Christian Wolff’s Prolegomena to Empirical and Rational Psychology: Translation and Commentary

In this translation of a short selection of Wolff’s extremely influential Psychologia empirica (published in 1732, with a second edition released in 1738), he sets out some of his key assumptions regarding how to examine the human mind. The importance of a priori investigations is striking, even in a text literally named ‘empirical psychology’. For Wolff, “Empirical psychology serves to examine and confirm discoveries made a priori concerning the human soul” (232). When Wilhelm Wundt and other 19th-century authors began working to establish psychology as a science, they consciously framed their discipline in opposition to Wolff. (On this, see Richards’ commentary accompanying this translation.)

Wolff, Christian

Translated by R. Richards. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 124 no. 3 (1980): 227-239.

Grey, John

English/Latin

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