The psychologist must study mankind from the historical or comparative standpoint - Moritz Lazarus

The psychologist must study mankind from the historical or comparative standpoint - Moritz Lazarus.

On September 15 1824 German philosopher and psychologist Moritz Lazarus was born. He held that humanity must be studied from the historical, comparative viewpoint analyzing the elements that constitute the fabric of society with its customs its conventions and the main tendencies of its evolution. He was Jewish and a leading opponent of anti-Semitism in his time. Moritz Lazarus received a Jewish education taking classes in Hebrew literature and history until moving to study at a national Prussian school when he was about 9 years old. Moritz father was an expert in Prussian law and served as a rabbinic judge in the local Beth Din. He represented the citizens in their connections with the authorities. Also he educated his son Moritz in Prussian law but later insisted that the young Lazarus specialized in merchandizing in the house of an acquaintance in the city of Posen. In Berlin he continued with his philosophical studies and also learned more about the ritual of German language and cultures It is assumed that Lazarus got really caught in the spirit of the revolution and wakened his patriotic feelings towards Prussia and the Prussian culture Lazarus even published his work "The moral priority of Prussians in Germany in 1850 . Along with his colleague Steinthal Lazarus established the magazine "Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft" and simultaneously he started to print his trilogy of research called "The life of the soul It deals with the principal problems of psychology from the standpoint of the philosophy of Herbart Written in a popular and easy style it soon found a large circle of readers Two years later the second part was published and in this book Lazarus discussed the relationship between thinking and speaking as well as how languages were born and developed, and how they create the collective soul in the nations. In 1861 Lazarus moved another step further and strengthened his analogy between individual research and the collective soul there is a so called 'national soul which is greater than the total number of individual souls. The language is the most significant representation of the national soul and there exists a dual influence between the individual and the collective soul. He said, that it is possible to understand the rules of the human soul and from it the collective soul. The national soul always exists in the individual soul. In 1860 Lazarus was asked to be an honorary professor without pay at the small university of Bern Switzerland Lazarus chances of being able to get a university position at a German university were very low because he was Jewish However, the scientist had no financial worries and he chose to accept the position. It is believed that Lazarus became the first professor of psychology in any university worldwide. He was quite successful in Bern his lectures were always full and it is known that the audiences were the leaders of Swiss society and serving diplomats During his time at the university, Lazarus also spread his belief that women needed to be better included in research and philosophy. Even though, Lazarus seemed to fit in very well in Bern he had to return to Berlin in 1867 where he became more involved with the issues of the Jewish community in the city. In Berlin he tried to promote a new, activist opinion claiming that Jews need to fight against anti-Semitism, for equality and emancipation actively. In his article Was heißt National Lazarus claimed that the strength of Germany was in her multi culturalness including her Jews. He spoke on behalf of German unification and nationalism and asked his Jewish brothers to remain faithful to these German values. At yovisto, you may be interested in a video lecture titled "Thinking and Talking about the Self" by John Perry at Berkeley.

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