Die Seele

Die Seele: Ihr Verhältnis zum Bewusstsein und zum Leibe (English: The soul: its relation to consciousness and body) is a book by the German philosopher and psychologist Joseph Geyser was published in the journal "Wissen und Forschen (Schriften zur Einführung in die Philosophy, Band 6)" in 1914. With "Die Seele" Geyser aims to clarify the specific processes of the soul and its relation to our consciousness and body thereby discussing the Mind–body problem and different positions such as Materialism or parallelism. Finally, Geyser concludes with an interactionist position ("Wechselwirkung") between mind and body. Joseph Geyser (1869–1948) received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bonn in 1898. Later he was teaching in Münster (1904), Freiburg (1917) and Munich (1924). As a supporter of the philosophia perennis he aims at answering questions in an objective, critical and realistic manner while being independent of the temporary situation: At the time, the pressing question as formulated in Psychological Bulletin at the beginning of 1914 was: "Is psychology purely a study of behaviour, or is it solely a study of mental states and processes, or does its problem lead to research in both fields?" In Die Seele (1914) Geyser himself claims to fit the Zeitgeist of philosophy and psychology at the beginning of the 20th century to focus not on basic but higher conscious processes. His work is written and published at a time where psychology was in its early shoes. On the one hand, the first experimental psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany has been opened in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt. During the period of 1970–1914 in Germany and America, psychology has been transformed into an experimental psychology. In this period many mental phenomena started to be investigated in an empirical fashion. Especially visual and spatial perception has been a centre of attention with phenomena such as binocular stereopsis (3D and depth perception) and colour blindness.