13 EMPIRICAL DIRECTION OF PSYCHOLOGY IN SPAIN

By the beginning of the XVI century. in Spain, an economic upswing began, which was associated with the conquest of new colonies and the emergence of capitalist relations. The changes that took place were reflected in the public consciousness and natural science ideas. One of the first in modern times who contrasted empirical knowledge to the metaphysical teachings on the origin of the soul was Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540). In his book “On the Soul and Life” (1538), he reflected the innovative idea for his time that the inductive method allows you to acquire knowledge about people that could be used to improve their nature. In 1575, the physician Juan Huarte (1529–1592) wrote a book that he called "The Study of Abilities in Science". This book has gained fame throughout Europe.

H. Huarte wrote that the Spanish Empire was waiting for an unprecedented increase in power, provided that the talents of people given by nature were properly used. This work was the first in the history of psychology, which set itself the task of studying the individual abilities of a person for the purpose of professional selection. Therefore, H. Huarte became the pioneer of the direction, which was later called differential psychology.

In his research, he set himself four tasks:

1) to study the types of talents available in the human race;

2) to study the signs by which one can find out whether the individual has a corresponding talent;

3) to study the qualities possessed by nature, which makes man capable of one science, but not capable of another;

4) to determine the arts and sciences corresponding to each gift individually. The main talents of Huarte considered imagination (fantasy), intelligence and memory. He analyzed various sciences and arts, giving their assessment in terms of which of the above abilities they require. Nature, education, individual and age differences and labor play an important role in the formation of a particular ability.

H. Huarte sought to ensure that this professional selection was carried out on a national scale.

Another prominent Spanish thinker of the XVI century. the doctor Gomez Pereira (1500–1560) worked for 20 years on a book called “Antoniana Margherita” (1554). The main conclusion of this book was the denial of the presence of the soul in animals. This was the first publication in which animals were introduced as “anpsychic” creatures. Thinker G. Perei-ra believed that animals see nothing, do not hear and do not feel at all. Their behavior is influenced by signs, not sensual images.

Significant changes also occurred in medicine and anatomy. The concept of Claudius Galena was overthrown soon after the appearance of the works of A. Vesalius (1514–1564) “On the structure of the human body”.