The sciences of the soul : the early modern origins of psychology / Fernando Vidal ; translated by Saskia Brown.

Sciences de l'âme. English. 2011

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

xiv, 413 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Translation of: Les sciences de l'âme: XVIe-XVIIIe siècle.

The "Century of psychology" -- Psychology as a discipline -- A long past but a short history? -- Psychology in the sixteenth century: a project in the making? -- The function of the neologism "psychology" -- Aristotelianism and galenism -- Psychologia and the scientia de anima -- Rudolph Goclenius's psychologia -- From the science of the living being to the science of the human mind -- Psychology as the generic science of the living being -- Psychologia and empsychologia -- On whether de anima books can themselves constitute a science -- From soul-form to soul-mind -- Psychology as a metaphysics of the rational soul -- The new psychology: Christian Wolff -- Psychology in the age of enlightenment -- Psychology, anthropology and the human sciences -- A republic of letters -- Methodological discussions in enlightenment psychology -- "The best way to perfect this fine science" -- Historicizing psychology -- Inventing a bibliographic tradition -- Constructing a history for psychology -- "Psychologiae historico-criticae speciminae" -- The history of the "theory of ideas" -- Philosophers write the history of psychology -- Psychology and the history of humankind -- Friedrich August Carus and the "history of humanity" -- The primitives and the ancients -- Toward a total history of psychology -- The psychology of the Hebrews -- Homeric psychology -- Anthropology's place in the encyclopedias -- Enlightenment encyclopedias -- The syntax of the Encyclopédies -- The Paris and Yverdon Encyclopédies -- The "systèmes figurés" -- Anthropology in the text -- The anthropological transformation of morals -- Human perfectibility and the primacy of psychology -- Psychology in the Paris Encyclopédie -- Psychology in the Yverdon Encyclopédie -- The fields claimed for psychology -- Metaphysics -- Logic -- Morals -- The psycho-anthropology of perfectibility -- The union and interaction of the soul and the body -- Psychology, the body and personal identity -- The soul, the body and the "completeness of the nerve" -- Psycho-theology and "modern identity" -- The body in resurrection -- The loss of the body -- The seed and the brain -- The emergence of the cerebral subject.

Includes bibliographical references and index.