Name: sarah lander

Semester: 5th SEMESTER

The Success of Psychology and Philosophy

The Success of Psychology

There are a number of reasons for the success of psychology as an academic discipline in
America. While aspiring psychologists in Germany and Britain had to battle reactionary
philosophers and conservative administrators, American philosophers generally welcomed
the new psychology, as experimental psychology was called, and the pragmatically oriented
businessmen and politicians who directed American universities were friendly to the new
discipline and were persuaded of its great social promise (albeit exaggerated by its
promoters). The new psychology was not generally perceived as a threat to traditional forms
of moral philosophy based on Scottish common sense psychology. What was perceived as a
threat was materialism and the mechanisms of Darwin's theory of evolution through natural
selection and the reflexive sensori-motor theory of the nervous system. Like most scientists,
moral philosophers accepted the fact of evolution, but opposed Darwin's claim that evolution
could be explained as the mechanical result of biological variation and natural selection,
without reference to divine purpose and design. They condemned his treatment of human
psychology and behavior as highly sustainable with the treatment of animals, because, like
Descartes, they saw the denial of the distinctiveness of human rationality as a threat to moral
freedom and responsibility. They also follow the proponents of the sensory-motor theory of
the nervous system in supposing that the theory implies that cognition and consciousness are
merely epiphenomenal by-products of reflective neurophysiological processes directly
responsible for all animal and human behavior.

Philosophy and Psychology

Some philosophers have resisted the development of scientific psychology. Frances Bowen,
the Alford Professor of Moral Philosophy at Harvard, vehemently but ineffectively protested
James' 1877 course listing on "Physiological Psychology" in the philosophy department.
However, many others supported the development of psychology as a discipline, and
philosophers such as James, Dewey, and Hall played a major role in establishing psychology
as an autonomous discipline. Eventually American psychologists came to resent the limiting
influence of philosophy and campaigned for autonomous chairs and departments of
psychology, but in the early years philosophers and psychologists saw the new psychology as
a means to revitalize traditional philosophy. In a very real sense it did.
The autonomous academic disciplines of philosophy and psychology emerged around the
same time in the late 19th century. American academic psychology developed institutionally
by separating its relationship with philosophy, but the disciplinary identity of late 19th and
early 20th century academic philosophy itself developed in reaction to the emerging
discipline of psychology. Philosophy certainly developed from psychology at the level of
professional associations. The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892, 10
years before the American Philosophical Association. In the early years, many philosophers
joined the APA and presented papers at the annual convention. This eventually led to
problems, as at the 1896 and 1898 meetings there were more papers on philosophical topics
than psychological topics.
This caused some minor friction, leading to calls for the creation of a separate philosophical
association, which was initially considered a division of the American Psychological
Association. The problem was solved when a meeting of philosophers in Kansas City formed
the Western Philosophical Association in January 1900. Philosophers on the East Coast
followed with the formation of the Eastern Philosophical Association in 1901.