Elements of Folk Psychology: Outlines of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind

Wundt argues that human development follows a law-governed psychological sequence through four stages: Primitive Man, the Totemic Age, the Age of Heroes and Gods, and the Development to Humanity. The collective mental products of language, myth, and custom are the evidence through which this developmental history becomes visible. Wundt rejects the metaphysical folk-soul of earlier Völkerpsychologie, associated with Lazarus and Steinthal, which treated collective mind as a substantial entity. He also rejects the approach of imposing a priori logical schemas on history, criticizing Hegel explicitly. Yet a reviewer in the International Journal of Ethics noted the irony: Wundt's own teleological concept of 'humanity' as the goal of development appears no less a priori than the schemas he criticized[citation:3][citation:20].

Reception was sharply divided. A 1917 review in Nature by A. C. Haddon was devastating on empirical grounds, documenting numerous factual errors: Wundt claimed the Veddahs used poisoned arrows (they did not), that the Australian spear-thrower was a 'grooved board' (no Australian variety had this construction), and that the Papuans invented the hoe from the digging stick (unknown in New Guinea before civilized contact)[citation:17]. Haddon concluded that Wundt's deductions were built on 'inaccurate data' and that a visit to the excellent Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin would have prevented many 'blunders.' By contrast, a reviewer in the International Journal of Ethics called it a 'classic of its kind' while noting it marked the end rather than the beginning of an epoch, being too near to philosophy of history to be valued apart from Wundt[citation:3].

Elements is a condensed, synthetic presentation of the massive Völkerpsychologie (1900–1920), which ran to ten volumes and over three thousand pages. The translator's preface notes that the Elemente defines the limits of folk psychology more clearly than the earlier work and offers a more synoptic view with far less detailed examination[citation:14]. Wundt published the Elemente in 1912, while the final volumes of the Völkerpsychologie continued to appear until 1920. The Elemente is therefore not a summary of a completed project but a programmatic overview written mid-course. It divides human development into four stages that organize the diverse materials of language, myth, and custom into a single developmental narrative, whereas the full Völkerpsychologie proceeds by detailed analysis of each domain.

Schaub's translation, published in 1916 by George Allen & Unwin in London and Macmillan in New York, was authorized by Wundt. The translator's preface is dated 1915 and the author's preface 1912, indicating a three-year gap between German publication and English translation[citation:1][citation:9]. A reviewer in Nature thanked Schaub for rendering the work available to the English-speaking public, suggesting the translation was serviceable[citation:17]. No detailed scholarly assessment of Schaub's fidelity appears in the surviving reviews, though the 'authorized' designation indicates Wundt approved the rendering. The book was reprinted in 1921 and has been reissued in various facsimile editions, including a 2008 Read Books edition[citation:7][citation:14].

The fourth and final stage of Wundt's developmental scheme is the 'Development to Humanity,' which he presents as the goal toward which human development advances. In Wundt's definition, humanity when predicated of an individual means transcending the limits of family, tribe, or state and possessing an appreciation of human personality as such; applied to society, it represents a demand for an ideal condition in which this appreciation becomes a universal norm[citation:8]. A reviewer in the International Journal of Ethics argued that this concept is not derived from psychological study but from an appreciation of cultural values, and that assuming it as the natural goal of development has no better foundation than Hegel's doctrine, which Wundt criticized[citation:3]. The reviewer concluded that Wundt's philosophy of history has no essential relation to his psychological undertaking.

A. C. Haddon's 1917 Nature review is the most detailed contemporary critique. Haddon identified errors on the Veddahs of Ceylon: Wundt claimed they used poisoned arrows and practiced brother-sister marriage, both contradicted by Seligman's ethnographic work and Neville's 1886 report[citation:17]. On Australian material culture, Wundt described the spear-thrower as a 'grooved board' and the shield as covering the entire body, neither of which matches the actual variety of Australian implements. Haddon also noted the claim that Papuans invented the hoe from the digging stick was unknown in New Guinea before European contact. Haddon concluded that Wundt's sources were unreliable and that the book's interest lay not in its anthropology but in its psychological treatment of totemism, soul-beliefs, and the emergence of personality concepts[citation:8].