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5 - Substitution

In the Wake of “Psychology without a Soul”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2023

Robert Kugelmann
Affiliation:
University of Dallas
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Summary

Substitutes for the soul included the self, personality, and the brain. “Self” kept the older issues alive without metaphysical baggage. Calkins’ “self-psychology” held that the self was the basal concept in psychology, and that soul was unnecessary. Allport found that “personality” enabled psychology to address topics vital to soul. The brain is the most significant substitute for the soul. Lashley sought to translate introspective findings into a physicalist language. Lashley retained terms such as meaning and self-consciousness, but articulated them in terms of stimuli and responses of the nervous system. Hebb dismissed introspection altogether. His “cell assembly” theory proposed neural networks as organized patterns of responses to stimuli. Thought is the organized activity of the nervous system. Given the emphasis on organization of neural firing, therein is the brain a substitute for the soul, since in the older psychologies, soul was a principle of form or organization.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Substitution
  • Robert Kugelmann, University of Dallas
  • Book: The Soul in Soulless Psychology
  • Online publication: 10 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301220.006
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  • Substitution
  • Robert Kugelmann, University of Dallas
  • Book: The Soul in Soulless Psychology
  • Online publication: 10 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301220.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Substitution
  • Robert Kugelmann, University of Dallas
  • Book: The Soul in Soulless Psychology
  • Online publication: 10 February 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009301220.006
Available formats
×