Theodor Waitz
German psychologist and anthropologist (1821–1864)
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Through Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Biography
Waitz was born at Gotha and educated at the universities of Leipzig and Jena. He made philosophy, philology and mathematics his chief studies, and in 1848 he was appointed associate professor of philosophy at the University of Marburg (full professor, 1862). He was a severe critic of the philosophy of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and considered psychology to be the basis of all philosophy. He died in Marburg.
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Theorizing boredom
Theodor Waitz contributed significantly as an affective psychologist, particularly in the field of conceptualizing boredom. According to Waitz, boredom was about flow of thoughts. As one thought begets another, expectations on where this thought is moving towards are generated. Boredom arises when those expectations are not met. Boredom is basically associated with a break in the expected flow of thoughts because of a mismatch between expected and actual mental activity.