Introducing William Stern (1871–1938).

Abstract

This article discusses the events and considerations, both 'distal' and 'proximal,' behind the production of the author's recent book, William Stern (1871-1938): A Brief Introduction to His Life and Works (Pabst Science Publishers, Germany, March, 2010). The 'distal' roots of the work lie in the advice given to the author by German and other European colleagues in the mid-1980s that examining Stern's writing in some detail would likely prove fruitful. The more proximal roots lie in a series of public lectures that the author prepared and delivered in the capacity of Ernst Cassirer Guest Professor in the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Hamburg in 2004. It is explained that the primary intent of the book is to provide readers with a preliminary sense of the breadth of Stern's contributions to psychology, and to suggest that his works might well deserve closer attention in the 21st century than they ever gained during the 20th. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).