Catching up with Aristotle

a journey in quest of general psychology

Niels Engelsted

This Brief presents the argument for the need to re-establish the theoretical focus of general psychology in contemporary psychological research. It begins with a detailed account of the current “crisis” of psychology and our modern disconnect from general psychology. Chapters present the works of Aristotle and A.N. Leontiev, using their ideas to outline a long wanted general psychology. The general psychology delineates the four corner posts of the domain of psychology: Sentience, Intentionality, Mind, and Human Consciousness, and explains why they are all necessary but not the same. Besides a historical discussion, which aims to demonstrate how Marxism got it right, and then not, this Brief presents a new radical theory of human evolution, which credits the Adam-and-Eve story with a vital link hitherto missed by Marxism, Darwinism, and paleoanthropology. In addition, it argues why a new understanding is important in the Anthropocene Age. Catching Up with Aristotle will be of interest to psychologists, undergraduate and graduate students, and researchers.