drs. Liesbet De Kock

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Publications

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  • 2019

    • Men doet wat men doet : over psychiatrie en vervreemdend geweld

      De Kock, L. (2019). Men doet wat men doet : over psychiatrie en vervreemdend geweld. PSYCHO-ANALYTISCHE PERSPEKTIEVEN, 37(2), 663–675.
  • 2018

    • Historicizing Hermann von Helmholtz’s psychology of differentiation

      De Kock, L. (2018). Historicizing Hermann von Helmholtz’s psychology of differentiation. JOURNAL FOR THE HISTORY OF ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY, 6(3), 43–62.
    • On making sense : an exploration of Wundt’s apperceptionist account of meaningful speech

      De Kock, L. (2018). On making sense : an exploration of Wundt’s apperceptionist account of meaningful speech. JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, 24(4), 272–292.
      In the wake of the critical reorientation in the historiography of psychology, a number of scholars challenged the one-sided structuralist and positivist interpretation of Wilhelm Wundt's work. This paper aims at contributing to these recent efforts, by providing an analysis of the way in which Wundt's apperceptionism conditioned his account of the relation between thought and speech, and by extrapolation, of disorganized thought and speech. While Wundt's pivotal role in the development of the psychology of language is relatively well-known, discussions on this part of his theorizing tend to focus exclusively on his gestural or motor account of language. This obliterates the complex theoretical background of Wundt's theory of language and speech, as well as its systematic place within his psychological system. Highlighting this neglected dimension of Wundt's theorizing, however, could open up a new horizon of pressing research questions in the historiography of psychology.
  • 2017

    • Being and the body : embodiment in J.G. Fichte's transcendental analysis of consciousness

      De Kock, L. (2017). Being and the body : embodiment in J.G. Fichte’s transcendental analysis of consciousness. IDEALISTIC STUDIES, 47(1–2), 59–82.
    • Nostalgie naar een Ster. Mensbeeld, Ethiek, Verlangen en Verslaving.

      De Kock, L. (2017). Nostalgie naar een Ster. Mensbeeld, Ethiek, Verlangen en Verslaving. In Altijd onderweg : verschillende perspectieven op de betekenis van het verlangen (Vol. 5, pp. 85–110). Garant.
  • 2016

    • Helmholtz’s Kant revisited (once more): the all-pervasive nature of Helmholtz's struggle with Kant's Anschauung

      De Kock, L. (2016). Helmholtz’s Kant revisited (once more): the all-pervasive nature of Helmholtz's struggle with Kant's Anschauung. STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, 56, 20–32.
  • 2015

    • De Sartriaanse Mens tussen Zijn en Niet

      De Kock, L. (2015). De Sartriaanse Mens tussen Zijn en Niet. De Uil van Minerva.
  • 2014

    • Critical and metacritical dimensions in Helmholtz's account of human vision

      De Kock, L. (2014). Critical and metacritical dimensions in Helmholtz’s account of human vision. CASYS : INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTING ANTICIPATORY SYSTEMS, 26, 35–48.
      This paper takes Hermann von Helmholtz’s (1821 – 1894) psychophysiological theory of perception as a point of departure to examine the conditions of possibility for the process of objectification which necessarily mediates the interactions of complex living beings with their environment. By means of an analysis of the 1855 statement ‘to see is to understand sensation’, I will argue that the epistemological framework of Helmholtz’s optics can be analyzed transcendentally on two levels of analysis, namely critical and metacritical. Both levels are concerned with the way in which objectivity is constituted by an active, sensitive being, but while the former is concerned with the imposition of structure by our cognitive organization, the latter deals with the constitutional role of the (sensitivity) to constraint. It will be demonstrated how this general epistemological strategy could also help structuring the questions involved in accounting for the internal models that necessarily underlie the activity of anticipation. More specifically, I will argue that Helmholtz’s work could provide some powerful insights into the notion of ‘constraint’, which is considered to be crucial in accounting for the ability for anticipation according to Stepp and Turvey (2010), amongst others.
    • Voluntarism in early psychology: the case of Hermann von Helmholtz

      De Kock, Liesbet. (2014). Voluntarism in early psychology: the case of Hermann von Helmholtz. HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY, 17(2), 105–128.
      The failure to recognize the programmatic similarity between (post-)Kantian German philosophy and early psychology has impoverished psychology's historical self-understanding to a great extent. This article aims to contribute to recent efforts to overcome the gaps in the historiography of contemporary psychology, which are the result of an empiricist bias. To this end, we present an analysis of the way in which Hermann von Helmholtz's theory of perception resonates with Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Ego-doctrine. It will be argued that this indebtedness is particularly clear when focusing on the foundation of the differential awareness of subject and object in perception. In doing so, the widespread reception of Helmholtz's work as proto-positivist or strictly empiricist is challenged, in favor of the claim that important elements of his theorizing can only be understood properly against the background of Fichte's Ego-doctrine.
    • Hermann von Helmholtz's empirico-transcendentalism reconsidered: construction and constitution in Helmholtz's psychology of the object

      De Kock, L. (2014). Hermann von Helmholtz’s empirico-transcendentalism reconsidered: construction and constitution in Helmholtz's psychology of the object. SCIENCE IN CONTEXT, 27(4), 709–744.
      This paper aims at contributing to the ongoing efforts to get a firmer grasp of the systematic significance of the entanglement of idealism and empiricism in Helmholtz's work. Contrary to existing analyses, however, the focal point of the present exposition is Helmholtz's attempt to articulate a psychological account of objectification. Helmholtz's motive, as well as his solution to the problem of the object are outlined, and interpreted against the background of his scientific practice on the one hand, and that of empiricist and (transcendental) idealist analyses of experience on the other. The specifically psychological angle taken, not only prompts us to consider figures who have hitherto been treated as having only minor import for Helmholtz interpretation (most importantly J.S. Mill and J.G. Fichte), it furthermore sheds new light on some central tenets of the latter's psychological stance that have hitherto remained underappreciated. For one thing, this analysis reveals an explicit voluntarist tendency in Helmholtz's psychological theory. In conclusion, it is argued that the systematic significance of Helmholtz's empirico-transcendentalism with respect to questions of the mind is best understood as an attempt to found his empirical theory of perception in a second order, normative account of epistemic subjectivity.

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  • Journal article
  • Book chapter
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Keywords :

  • Psychology,
  • Hermann von helmholtz,
  • Apperception,
  • Wilhelm wundt,
  • Disorders,
  • Kraepelin,
  • History,
  • Speech,
  • Perception,
  • Intuition