Leaving the Soul Apart. An Introductory Study

In The Analysis of Mind (1921), Bertrand

Russell stresses the importance of William

James’ late neutral monist view of consciousness

for the studies in psychology. In so doing, he focuses

on a topic whose roots can be traced back to

the nineteenth-century European debate on physiology

and scientific psychology. In this introductory

paper I shall briefly outline the path that, starting

from the revival of Kant in the German scientific

debate, leads to both Ernst Mach’s and William

James’ questioning the value of the I or consciousness

as a substance concept.