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Thymology is the historical study of those mental/cognitive human aspects that result in definite modes of purposeful human behavior. The term was first employed, as so defined, by Austrian school economist, Ludwig von Mises, in his book Theory and History.

History

In explaining the method men resort to when dealing with the actions of other men, Mises pointed out that such a method was peculiar. It was not to be considered a method of the natural sciences, nor that of logic or mathematics. It was to deal with valuations men placed on various factors influencing the outcome of definite modes of action. This method was known as specific understanding.

However, the term literary psychology was also used by contemporaries at the time. It was common to speak of human values, e.g. that one man likes apples, and the other liek pears, as a psychology problem. But during that time, Mises had perceived the term psychology to refer to the experimental and naturalistic psychology. Mises feared that using such a term to refer to the method of specific understanding might lead to confusion over these two different branches of knowledge. Thus, he nominated the term thymology to refer to the mental/cognitive aspects that result in definite modes of purposeful human behavior.

The thymological method

Thymology is a method employed by an observer to understand why a definite individual or group of individuals acted in definite way at a definite time and place to achieve a definite end by employing definite means. More specifically, it is concerned with the mental and cognitive activities of an individual that result in definite modes of action.

As Mises wrote:

The environment in which man acts is shaped by natural events on the one hand and by human action on the other. The future for which he plans will be codetermined by the actions of people who are planning and acting like himself. If he wants to succeed, he must anticipate their conduct... [Thymology] deals with human action, viz., with the ideas, judgments of value, and volitions that determine action... [It] is a branch of history or, as Collingwood formulated it, it belongs in "the sphere of history." It deals with the mental activities of men that determine their actions. It deals with the mental processes that result in a definite kind of behavior, with the reactions of the mind to the conditions of the individual's environment. It deals with something invisible and intangible that cannot be perceived by the methods of the natural sciences. But the natural sciences must admit that this factor must be considered as real also from their point of view, as it is a link in a chain of events that result in changes in the sphere the description of which they consider as the specific field of their studies.

It is a historical branch of knowledge, since such knowledge is acquired through experience. Thus, the historian makes use of this knowledge when analyzing past human actions and events. However, the thymological method is not exclusively employed by the historian.

Says Mises:

The specific understanding of the historical disciplines [one of which is thymology] is not a mental process exclusively resorted to by historians. It is applied by everybody in daily intercourse with all his fellows. It is a technique employed in all interhuman relations. It is practiced by children in the nursery and kindergarten, by businessmen in trade, by politicians and statesmen in affairs of state. All are eager to get information about other people's valuations and plans and to appraise them correctly. People as a rule call this insight into the minds of other men psychology. Thus, they say a salesman ought to be a good psychologist, and a political leader should be an expert in mass psychology.