Ludwig Büchner (1824–1899).
- 7.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Stern’s reference here was to Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919).
- 8.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Stern’s reference here was to Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932).
Reference
Stern, W. (1906). Person und Sache: System der philosophischen Weltanschauung. Erster Band: Ableitung und Grundlehre [Person and thing: A systematic philosophical worldview. Volume 1: Rationale and basic tenets]. Leizig: Barth.
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Lamiell, J.T. (2021). Impersonalism. In: Uncovering Critical Personalism. Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67734-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67734-3_2
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