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A source book of Gestalt psychology.Physical Gestalten.

A source book of Gestalt psychology.: Physical Gestalten. When spatial, visual, auditory and intellectual processes are such as to display properties other than could be derived from the parts in summation, they may be regarded as unities illustrating what we mean by the word "Gestalten". In order to orient itself in the company of natural sciences, psychology must discover connections wherever it can between its own phenomena and those of the older disciplines. If this search fails, then psychology must recognize that its categories and those of natural science are incommensurable. And indeed a first glance does not give one much encouragement, for the exactitude of science does at first seem incompatible with inquiry in a field devoted to the study of compounds possessing their own "specific unity". When, further, it is said that these whole-phenomena disclose properties and influences that are "more than the sum of their parts", the suspicion becomes even greater that a search for them elsewhere than in psychology would somehow violate the fundamentals of exact science. Let us nevertheless see whether physics discloses whole-phenomena of this type. This chapter focuses on physics and psychophysiological gestalten. (The complete version of this article appeared as Die physischen Gestalten in Ruhe und im stationären Zustand, Eine naturphilosophische Untersuchung, Erlangen, 1920.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A source book of Gestalt psychology.Physical Gestalten.

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Publisher
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company
Copyright
Copyright © 1938 American Psychological Association
Pages
17 –54
DOI
10.1037/11496-003
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

When spatial, visual, auditory and intellectual processes are such as to display properties other than could be derived from the parts in summation, they may be regarded as unities illustrating what we mean by the word "Gestalten". In order to orient itself in the company of natural sciences, psychology must discover connections wherever it can between its own phenomena and those of the older disciplines. If this search fails, then psychology must recognize that its categories and those of natural science are incommensurable. And indeed a first glance does not give one much encouragement, for the exactitude of science does at first seem incompatible with inquiry in a field devoted to the study of compounds possessing their own "specific unity". When, further, it is said that these whole-phenomena disclose properties and influences that are "more than the sum of their parts", the suspicion becomes even greater that a search for them elsewhere than in psychology would somehow violate the fundamentals of exact science. Let us nevertheless see whether physics discloses whole-phenomena of this type. This chapter focuses on physics and psychophysiological gestalten. (The complete version of this article appeared as Die physischen Gestalten in Ruhe und im stationären Zustand, Eine naturphilosophische Untersuchung, Erlangen, 1920.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Aug 13, 2007

Keywords: physical Gestalten; natural sciences; psychology; physics

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