Beliefs, Action: Papini and the Debate between Psychology and Philosophy in Italy at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Beginnings of so-called scientific psychology are found at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, when positivism was in full bloom. However, a few more decades passed before psychology was able to achieve autonomy of both object and method (Smith 2004: 50 and ff.; Lombardo & Foschi 1997: 11 and ff.). Up to that point psychology was part of the philosophical discipline known as rational psychology, heavily conditioned from positivism and it could even have been reduced to physiology and even neuropathology. Psychology debated at length, suspended between this duel affiliation, humanistic or medical, before securing its own status. At the heart of the debate was a crucial question: whether or not to construct a psychology “with” or “without” soul (Garin 1966: 56) and how to define the very nature of this soul. A dispute of great interest, if one considers the influence that other philosophical veins exercised, such as idealism, pragmatism, and phenomenology, which spurred divergent investigations.