James Mark Baldwin: biography of this American psychologist and philosopher

A summary of the life of psychologist and philosopher James Mark Baldwin

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, psychology experienced a great development thanks to authors like Baldwin.

This biography of James Mark Baldwin makes a tour through the entire biography of this author to have a better perspective of his vital milestones and the most notorious contributions that a lifetime dedicated to science allowed him to leave in the fields where he conducted his research.

Brief biography of James Mark Baldwin

James Mark Baldwin was born in 1861 in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, in the United States of America in the United States of America. It was in this city that he spent his childhood. These were turbulent times in the USA, as the struggle between slaveholders and abolitionists eventually triggered the Civil War between the North and the South.

James' father played an active role in this conflict, for as a supporter of abolition, he tried to free as many people as he could. Once the war was over, his father also joined the new government, charged with rebuilding the institutions that had been battered after the Civil War between Americans.

It was then that James Mark Baldwin had to leave the city where he had spent his early childhood to go to New Jersey, where he would complete his high school education. Once that stage was over, he would begin his university education, which would take place at the College of New Jersey, an institution that would later become what today is Princeton University.

Baldwin's first choice of studies was theology, but he later decided to pursue philosophy. It was then that something happened that changed the course of James Mark Baldwin's life. He was chosen to receive a scholarship that would allow him to travel to Germany to train with Wilhelm Wundt, none other than the father of psychology as we know it. He was also under the tutelage of Friedrich Paulsen.

Return to the United States

Upon his return to Princeton, he actively collaborated with the university's theological seminary, the institution that had provided him with the scholarship. Among his tasks, thanks to his knowledge of German and French, he was in charge of translating different works, such as Ribot's "German Psychology Today", a compendium that analyzed the origins of that discipline, from philosophy to modern psychology.

At that time, James Mark Baldwin also published what would be his first paper, "The Postulates of Physiological Psychology." He began teaching philosophy at Lake Forest College. In addition, his work at the theological seminary allowed him to meet Helen Hayes Green who was the daughter of its director, William Henry Green. James and Helen were married.

During this time, Baldwin also published Senses and Intellect, which later became the beginning of his handbook of psychology. In this volume, James Mark Baldwin already pointed out the enormous importance that experimental psychology was beginning to gain in Germany, thanks to researchers such as Wundt, Fechner or Weber, and would soon spread throughout Europe and the United States.

Afterwards continued his work as a lecturer at the University of Toronto, this time teaching metaphysics and logic. It was here that he set up his own laboratory, finally bringing experimental psychology to America. Moreover, this period coincided with the birth of his two daughters, who were the catalyst for his research on developmental psychology. His research was so important that it influenced authors such as Piaget and Kohlberg.

James Mark Baldwin kept in touch with French psychologists such as Charcot, Janet or Bernheim, even visiting them to share impressions of their work.

Return to Princeton and the Baldwin Effect

After this stage, Baldwin returned to Princeton University, as he was offered the opportunity to create another laboratory, this time in the institution where he had done his training, so he could not refuse the opportunity. The year was 1893. He spent a whole decade working there.

One of the most important works he published during that time was "Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development: A Study in Social Psychology". Lev Vygotsky himself would take into account these works to later develop his famous theories, a demonstration of the relevance of this author's studies a demonstration of the relevance of this author's studies.

But if there was a particularly important contribution in the career of James Mark Baldwin, it was the one that took place shortly after, in 1896. It is the so-called Baldwin effect, which became known through the article A New Factor in Evolution, published in The American Naturalist.

The Baldwin effect, or Baldwinian evolution, suggests that the learning that some individuals carry out and that is transmitted from generation to generation, ends up having as much importance for adaptation as natural selection itself. In other words, Certain cultural components allow human beings to adapt to environments or situations for which they would not naturally be prepared to survive.

One of the classic examples is that of incest and the culturally generated taboo surrounding this phenomenon. Thanks to this cultural learning, a behavior that at the genetic level is not adaptive is avoided, since it increases the probability of a series of anomalies that could result in the non-transmission of genes to the next generation, which constitutes a failure in Biological terms.

Later career

James Mark Baldwin was already an eminence in his field. In addition to psychology, he also worked in philosophy, and more specifically in epistemology. Through works such as the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, where he collaborated with other authors to create a volume that would straddle both disciplines. This was done through the University of Oxford, an institution that awarded him an honorary doctorate.

In 1903, Baldwin ended his time as a professor at Princeton, partly because of disagreements with the presidency, but also because Johns Hopkins University offered him a new position. Johns Hopkins University offered him a new opportunity that he could not refuse. There he founded a new laboratory of experimental psychology. In fact, that institution had already had one, created by Granville Stanley Hall, which was later closed.

This new stage of James Mark Baldwin allowed him to focus on the creation of new works, which he crystallized in "Genetic Theory of Reality", one of his most important contributions. This volume establishes a basis on developmental psychology, talking about the different stages that a child goes through during childhood and the capacities that he/she acquires in each one of them. This theory would have a great influence on Piaget.

But then, at the height of his career, an event occurred that completely destroyed his reputation. He was arrested during a police raid on a brothel. This event, in the year 1908, was a great disgrace for such a puritanical society as the American one. Therefore, he had no choice but to leave both his job and his own country and emigrate to Europe.

Period in Paris and death

After the scandal, James Mark Baldwin ended his time in the United States and decided to move to Paris, where he had previously been on working trips that connected him with other authors. Also made frequent trips to Mexico, as he was hired as a teacher at the National University of Mexico City to teach at its school of higher education.

Throughout these years he published new works, such as Darwin and the Humanities and also The Individual and Society. But in 1912, he returned to Paris and took up residence there, since he would not move to any other place in the remaining years of his life. It was then that World War I broke out in 1914.

As an American, Baldwin tried to make his native country see the need to leave behind its neutrality in the face of this conflict and support France and its allies. To this end, he published an article entitled "The Neutrality of the United States: Cause and Cure". This idea was greatly enhanced when the war touched him at close quarters. James Mark Baldwin had traveled to Oxford to meet with William Osler.

On the return from this voyage, while on board the ferry Sussex crossing the English Channel, the sea area separating France and the United Kingdom, the vessel was torpedoed by German ships. Baldwin did not take long to send a telegram to the President of the United States himself to inform him of what had happened. This was one of the events that tipped the balance and provoked the entry of the United States into the war.

Baldwin was active in this conflict, presiding over the American Navy League of Paris. His memoirs, published in 1926, were called Between Two Wars, as he was born during the Civil War and lived through World War I during its last stage. James Mark Baldwin died in Paris in 1934.

Bibliographical references:

• Broughton, J.M. (1981). The genetic psychology of James Mark Baldwin. American Psychologist.
• Calandrini, A.R., Marsico, G. (2020). Rediscovering James Mark Baldwin. Psychology Hub.
• Wozniak, R.H. (1998). Thought and things: James Mark Baldwin and the biosocial origins of mind. In R. W. Rieber & K. Salzinger (Eds.), Psychology: Theoretical-historical perspectives. American Psychological Association.