Empiricism Gerardus Heymans (17 April 1857, Ferwert – 18 February 1930, Groningen) was a Dutch philosopher and psychologist.

[6] Heymans was born in Friesland as the son of the municipal secretary Jan Heijmans and his wife Sara Wijsman.

He went to the HBS (Hogere Burgerschool, an old form of high school education) in Leeuwarden and then studied law and philosophy at the University of Leiden.

He and his wife first took up residence on the Stationsstraat in Groningen, where Heymans set up his psychological laboratory in 1892.

[6] His lectures were popular and attracted many students from other studies, professors and other interested parties.

[6] Heymans continued to publish books and articles in various fields of philosophy and psychology throughout his academic career.

He regularly took long walks with J. C. Kapteyn and was good friends with Enno Wiersma, a professor of psychiatry and neurology, with whom he also conducted several studies.

After the First World War, however, he cancelled his membership because the Academy did not take a neutral stance toward scientists from Germany and Austria.

He became Commander in the Order of Orange Nassau and was an honorary member of The British Psychological Society.

[6] Heymans wanted to build a philosophical system based on an empirical method.

Heymans proposed a form of psychic monism; reality consists of the mind.

[3][15] Heymans was appointed professor to teach the history of philosophy, logic, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and psychology.

[4][6] He designed various setups in which subjects had to indicate when they thought the lines were of equal length (Müller-Lyer) or were running parallel (Zöllner).

[18] Heymans was in fact the first psychologist to base a typology, a classification of personality types, on empirical research.

[19] Heymans based his typology on the biographies of well-known people, such as Goethe and Napoleon, and survey research.

Among them were well-known psychologists such as William James, Alfred Binet, Francis Galton, and also Heymans.

For the construction of the villa on Ubbo Emmiussingel, they made sure there was a proper place for the laboratory.

[8] The space that Heymans had at his disposal consisted of a large lecture hall and four workrooms.

[6] In 1927 Heymans handed over the management to his former lab assistant and at that time lecturer in pedagogy Henri Brugmans.