The durkheimian sociologists and the German psychologie: the importance of Wundts laboratory and psychologie

• Grant number: 12/20870-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): January 25, 2013
• Effective date (End): April 24, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Sociology of Knowledge
• Principal Investigator: Marcia Cristina Consolim
• Grantee: Laís Fernanda Rodrigues
• Supervisor: Louis Pinto
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/15712-0 - The reception of Wundt by Durkheim: scientific excellence patterns in an age of definition of the discipline borders, BP.MS

Abstract

This research aims to complement the analyzes that have been made in my Master, The Durkheimian Sociologists and the German Psychologie: the importance of Wundts Laboratory and Psychologie, about intellectual relations between France and Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century , focusing primarily on the reception of the psychology of Wilhelm Wundt. The research aims to trace, at first, intellectuals and political relations established between France and Germany, since they created perceptions of German university life and intellectual production depending on ones position in the French intellectual field. In general, among French academics, they valued positively the German university system and its scientific production, and among more conservative French intellectuals and critics of the republican university this situation denigrated the supposedly "cold" and "erudite" character of Germans in the name of "French spirit". This whole debate makes sense if we consider the educational reforms made during the Third Republic, in order to create greater autonomy to French universities, from the professional careers and disciplinary specialization. In second place, this is about to compare two types of Wundts reception: the one held by the new scientific psychology, represented here by Theodule Ribot and some collaborators of Revue Philosophique, and the one practiced by Durkheimian sociology, centered on the figure of Durkheim and some members of L'Année Sociologique. This part of the research is divided thus into two main sources, which represent the first two generations of readers of German psychology: the first 20 years of Revue Philosophique (1976 to 1896) and the first 18 years of L'Année Sociologique (1986 to 1914). In third place it is about to verify how far the trajectory of such authors contributed to the differential readings of Wundt. So, on the one hand, I want to consider the trajectory of Theodule Ribot, as well as those of Alfred Binet, Pierre Janet and Charles Richet, collaborators of Revue Philosophique as well as those of Émile Durkheim, Antoine Meillet, Marcel Mauss and Paul Lapie, collaborators of L'Année Sociologique that published about Wundt on the magazine. During the three-month stage will gather the documents in Manuscrits de la bibliothèque interuniversitaire de la Sorbonne (Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne, Paris), Manuscrits de l'Institut de France (Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris) e Bulletin Administratif du Ministère de l'Instruction Publique (École normale supérieure, Paris) (which are available at the online catalogue: www.calames.abes.fr) that will allow me to analyze this reception. (AU)