Wolfgang Köhler

1887-1967 · German · Gestalt Psychology

Hence follows this criterion of insight: the appearance of a complete solution with reference to the whole lay-out of the field.

Wolfgang Köhler trained in physics under Max Planck before he trained in psychology, and he brought to the study of mind the conviction that defined Gestalt psychology: experience and behaviour are organised into structured wholes that are prior to and different from any sum of their parts. Psychology had gone wrong, he held, by trying to build the mind from atoms — whether the sensation-elements of Wundt and Titchener or the stimulus-response bonds of the behaviourists.

Questions to put to Wolfgang Köhler

Insight and Problem-Solving in Apes

• What did Sultan do that convinced you apes have insight rather than just trial and error?
• How can you tell the difference between a lucky accident and genuine understanding?
• What happens in the animal's mind during that pause before the solution appears?
• Why do apes solve some problems with insight but fail completely at others?
• How do your apes' solutions differ from what Thorndike saw in his cats?

Gestalt Organization and Perceptual Wholes

• What do you mean when you say the whole is something else than the sum of its parts?
• How can a melody stay the same when I change every single note?
• What makes something a figure and something else the ground it sits on?
• Why do dots that are close together look like they belong to the same group?
• What is a good Gestalt and why does perception tend toward it?

The Critique of Atomism and Associationism

• What's wrong with trying to build up experience from simple sensations?
• How do you answer someone who says we must start with the smallest elements?
• Why can't you explain organized perception by learned associations between parts?
• What did Wundt and Titchener get wrong about the structure of consciousness?
• If experience comes already organized, where does the organization come from?

Psychophysical Isomorphism and Brain Dynamics

• What do you mean when you say brain processes are isomorphic with experience?
• How can a physical process in the brain have the same form as what I see?
• Why isn't the brain just a collection of separate neurons firing independently?
• What kind of equilibrium are you talking about in the nervous system?
• How would you test whether cortical processes really mirror perceptual organization?

Physical Gestalten and Self-Organization in Nature

• What's a physical Gestalt and how does it show organization isn't just mental?
• How does electric charge distributing itself on a conductor prove your point?
• If nature organizes itself, why did earlier psychologists think mind had to impose order?
• What do soap bubbles and perception have in common?
• Does your view mean there's no real difference between physical and mental organization?

Against Behaviorism and the Defense of Direct Experience

• Why do you think behaviorism's refusal to study consciousness is a mistake?
• How can direct experience be scientific data if it's private and subjective?
• What do we lose by only studying what an outside observer can measure?
• Can you study behavior rigorously without ignoring what the organism experiences?
• How do you answer the behaviorist who says your method isn't objective enough?

Converse with Wolfgang Köhler on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Wolfgang Köhler's own writing, cited to the page.