After many years of apparent neglect, several recent reviews of the history of
developmental psychology have identified Johann Nicolas Tetens' (1777)
Philosophical Essays on Human Nature and its Development as one of the
first major contributions to the field (Tetens, 1979/1777). Because Tetens has only
recently re-emerged as an important figure in developmental psychology, most
developmental scholars may be unaware of who he was and what he wrote about human
development. In this article, we sketch Tetens' life and career, and describe his
notably contemporary contributions to psychology in general, and developmental
psychology in particular. We also consider the reasons that Tetens was previously
forgotten. For example (a) he wrote (in German) over 200 years ago; (b) he was a
contemporary of Kant, whose reputation may have overwhelmed his own; (c) he was
perceived (by such influential authors as Wundt and Ebbinghaus) as a proponent of
the antiquated theory of faculties; and (d) his theory was not perceived to
contribute to the shift in emphasis from the study of general human capabilities to
the development of concrete and practical abilities.
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