WILHELM DILTHEY’S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF MENTAL LIFE: THE UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS STEFAN MAJUMDAR A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO FEBRUARY 2019 ã STEFAN MAJUMDAR 2019 ii Abstract This study is an examination of Wilhelm Dilthey’s conceptualization of mental life. An introduction recounting Dilthey’s intellectual background is provided, including a detailed literature review of texts that elaborate his ideas. A description of Dilthey’s analysis of the elemental constituents of consciousness is presented. Dilthey’s assessment of self-consciousness is examined, and his psychological epistemology is explained. A discussion of Dilthey’s analysis of logic and psychological processes is given. The study explicates Dilthey’s position on the relation between aspects and dynamics within the psyche. A justification of Dilthey’s distinction between mental and physical objects of psychological investigation is provided. Consciousness is shown to constitute a phenomenal unity. Examples of the relevance of Dilthey’s ideas for contemporary psychological theory and practice are presented. Findings are recounted providing a detailed picture of main conclusions drawn from the study. Keywords: Wilhelm Dilthey, consciousness, self-consciousness, conscious unity, experience, hermeneutics, phenomenology, descriptive psychology, explanatory science, history, clinical psychology iii This Work is Dedicated to my Loving Father Salindra Kumar Majumdar and Sister, Susanne Majumder-Lammers iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ………………………………………………………………………….... ii Dedication ……………………………………………………………………………………... iii Table of Contents …………....................................................................................... iv 1. DILTHEY’S BACKGROUND AND INTELLECTUAL ORIENTATION ……............ 1 1.01 Dilthey’s Background ………………………………………………………….... 1 1.02 Hermeneutics and Phenomenology .………..…………………………………... 9 1.02.01 Thematic Introduction to Hermeneutics ……………………………... 9 1.02.02 Dilthey and Hermeneutics ……………………………………………. 12 1.02.03 Thematic Introduction to Phenomenology ………………………….... 15 1.02.04 Dilthey and Phenomenology …………………………………………. 18 1.03 The Historical Context of Dilthey’s Approach to Science .……………………. 19 1.03.01 Dilthey on Explanatory Psychology …………………………………. 23 1.03.02 Descriptive Psychology and the Human Sciences …………………… 25 1.04 Literature Review: An Extended Introduction to Dilthey’s Thought ………….. 31 2. THE FORM AND FOUNDATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS ………………………. 85 2.01 The Facts of Consciousness ……………………………………………………. 85 2.01.01 Experience and Consciousness ………………………………………. 85 2.01.02 The Ultimate Fundamental Datum of Psychic Life Given in Experience ……………………………………………………………. 88 2.01.03 The Facts of Consciousness Represent the Starting Point of the Description of Consciousness ………………………………………………….. 89 v 2.02 The Principle of Phenomenality ………………………………………………... 91 2.02.01 Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Phenomenality …………………….... 91 2.02.02 The Concepts Internal and External in Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Consciousness ……………………………………………………….... 93 3. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS .......................................................................................... 100 3.01 Self-Consciousness: The Historical and Theoretical Context ………………... 100 3.01.01 Dilthey’s Treatment of the Historical Significance of Self-Consciousness ...………………………………………………………………………………... 100 3.01.02 Dilthey’s Analysis and Critique of Kant’s Conceptualization of Self- Consciousness ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 101 3.02 Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Self-Consciousness …………………………... 107 3.02.01 Self-Feeling, Reflexive Awareness, and Being-for-Oneself ……….... 107 3.02.02 Subject and Object in Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Self- Consciousness ..……………………………………………………………………………….... 112 4. DILTHEY’S PSYCHOLOGICAL EPISTEMOLOGY ……………………............... 116 4.01 The Given as the Starting Point of Psychology ……………………………..... 116 4.01.01 The Given ………………………………………………………….... 116 4.02 The Psychic Nexus: The Relation of Minds ...................................................... 119 4.02.01 The Psychic Nexus …………………………………………………... 119 vi 4.02.02 The Psychic Nexus as a Foundational Concept for Dilthey’s Psychological Epistemology ………................................................... 124 4.03 Sensation, Perception, and Representation ……................................................ 126 4.03.01 Kant and Brentano as Critical Background for Dilthey’s Psychology ….………………………………………………………………………………. 126 4.03.02 Dilthey on the Aspects of Consciousness …………………………... 130 4.04 Awareness and Attentiveness: Dilthey and the Question of the Unconscious …..…………………………………………………………………………….... 137 4.04.01 Dilthey’s Characterization of Theories of the Unconscious ……....... 137 4.04.02 Dilthey’s Analysis of the Question of the Unconscious …………..... 138 5. LOGIC, THOUGHT, PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND CONTENTS: THE UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS ………………………………………………......... 147 5.01 Logic and Thought ……………………………………………………….......... 147 5.01.01 Logical Operations ……………………………………………......... 147 5.02 The Phenomenal Analysis of Psychological Processes, Psychological Contents, and Physiological Perspectives ……………………………..……………....... 155 5.02.01 Dilthey’s Critical Treatment of Physiological / Experimental Analysis in Sensation and Perception Including a Phenomenological Analysis of These …………………………………………................................... 156 5.02.02 Sensation, Perception, and Phenomenal Consciousness in General …..………………………………………………………………….... 162 5.02.03 Sensation, Perception, and the Unity of Consciousness ………......... 164 vii 5.03 Psychological Contents, Psychological Processes, and the Unity of Consciousness ………………………………………………………………… 169 5.03.01 The Objective Nexus ………………………………………………... 169 5.03.02 The Psychic Act and Psychic Contents ……………………………... 171 5.03.03 The Epistemology of the Psychic Act …………………………......... 173 5.03.04 The Analytic and Genetic Analysis of Psychological Contents: The Epistemology of Psychological Contents ……………………… 183 5.03.05 The Psychic Act and the Unity of Consciousness …………….......... 184 6. THE CONTINUED RELEVANCE OF DILTHEY’S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY …………………...……………………. 186 6.01.01 Introduction …………………………………………………………. 186 6.01.02 Gordon Allport ……………………………………………………… 187 6.02 Clinical Applications …………………………………………......................... 190 6.02.01 Psychoanalysis ……………………………………………………… 190 6.02.02 Person Centered Therapy …………………………………………… 194 7. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………… 199 7.01 Dilthey’s Theoretical Orientation and His Conceptualization of Consciousness ….......................................................................................................................... 199 7.01.01 Phenomenology and Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Consciousness ….......................................................................................................................... 199 viii 7.01.02 Hermeneutics and Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Consciousness …..…………………………………………………………………………….... 200 7.01.03 Dilthey’s Conceptualization of Consciousness and Explanatory Science ............................................................................................................................. 201 7.02 Findings ………………………………………………………………… 202 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………… 213 1 Dilthey’s Background and Intellectual Orientation Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) was a nineteenth century German philosopher and psychologist. He was a proponent of a scientific system dedicated to the study of human mental, emotional, social, and historical life known as the Geisteswissenschaften, or the Human Sciences. Dilthey’s approach to the human sciences primarily employs hermeneutic and phenomenological method in analyzing and describing subject matter. For Dilthey, psychology represented a potentially foundational discipline for the human sciences. The following study is a detailed examination of Dilthey’s conceptualization of the category consciousness, with emphasis on the principle of the overarching unity of it. The work describes and discusses a series of concepts regarding Dilthey’s systematic thinking on this subject. The study begins with an explication of Dilthey’s most essential concepts on the form and contents of consciousness. It moves progressively towards an application of these to his psychological epistemology, and practical contexts in which many of his ideas are employed. The central thesis to be proven in this study is expressed in the assertion that Dilthey’s conceptualization of consciousness demonstrates and maintains the principle of the unity of consciousness. It will be shown that Dilthey accomplishes this while describing expressed aspects of the psyche without theoretical contradiction. This will be accomplished while demonstrating the roles of the integrating concepts elaborated in that theoretical dialectic. Dilthey’s Background Before directly engaging with the question of consciousness in Dilthey’s writing, it is essential to review his personal and intellectual background. Dilthey’s theoretical orientation is informed by a rich set of historical, scientific, and philosophical influences. 2 Wilhelm Dilthey was born on November 19, 1833 in the western Rhine region, German town of Biebrich. Dilthey’s father was an Evangelical Protestant minister of the Reformed Evangelical Church,