ABSTRACT
The present chapter aims to complement the others in this volume by drawing into consideration relevant ideas held by some of our disciplinary forebears. In this way, an attempt has been made to cast some historical light on the roots of the scientistic ethos that today so dominates psychology. Particular attention is devoted to ideas put forward by Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) and William Stern (1871–1938). It is suggested that had the ideas of those thinkers been received more favorably than they were within the mainstream of early 20th century scientific psychology, the deep and pervasive conceptual problems that, as is clear from the other contributions to this volume, now beset the field might well have been minimized.
