Eduard Spranger (27 June 1882 – 17 September 1963) was a German

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

. A student of

Wilhelm Dilthey Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held G. W. F. Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathic philosopher, w ...

, Spranger was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and died in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

. He was considered a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

who developed a philosophical pedagogy as an act of 'self defense' against the psychology-oriented experimental theory of the times. Spranger was the author of the book ''Lebensformen'' (Translated as ''Types of Men''), which sold 28,000 copies by the end of 1920. Spranger theorizes that types of human life are structures in consciousness. His belief was that personality types have a basis in biology, but can not be fully explained by biology. He wrote, "On a lower level, perhaps, the soul is purely biologically determined. On a higher level, the historical, for instance, the soul participates in objective values which cannot be deduced from the simple value of self-preservation." He criticized psychologists who reduced the psyche and society to abstract elements of science. Another characteristic of Spranger's thought is his interest in holism, which involves the discovery that "everything is part of everything else," and that the "totality of mind is present in every act." He asserts that quantitative calculations of sensations, reflexes, and citations from memory are meaningless units, that when synthesized, do not add up to the meaningful whole that we all live.

Thought

Spranger evaluated personalities in terms of six ideals or value orientations; theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political and religious "types" of personality traits. Spranger contributed to the pedagogy of

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

theory, in his book ''Types of Men''. His value attitudes were: *The Theoretical, whose dominant interest is the discovery of truth *The Economic, who is interested in what is useful *The Aesthetic, whose highest value is form and harmony *The Social, whose highest value is love of people *The Political, whose interest is primarily in power *The Religious, whose highest value is unity Those six in more detail are: Theoretical: A passion to discover, systemize and analyze; a search for knowledge. Utilitarian: A passion to gain a return on all investments involving time, money and resources. Aesthetic: A passion to experience impressions of the world and achieve form and harmony in life; self-actualization. Social: A passion to invest myself, my time, and my resources into helping others achieve their potential. Individualistic: A passion to achieve position and to use that position to affect and influence others. Traditional: A passion to seek out and pursue the highest meaning in life, in the divine or the ideal, and achieve a system for living. This instrument is sometimes offered along with the

DISC assessment DISC assessments are behavioral self-assessment tools based on the 1928 DISC emotional and behavioral theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston. The tools are designed to predict job performance. However, the scientific validity of DISC has b ...

References

External links

* 1882 births 1963 deaths Writers from Berlin German psychologists People from the Province of Brandenburg Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Leipzig University faculty Humboldt University of Berlin faculty University of Tübingen faculty Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German male writers Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin 20th-century psychologists {{psychologist-stub