Great Ideas of Philosophy

Lecture Fifty-ThreePhilosophy of Psychology and Related ConfusionsScope: Psychology is a subject of wide-ranging interests but rather narrow modes of inquiry. Its history is one ofaspiring to the status of a natural science and, as a result, committing itself to what it takes to be themethods of investigation and research common in the developed sciences. Initially, as with Locke, thiscommitment was expressed in the form of introspective inquiries into thought or, more generally, cognitiveand emotional states. The private nature of these, combined with their “metaphysical” properties, resultedin the rejection of the mental by those in the positivist school of science. In keeping with the dictates ofthat school, psychology, early in the 20 th century, subscribed to a theory-neutral and “purely descriptive”science of behavior. The failure of that science to account for any number of behavioral outcomes led to arestoration of cognitive, even “mental” states within psychology. This, in turn, set the stage for thecognitive neuroscience dominant today. Nonetheless, the defects and deficiencies of earlier schools havereappeared, owing to the same problems: the aptness of the science model in psychology, the nature ofmodels themselves, and the uniqueness of psychological processes.OutlineI. At least three times in the 20 th century, psychology has settled on its subject matter, only to unsettle itself andadopt yet another “reality.”A. The problem should not be attributed to psychology’s alleged “youth.”1. Psychological laboratories do not appear that much later than laboratories in other disciplines.2. Chemistry laboratories appear at universities no earlier than 1830.3. Non-academic settings for research were numerous, and psychology experiments were performed inthem as early as the 18 th century.B. Psychology is a hybrid science, because its interest ranges over both scientific and humanistic issues.1. The breadth and diversity of phenomena may be seen as excuse enough for psychology’s unsettlednature as it seeks unity and disciplinary coherence.2. The challenge is no greater, however, in psychology than in physics, which has made room for thoseinterested in the red-shift of stars retreating from the Milky Way and those whose subjects of interestwink in and out of existence in less than a billionth of a second.C. The special subject of philosophical psychology also reflects on the disordered state of the discipline.Attempts to create order and a “system” must be arbitrary but are also necessary, or else there really wouldbe no subject at all.II. The starting point presumably is the identification of what psychology is about, what its practitioners identifyas good reasons for having the discipline, and what other reasonably informed persons would reasonably expectof it.A. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary defines psychology as “the study of the human soul or mind; a treatise on orsystem of this,” a definition that does little to clarify the discipline.B. A more informing approach would be to examine offered courses and assigned texts in major departmentsof psychology. These days, the courses and the activities would be highly particularized, focusing on anynumber of questions that, at best, relate obliquely to what has traditionally been understood to be humanmental life.C. Aristotle used the term psyche in his treatise on the subject to mean the “first principle of living things.”1. What is “psychic” is a complex process, not a thing occupying a place and having some existenceoutside the creature so animated.2. Also, this animating principle is expressed in various ways and confers different powers or faculties ondifferent living things.D. With the 17 th century’s scientific achievements, Descartes, then Locke took a more daring approach tothese concepts.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 13