Phenomenology, experiments and the autonomy of Psychology: The earlier work of Johannes Linschoten

Johannes Linschoten was a member of the phenomenologically oriented so-called Utrecht School.He published his Ph.D. Thesis in 1956. In this voluminous work, published in German, he discussedthe (then) current theories of binocular spatial perception, reported 130 experiments on the subject,and argued for his own dynamic theory. I discuss some important aspects of this earlier work, thedevelopment of his view on the role of phenomenology and experiments in psychology, and the way heused his earlier studies to argue for psychology’s autonomy.