James Mark Baldwin facts for kids

James Mark Baldwin in 1917

James Mark Baldwin (born January 12, 1861, in Columbia, South Carolina – died November 8, 1934, in Paris) was an American philosopher and psychologist. He studied at Princeton and helped start the Psychology Department there, as well as at the University of Toronto. Baldwin made important contributions to early psychology, psychiatry, and the theory of evolution.

About James Mark Baldwin

His Early Life and Studies

James Mark Baldwin grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. His father was against slavery and even bought enslaved people to set them free. During the Civil War, his father moved north, but the family stayed in their home until Sherman's March. After the war, Baldwin's father was part of the government that rebuilt the South.

Baldwin went to high school in New Jersey. Because of this, he chose to attend the College of New Jersey, which is now Princeton University.

He first studied theology, which is the study of religion, but soon switched to philosophy. He earned his first degree in 1884. He received a special scholarship called the Green Fellowship. This allowed him to study in Germany with famous psychologists like Wilhelm Wundt and Friedrich Paulsen.

In 1886, he became a teacher of French and German at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He translated a book about German psychology and wrote his first paper on how the body affects the mind.

In 1887, Baldwin became a philosophy professor at Lake Forest College. He married Helen Hayes Green there. He also published the first part of his Handbook of Psychology. This book focused on new ideas in experimental psychology. He earned his master's degree and then his doctoral degree from Princeton in 1889.

In 1890, he moved to the University of Toronto to lead the Logic and Metaphysics department. He started a psychology lab there, which he said was the first in the British Empire. Around this time, his daughters Helen (born 1889) and Elizabeth (born 1891) were born. Their growth inspired his research on infant development. This research greatly influenced later thinkers like Jean Piaget.

In 1892, Baldwin traveled to France to meet other important psychologists like Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet.

His Middle Career Years

In 1893, Baldwin returned to Princeton University. He was given a special position to teach psychology and start a new psychology lab. He stayed at Princeton until 1903. During this time, he wrote Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development (1897). This book's ideas influenced later psychologists like Lev Vygotsky.

During this period, Baldwin also wrote an important paper called "A New Factor of Evolution" (1896). This idea later became known as the "Baldwin Effect". Other scientists like Conwy Lloyd Morgan and Henry Fairfield Osborn also had similar ideas. The "Baldwin Effect" was named by George Gaylord Simpson much later, in 1953.

Baldwin also worked on philosophy, especially epistemology, which is the study of knowledge. He gave a speech about his ideas to the American Psychological Association in 1897. He also started working on the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (1902). Many famous thinkers, including William James and John Dewey, helped him with this big project.

In 1899, Baldwin went to Oxford to finish the Dictionary. He received an honorary degree from Oxford University.

Later Life and Contributions

In 1903, Baldwin moved to Johns Hopkins University as a professor of philosophy and psychology. He reopened the experimental psychology lab there.

In Baltimore, Baldwin began writing Thoughts and Things: A Study of the Development and Meaning of Thought, Or Genetic Logic (1906). This book explained his ideas about how knowledge grows in children. He suggested that children learn in different stages by using their natural abilities and what they learn from their environment. This idea was later picked up by Jean Piaget. Baldwin also said that physical growth leads to language and thinking skills, showing how children develop through social and physical experiences.

Baldwin later had to leave Johns Hopkins and moved to Paris, France, where he lived until his death in 1934.

From 1908 to 1912, he often visited Mexico. He advised on university matters and gave lectures. His books Darwin and the Humanities (1909) and Individual and Society (1911) came from this time. In 1912, he settled permanently in Paris.

During World War I, Baldwin urged America to support France. He wrote American Neutrality, Its Cause and Cure (1916). In 1916, he survived a German torpedo attack on a ship called the Sussex in the English Channel. His public message to the U.S. president about the attack made front-page news. When America joined the war in 1917, he helped organize the Paris branch of the American Navy League. In 1926, his memories were published in a book called Between Two Wars (1861-1921). He passed away in Paris on November 8, 1934.

Baldwin's Key Ideas

Baldwin was a leading early experimental psychologist. In a 1903 survey, he was voted the fifth most important psychologist in America. His most important contributions were to developmental psychology, which studies how people grow and change. His idea that thinking develops in steps greatly influenced Jean Piaget's famous theory. His ideas about how our sense of self grows by copying others also influenced Jacques Lacan's "mirror stage" idea.

Baldwin also played a big role in starting important psychology journals and organizations. He helped create Psychological Review and was the first editor of Psychological Bulletin.

In 1892, he was a vice-president at a big psychology meeting in London. In 1897–1898, he was president of the American Psychological Association. He also received a gold medal from the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences of Denmark.

Organic Selection Explained

The idea of organic selection came from Baldwin's studies of how babies learn to reach for things. He noticed that when babies tried to move, they would try many different actions. The movements that helped them develop were "selected" from these many attempts.

As children grew, this was clearly seen in their efforts to draw and learn to write. Baldwin later changed the name from "organic selection" to "functional selection."

This idea showed that development is about practice and how this practice helps shape society. It helped scientists understand parts of Lamarck's ideas about evolution. This concept is still important in modern studies of how language and the human brain developed together.

In humans, our ability to change our environment is helped by our intelligence. We can design situations that protect our important skills from natural dangers. This idea is especially important when thinking about how humans deal with new diseases like AIDS.

The Baldwin Effect

Baldwin's most important idea is the "Baldwin effect" or "Baldwinian evolution". He suggested that learned behaviors can influence how a species changes over many generations. This was different from other ideas at the time.

For example, human behaviors and cultural practices, if kept up for many generations, can actually help shape our genes. This means that what we learn and do can affect our biological makeup over a long time.

The Baldwin effect can also work the other way. Cultural practices might lead to humans being specially bred to fit new environments, both cultural and physical. This could help humans survive in places where earlier humans could not. The Baldwinian evolution can make a genetic trait stronger or weaker.

His Lasting Influence

Baldwin's ideas are still important in today's discussions about evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. Robert Wozniak, a professor at Bryn Mawr College, did a lot to bring James Mark Baldwin's important ideas back into focus.

His Written Works

Besides articles in the Psychological Review, Baldwin wrote several books:

• Handbook of Psychology (1890)
• Elements of Psychology (1893)
• Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development (1898)
• Story of the Mind (1898)
• Mental Development in the Child and the Race (1896)
• Thought and Things (London and New York, 1906)

He was also the main editor of the Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (1901–1905).

See also

In Spanish: James Mark Baldwin para niños

• George Herbert Mead
• Life history theory
• Orthogenesis
• Epigenetics
• Pangenesis
• Weismann Barrier
• Evolutionary developmental biology