Facts and Problems of the Psychology of the Thought Process

Karl Bühler's work, "Facts and Problems of the Psychology of the Thought Process," explored the nature of thought. Bühler's seminal paper, "On Thoughts" (1907), demonstrated that the mind is capable of abstract thinking without relying on images or past observations. He developed the "inquiry method" (Ausfragemethode) to study thought processes by having subjects read passages or answer questions and then describe their experience. This research contributed to the Würzburg school's ideas on imageless thought, suggesting that abstract thinking is possible independent of sensory representations. Bühler's work laid groundwork for understanding how the mind conceives of ideas.12