ABSTRACT
D uring his years in Munich, Richard Semon's scientific efforts centered upon the analysis of memory. Semon attempted to build a conceptual framework that elucidated the role played by memory in diverse psychological and biological functions, and used the insights of both psychology and biology in this theoretical endeavor. His efforts resulted in two major books: Die Mneme (1904) and Die mnemischen Empfindungen (1909). We saw in the foregoing chapters that both of these monographs were given a largely negative reception by the scientific community. Die Mneme was a controversial work that received widespread criticism; Die mnemischen Empfindungen was almost entirely ignored. Semon's letters to Forel indicated that he had invested a great deal of emotion in his work, and experienced considerable difficulty attempting to cope with the resistance and neglect that his two major books encountered. We now begin our attempt to understand what Semon was saying in those books and why his ideas met with the reception that they did. The course that we follow in the next few chapters first leads us to examine a number of aspects of turn-of-the-century biology and psychology, and ultimately brings us to some rather broad questions concerning the role of psychological processes in the pursuit of science. This chapter is concerned with the biological issues that were addressed by Semon, and focuses upon two contexts that constitute the relevant background to his work: (1) the controversy over neo-Lamarckian theories of evolution and heredity, and (2) the little-known scientific underworld of theorists who attempted to explain hereditary phenomena in terms of memory. Semon's own neo-Lamarckian theory of memory and heredity, and its tumultuous reception, are examined in light of these contexts. We explore both of the relevant contexts in some detail. The goal of these explorations is to enrich our appreciation of Semon's work, and to provide some insight into two of the most fascinating chapters of 19th-century science.
