Heymans, Gerardus F.
HEYMANS, GERARDUS F.
HEYMANS, GERARDUS F. (1857–1930), Dutch psychologist and philosopher born at Ferward in Frisia. He was the co-founder of the psychological laboratory of Louvain in Belgium (1891) and founded the laboratory at Groningen in Holland (1893), where he served as professor of psychology and philosophy. In 1926 he was president of the Eighth International Congress of Psychology in Groningen.
His psychological research concerned itself with the Mueller-Lyer illusion (1889), which he attributed to eye movements. Other works followed on taste mixtures, psychic energy, the heredity of character, déjà vu, attention, and dreams. In philosophy he covered the fields of the theory of knowledge, esthetics, metaphysics, and ethics. His works include Die Gesetze und Elemente des wissenschaftlichen Denkens (1890; 19234); Einfuehrung in die Metaphysik auf Grundlage der Erfahrung (1905, 1921); and Einfuehrung in die Ethik auf Grundlagen der Erfahrung (1914; 19324).
bibliography:
T. Gerritsen, La Philosophie de Heymans (1938), 293–8; T.T. ten Have, Heymans, de Groninger psychologie en de critiek van Dr. Meyering (1946).
[Helmut E. Adler]