About the book: 2008 / The proposed textbook describes the history of ideas about man and his nature, from the Enlightenment to the end of the twentieth century. It is dedicated to a person’s attempts to understand his purpose in this world and reconsider his views and values. The development of psychology is shown in connection with the history of the country, such as the advent of the era of modernism, the influence of colonialism on Western thought, the creation of nation states, the relationship between jurisprudence and the concept of personality, the emergence of language to characterize the spiritual world of man. Roger Smith is an internationally renowned historian of science, Emeritus Professor at Lancaster University, and a graduate of King's College, Cambridge. He taught courses in the history of European thought, psychology, and Darwinism at universities in the UK, USA and Sweden. Author of many books and articles on the history of science, including the fundamental work “History of the Human Sciences” (1997), part of which, revised by the author especially for the Russian reader, constituted this publication.