Herbart, Beneke and the first chapters of the Psychologismusstreit

Abstract

The so-called controversy around psychologism (Psychologismusstreit) is composed, actually, of a series of singular polemics that do not necessarily have a factual link between them. The discussion between Herbart and Beneke is one of them, having particular importance for being at the beginning of the conflict. In it, the psychologistic thinker Beneke acutely perceives the weak points of the Herbartian position and initiates a line of argument that, with variations, will remain constant in psychologism and will give meaning so that the last act of the drama called Psychologismusstreit, is delivered by Husserl's phenomenology.