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Apprentice in Lehmann’s Laboratory

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Edgar Rubin and Psychology in Denmark

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Abstract

This chapter describes Edgar Rubin’s education in experimental psychology in the laboratory of Alfred Lehmann (1858–1921), the pioneer of experimental psychology in Denmark. Lehmann, a natural scientist, had trained with Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig and became a pioneer of psychophysiology and an enormously productive researcher. Some major aspects of his research are discussed, such as on the physiological concomitants of psychological states, including the emotions, as well as his criticisms of spiritualism. Lehmann was Edgar Rubin’s most important mentor at the University of Copenhagen in the years 1905–1910. Under Lehmann’s tutelage, Rubin conducted a study on the perception of warmth leading to his first published scientific paper. During his student years at the University of Copenhagen, Rubin led a discussion group known as Ekliptika that counted among its members the physicist Niels Bohr.

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Correspondence to Jörgen L. Pind .

Appendices

Appendix

Edgar Rubin’s (1910) Syllabus for the Magister Artium Examination

3.2.1 Psychology (Major Area)

Hans Cornelius: Psychologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft, 1897.

Hermann Ebbinghaus: Gründzuge der Psychologie, Vol. I, 1902 (2nd ed. 1905).

Harald Høffding: Psykologi i Omrids paa Grundlag af Erfaring, 1880 (4th ed. 1898).

William James: Principles of psychology, 1890.

Friedrich Jodl: Lehrbuch der Psychologie, 1896.

Charles Samuel Myers: A textbook of experimental psychology: With laboratory exercises, 1909.

Edward Bradford Titchener: *Experimental psychology: Qualitative, Vol. I & II, 1901.

Edward Bradford Titchener: *Experimental psychology. Quantitative, Vol. I & II, 1905.

Stephan Witasek: Grundlinien der Psychologie, 1907.

Wilhelm Wundt: Grundriss der Psychologie (9th ed. 1909).

Wilhelm Wundt: Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie, 1874 (6th ed. 1910).

Theodor Ziehen: Leitfaden der physiologischen Psychologie, 1891 (8th ed. 1908).

B. Bourdon: La perception visuelle de l’espace, 1902.

Some specialized psychological literature on the perception of space.

Gustav Theodor Fechner: Elemente der Psychophysik, 1860.

Wilhelm Wundt: Gustav Theodor Fechner: Rede zur Feier seines hundertjährigen Geburtstages, 1901.

Theodor Heller: Studien zur Blindenpsychologie. 1904.

Francis Galton: Inquiries into human faculty and its development, 1883.

Hermann von Helmholtz: Handbuch der physiologischen Optik, 1867 (2nd ed. 1896).

Carl Lange: Om Sindsbevægelser: Et psyko-fysiologisk Studie, 1885.

Frederik Lange. De vigtigste Sindssygdomsgrupper i kort Omrids, 1894.

Alfred Lehmann: Most of professor Lehmann’s works.

Pierre Janet: Les obsessions et la psychasthénie, 1903.

Pierre Janet: Les névroses, 1909.

Ernst Meumann: Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die experimentelle Pädagogik und ihre psychologischen Grundlagen, 1907.

Wilhelm Thierry Preyer: Die Seele des Kindes: Beobachtungen über die geistige Entwicklung des Menschen in den ersten Lebensjahren, 1881 (7th ed. 1908).

F. Qeyrat: L’imagination et ses variétes chez l’enfant, 1893 (3rd ed. 1903).

Charles Lalo: L’estétique experimentale contemporaine, 1908.

Siegfried Levinstein: Das Kind als Künstler: Kinderzeichnungen bis zum 14. Lebensjahr, 1905.

Some works on primitive means of expression.

Ernst Meumann: Einführung in die Ästhetik der Gegenwart, 1908.

Georges Bohn: La naisance de l’intelligence, 1909.

Charles Darwin: The expression of the emotions in man and animals, 1872.

Karl Escherlich: Die AmeiseSchilderung ihrer Lebensweise, 1906.

Auguste Forel: Die psychischen Fähigkeiten der Amesein und eininger anderen Insekte, 1901.

Margaret F. Washburn: The animal mind: A text-book of comparative psychology, 1908.

Individual works on the qualitative nature of the skin.

W. Nagel: *Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen in vier Bänden, 1905–1910.

Felix Arnold: Attention and interest: A study in psychology and education, 1910.

Ernst Dürr: Die Lehre von der Aufmerksamkeit, 1907.

Bertil Hammer: Bidrag til uppmärksamhetans psykologi, 1908.

Georg Elias Müller: Zur Theorie der sinnlichen Aufmerksamkeit, 1873.

Jean-Paul Nayrac: Physiologie et psychologie de l’attention. 1906.

Walter B. Pillsbury: Attention, 1908.

Alfons Pilzecker: Die Lehre von der sinnlichen Aufmerksamkeit, 1889.

L. D. Roerich: L’attention spontanée et volontaire, 1907.

Theodule Ribot: Psychologie de l’attention, 1889 (10th ed. 1908).

Edward Bradford Titchener: Lectures on the elementary psychology of feeling and attention, 1908.

Wilhelm Wirt: Die experimentelle Analyse der Bewusstseinsphänomene, 1908.

* Not all sections read.

3.2.2 Older Classic Works

Thomas Hobbes: Elements of law, 1640.

John Locke: Essay concerning human understanding, 1690.

George Berkeley: An essay toward a new theory of vision, 1709.

George Berkeley: A treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge, 1710.

George Berkeley: Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonius, 1713.

David Hume: A treatise of human nature, 1739–1740.

David Hume: Essays moral, political, and literary, 1875 (2nd ed. 1898).

Adam Smith: The theory of moral sentiments, 1774.

René Descartes: Discours de la methode, 1637.

René Descartes: Les meditations metaphysiques, 1641.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Monadologie, 1714.

Immanuel Kant: Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1781–1787.

Immanuel Kant: Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, 1785.

Immanuel Kant: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 1788.

Immanuel Kant: Various essays.

Auguste Comte: Discours sur l’esprit positif, 1844.

John Stuart Mill: *A system of logic ratiocinative and inductive, 1843.

John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism, 1861.

John Stuart Mill: On liberty, 1859.

John Stuart Mill: The subjection of women, 1869.

John Stuart Mill: Autobiography, 1873.

Herbert Spencer: Mindre Afhandlinger, 1878.

3.2.3 Works on the History of Philosophy

Harald Høffding: Den nyere Filosofis Historie, 1894–1895 (2nd ed 1903–1904).

Friedrich Albert Lange: Geschichte der Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in Gegenwart, 1866 (6th ed. 1898).

Geschichte der Philosophie in Kultur der Gegenwart, 1909.

Eduard Zeller: Grundriss der Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie, 1883 (9th ed. 1908).

Leslie Stephen: Hobbes, 1904.

Thomas Henry Huxley: Hume with helps to the study of Berkeley, Collected essays, Vol. 6 (1893–94).

John Rae: Life of Adam Smith, 1895.

Hans Brøchner: Benedict Spinoza: En Monographie, 1857.

Harald Høffding: Kontinuiteten i Kants filosofiske Udviklingsgang, 1893.

Friedrich Paulsen: Immanuel Kant: Sein Leben und seine Lehre, 1899.

The following dialogues af Plato: Apology, Phædo, Ion, Crito, Menon, Symposium.

3.2.4 Logic

Problemes de la science et la logique, 1909.

Harald Høffding: Filosofiske Problemer, 1902.

William James: Pragmatisma new name for some old ways of thinking: popular lectures on philosophy, 1907.

W. Stanley Jevons: Elementary lessons in logic: deductive and inductive, 1882.

Kristian Kroman: Vor Naturerkjendelse. Bidrag til en Mathematikens og Fysikens Theori, 1883.

Ernst Mach: Erkenntnis und Irrtum: Skizzen zur Psychologie des Forschung, 1906.

A number of other works by the same author

Christoph Sigwart: Logik, 1873–1878.

3.2.5 Ethics

Harald Høffding: Etik: En Fremstilling af de etiske Principer og deres Anvendelse paa de vigtigste Livsforhold, 1887 (3rd ed. 1905).

Kristian Kroman: Begrebet “Det Etiske”: Undersøgelser angaaende Muligheden af en videnskabelig Etik, 1903.

Friedrich Paulsen: System der Ethik mit einem Umriss der Staats- und Gesellschaftlehre, 1889 (7th ed. 1906).

Henry Sidgwick: The methods of ethics, 1874 (new ed. 1893).

Wilhelm Windelband: Über Willensfreiheit: Zwölf Vorlesungen, 1904

Information about editions and year of publication has in some cases been added to those given in Rubin’s original application.

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Pind, J.L. (2014). Apprentice in Lehmann’s Laboratory. In: Edgar Rubin and Psychology in Denmark. History and Philosophy of Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01062-5_3

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