Gudmundur Finnbogason

Guðmundur Finnbogason (6. june 1873 – 17. july 1944) was an icelandic philosopher, the son of Guðrún Jónsdóttir and Guðmundur Finnboga Finnbogason. . He was one of the first Icelandic psychologists.

Career
Guðmundur finished his studies in Lærði Skólinn in the spring of 1896. The same year, he began studying philosophy at University of Copenhagen, which he finished with a masters degree in 1901. His major was psychology. Among his mentors were Harald Høffding and Alfred Lehmann. . They were very respected academics in both philosophy and psychology.

Lehmann had studied under Wilhelm Wundt in Germany and he established a laboratory in Copenhagen in 1886 (presumably one of the first in the world).

During the years of 1901 and 1902 Guðmundur traveled among some the Nordic Countries and gathered information on teaching in these countries. The national congress, Alþingi, supported him in this matter. When the information had been gathered, he wrote his first book, which was named Lýðmenntun, or People's education, where he proposed his ideas on kid's teaching should be conducted in Iceland. The book was published in 1903 and in the same year Guðmundur wrote a report to the congress on the trip and his proposal in how education should be enhanced. During the years of 1903 and 1904, he traveled in Iceland to gather information on teaching in the country and he then wrote a report to congress. In the year of 1907, a proposal on teaching was agreed. The proposal was mostly based on proposal which Guðmundur had written for the government.

During the years of 1905 and 1906, he was the editor of Skírnir and also did some translation. Among others, he translated the lecture of William James about the human immortality and also translated an article by Henri Bergson.

In the years of 1908 to 1910 Guðmundur worked on his PhD thesis, in some way or another. The thesis name was Samúðarskilningurinn or Sympathetic understanding. He defended is work at University of Copenhagen in 1911. His book on the same issue as the thesis, Hugur and heimur, or Mind and the universe, was published in 1912.

During the same period as Guðmundur defended his thesis, the University of Iceland was founded and a professorship in philosophy was founded at the school. Guðmundur did apply, but did not get. Ágúst H. Bjarnason got the position. Guðmundur instead became a librarian at the national book library. Later, he was appointed professor at the University. He served in that position during the years of 1918 to 1924. He tought applied psychology and did experiments with students..

He was the editor of Skírnir in 1905 to 1907, 1913 to 1920 and 1933 to 1943.