that even before Gockel the word »psychology« was used by Filip
Melanchton, and usually add that Melanchton used this new term in his
»lectures«. Thus, for instance, the largest dictionary of philosophic
notions, Eisler’s »Worterbuch der philosophischen Begriffe«, tome II (4th
edition, Berlin 1929, p. 533) says:
»The term psychology became common only with Christian Wolff.
Before, instead of it, the term
~noi yiv/jy;,
de anima, and the like, and
later ’pneumatology’ had been used. »Psychologia« first in Melanchton
(in his lectures), Goclen (as the title of a book from 1590), and Casmann
(Psych, anthropol., 1594).«
Here there are some more quotations:
»The term »psychology« . . . seems to have been coined by Melanchton
(in its Latin form p s y c h o l o g i a ) ; its use was particularly enlarged
by Rudolf Goclenius who in 1590 gave the title
yv'/o/.<>■/ta
to one of his
treatises De h o m i n i s p e r f e c t i o n e, an i ma . Coming definitely
into use with Leibnitz and Wolff’s school, the term became common. ..«
(Enciclopedia italiana, tome 28, Rome 1935, p. 457; almost the same
quotation is contained in the large new Italian encyclopaedia »Dizionario
enciclopedico italiano«, tome 9, p. 899, Rome 1958).
»The term was first used in lectures by Melanchton (about 1550) and
in print by Goclen (about 1600)« (H. C. Warren, Dictionary of Psychology,
Cambridge 1934, p. 217).
». .. the word psychology... derives from Rudolf Gockel who, in
1590, published the book »Psychologia hoc est de hominis perfectione,
anima, ortu«. The term was put to use by Melanchton« (Ottuv Slovnik
naucny, tome 20, Prague 1903, p. 922).
»Melanchton is claimed to have used this term (i. e. the term
»psychology«) about 40 years before it appeared in the title of a printed
work (Goeckel’s, 1590)«. (Ph. L. Hariman, The New Dictionary of Psy
chology, New York 1947, p. 274).
Strangely enough, none of the standard informative works I have
consulted and which ascribe the authorship of the term »psychology« to
Melanchton, give either a title or quotation from his »lectures« in which
this word could be found, although all Melanchton’s written documents
are printed. Nowhere can we find the name of someone attending
Melanchton’s lectures and putting down where Melanchton used this
term, at least orally. This lack of documentation concerning Melanchton
as the creator of the term »psychology« was noted as early as 1930 by
A. Lalande, one of the distinguished collaborators in the largest French
textbook on psychology edited by G. Dumas. This is what Lalande says:
»The word p s y c h o l o g y was used by Goclenius, professor at
Marburg, as the title of a work of his (1590), but the word does not
appear in Lexicon Philosophicum, the work of the same author (1613).
His disciple, theologian Casmann, also published a Psychologia anthro-
pologica, sive animae humanae doctrina (Hanau 1594); he thinks that
psychology and anatomy (somatotomy) make the whole of anthropology.
9
