Re: The myth of knowledge
Posted by
Eric Charles on
Aug 20, 2011; 1:43pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/no-one-shall-expel-us-from-the-paradise-that-Cantor-has-created-Hugh-Woodin-s-ultimate-L-Richard-Elw8-tp6699752p6706320.html
Resend: I have not seen this post yet, apologies if it is a
repeat.
Owen,
Alas, the first post was not a trailer (Nick has been
haranguing me about this). Instead, the first post was an attempt to crudely
connect my
blog with the other blogs I have been actively commenting on for the past year
or so (to try to get some instant gratification in terms of traffic and
comments, and to acknowledge others' influence in the current endeavor). So,
here it goes...
I struggled to pick a good title. "Fixing Psychology"
seemed appropriate to the
things I am likely to write about, and also a touch provocative... which I
liked. For the past hundred years or so, psychology has been in a state like
physics was shortly before Einstein - from the outside things look fine, but
inside there are hosts of cracks in the system, and the patches aren't holding
very well. As late as the 1970's you could still find water cooler conversation
in psychology departments between people wondering what subfield the next
"Newton" of psychology would come from - What type of theory would eventually
emerge to unify the field? What type of person would create it? However, that
hope has been almost totally abandoned and psychology continues to fragment.
Also, as a result of that fragmentation some of the most scientifically 'solid'
areas of psychological research (learning theory and perceptual research) have
become very marginalized. The few things that presently serves as a
'foundation' for the field are not ideal. So in that sense, psychology needs
fixing in two ways: 1) We need to work towards unity, rather than division. 2)
We need a better foundation to build that unity on.
Many of my past and
in-progress publications are along these lines, but I was hoping that a blog
would provide a place to develop parts of more long-term projects, to test
run new ideas, and to develop responses too long to be a 'comment' somewhere
else. In particular, I am hoping to generate feedback and reactions
while the works are still in progress, and to stimulate discussion more
generally. Among the long term projects are: 1) A Perception-Action textbook I
am trying to produce through massively multi-authored means through the
International Society for Ecological Psychology. The book would have perception
at its core, but connect to social psychology, cognitive psychology, and other
areas commonly thought of in a disjointed fashion. 2) A book on "Natural
Design" in which I am trying to tie 40 years worth of Nick's work into a
coherent story showing the connection between evolutionary biology, behavior,
and psychology. 3) The most long term, an Introductory Psychology textbook that
presents psychology in a unified rather than fragmentary way. Also, on the
"service" side of my job, I am heading a taskforce for the 'Society of
General Psychology' trying to find ways to support early career psychologists
who are trying to pursue general interests against the pressures to narrowly
specialize.
One thing not to under-emphasize, is that very few of the
ideas I will be proffering are that new. There was a false-start towards a
psychology influenced by American Pragmatism in the early 1900's. It remains
the most coherent framework for a science of psychology, and so most of what
I'll be promoting to "fix" psychology are other people's ideas that are a
hundred years old. In some places I will be very explicit about that historic
context, in other places I will just try to explain how things look from that
point of view. Also, my desire to simply stimulate discussion should not be
under-emphasized. If I could get any reasonable number of people to
start thinking seriously about unifying psychology, I would be pretty
happy, even if they didn't like my suggestions for how to do it.
Was
that what you were looking for?
EricOn Thu, Aug
18, 2011 11:20 PM,
Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>
wrote:
Whoa, how about more? Why did you feel a need to
start the blog? What is your goal? Why "psychology" or "fixing"? ..
possibly Cognitive Science, or History of Science, or xx?
We need at least a trailer .. maybe the first post was it?
-- Owen
On
Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 6:03 PM, ERIC P. CHARLES
<epc2@...> wrote:
Shameless
plug: I have started a academically-oriented blog. I suspect my most
recent post, on '<a href="http://fixingpsychology.blogspot.com/" target=""
onclick="window.open('http://fixingpsychology.blogspot.com/');return
false;">The Myth of
Knowledge', is relevant to many of the discussions that I have been part of
on this list, and will be of interest to at least a few people here.
I
now return you to your regularly scheduled posts (and second the point that the
'ultimate L' article was very cool).
Eric
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Eric Charles
Professional Student and
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Penn State University
Altoona, PA 16601
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org