31

Most French language dictionaries have the term “psychologism” date back to 1906 or 1907. This term would have been translated from German and would thus reflect the debates on psychologism, around Gottlob Frege and Edmund Husserl, which Martin Kusch minutely described in his book, Psychologism. In fact the dictionaries are unaware that this term can be found in French since 1838, in the writings of Pierre Leroux, with a very particular meaning, and even earlier in Auguste Comte’s work, who flatters himself, as early as 1828, on “killing psychologism”, with the assistance of François Broussais. We will endeavour to specify in which context the term “psychologism” appeared, the meaning it had, and to what extent it is possible to speak, in relation to the years 1820-1830, of “an early quarrel over psychologism”, which would comprise both similarities and differences, with the great German quarrel at the end of the nineteenth century. Renewed interest in psychologism today calls for such a historical study.