La dimensione linguistico-cognitiva nella psicologia di Wilhelm Wundt

This essay is aimed at examining Wilhelm Wundt's theoretical interest in the genesis and nature of

human language according to the methodology of experimental psychology whose theoretical tools also are

decisive for the understanding of some linguistic writings published since 1900. There are three points which I

will focus on: 1) the procedural-relational nature of mental events; 2) the examination of the processes of

volition (Entscheidung and Entschließung) and apperception and, finally, 3) the relationship between

apperception and linguistic activity. Points 1 and 2 will allow me to enhance Wundt's model in relation to

Herbart, the principles of associationism and, above all, the theory of faculties. Point 3 will focus on the

"causality of will" and the dual nature – internal and external – of apperception. External apperception (meant

as action) is necessarily realized in speech and in other sign systems (sign language). We will conclude by

placing Wundt's position also within the debate on the origin of language. Human language is neither a work

of art, rationally constructed, nor a natural product, connected to merely physiological-mechanical aspects: it

is a product of the psychological processes of volition and the related complex representations (das Ganze)

which confirm the appeal to an experimental justification.