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On Hijacking Science

Exploring the Nature and Consequences of Overreach in Psychology

Edwin E Gantt editor Richard N Williams editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:12th Apr '18

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On Hijacking Science cover

This book examines the origins, presence, and implications of scientistic thinking in psychology. Scientism embodies the claim that only knowledge attained by means of natural scientific methods counts as valid and valuable. This perspective increasingly dominates thinking and practice in psychology and is seldom acknowledged as anything other than standard scientific practice. This book seeks to make this intellectual movement explicit and to detail the very real limits in both role and reach of science in psychology. The critical chapters in this volume present an alternative perspective to the scholarly mainstreams of the discipline and will be of value to scholars and students interested in the scientific status and the philosophical bases of psychology as a discipline.

‘Gantt and Williams's edited volume brings together a stellar cast of contributors, all of whom seek to show, in their own distinctive ways, that the reigning, largely "scientistic," view of psychological inquiry is but one view among many possible ones. By alerting us to the parochial nature of the dominant view, they pave the way toward fashioning not only a broader, more inclusive perspective on what psychological inquiry might be but a vastly expanded, more humanly adequate, vision of the discipline itself.’ —Mark Freeman, Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society, College of the Holy Cross, USA

'Kierkegaard once criticized theology for selling off its authority in order to buy stock in "rationality" from the philosophers. "Theology sits rouged at the window," he mocked, "and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it." One could worry psychology has done the same: it has sold off the soul in order to purchase a claim to "science." This volume is a careful, thoughtful challenge to such reductionism, offered for the sake of both science and psychology.' James K.A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College, USA

ISBN: 9781138478817

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 294g

144 pages