Re: The myth of knowledge

Posted by Eric Charles on Aug 20, 2011; 9:41pm
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-tp6699752p6707137.html

Forwarded to list at Owen's request...

Owen,
I'll meditate on a more thorough answer, but the quick one is: Yes, psychology is "fragmented in the sense of having little or no basis upon which psychologists agree." The original umbrella organization, the American Psychological Association now has 56 Divisions! The original idea was to create "Unity Through Division" (and a multi-volume history of the APA is so titled), but it has not worked. Instead, it has only lead to greater fragmentation. There is no framework nor even a set of core phenomenon, core experiments, or core findings that holds things together.

Eric


On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 12:34 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

Not a duplicate, at least for me, so I'm really glad you did resend!  And, yes, that was exactly what I was looking for.  I had no idea that psychology was, at least from the inside, fragmented as you describe. 

The unification theme is subtle: upon what "axis" does a multidimensional system unify?

I'm reading a wonderful book by Timothy Gowers, a Fields medalist mathematician, who wrote The Princeton Companion to Mathematics.  (There is no Nobel prize in mathematics: <a href="http://goo.gl/mj7f" onclick="window.open('http://goo.gl/mj7f');return false;">http://goo.gl/mj7f) He was concerned not about how to unify mathematics, but show what that unified structure was.  It's not a "math book" per se, but a series of ever-deeper plunges into the structure and scope of the areas of mathematics, and how they overlap.

It is a "companion" in that it claims no authority or completeness as an encyclopedia might.  Rather it is a very human guide, with a point of view (opinions) and gaps.  It was as much orchestrated by TG as written .. it had a web-site with many commentators, and has several sections of the book written by experts in particular areas.

One is struck by the fact that even though there are many fields, this is not considered fragmentation because they all accept certain fundamentals.

Psychology is "fragmented" to we novices in that there are many fields.  And a "Companion" would certainly be useful for us.  But is it fragmented in the sense of having little or no basis upon which psychologists agree?

        -- Owen

Links: 

Gowers' home page <a href="http://gowers.wordpress.com/" onclick="window.open('http://gowers.wordpress.com/');return false;">http://gowers.wordpress.com/

Polymath Project: <a href="http://polymathprojects.org/" onclick="window.open('http://polymathprojects.org/');return false;">http://polymathprojects.org/ (Shows community process in math)

Eric Charles

Professional Student and
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Penn State University
Altoona, PA 16601

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