Lecture 3:

Psychology as a problematic science & Ontology

Crisis of psychology

 Permanency of the crisis

 Domains of the crisis
 Description of the crisis:
 Accumulation of data without theoretical integration or
clarification
 Fragmentation and missing unity of psychology
 Irrelevance of psychological research for practice
 Ideological influences on psychological theory
 Conceptualization of psychology as exclusively natural science
Substance of the crisis

 Inadequate conceptualization of the subject matter of psychology:

 Importance of the subject matter
 Historical aspects
 Subject matter and models
 Methodologism of psychology:
 Problem: Experiment
 Problem: Nomothetic science
 Problem: Pseudo-empiricism
 Problem: Conceptual and investigative arbitrariness
Ontology and ontological problems

 The study of being as such (the basic characteristics of all reality)

 The nature of existence
 The nature of the relationship between mind and body
 The nature of psychological concepts
 Human nature
Problem 1: What is the nature of human existence?

 Martin Heidegger's (1889-1976) Being and Time (1927). Examined the

totality of human existence.
 Dasein: "to be" (sein) "there" (da). Person and the world are inseparable ->
 Being-in-the-world: Hyphens are used to emphasize the interrelatedness of
the person and the world.
Heidegger

 Authenticity and inauthenticity

 A prerequisite for living an authentic life was coming to grips with the fact
that "I must someday die."
 Realization  Person can exercise freedom to create a meaningful
existence.
 Refusal: Person inhibits an understanding of his or her possibilities 
inauthentic life.
Heidegger

 Authentic life: Lived with a sense of excitement. Exploring life's possibilities.

Becoming all that one can become.
 Inauthentic life: One pretends. Living a conventional life emphasizing
present activities without concern for the future. Giving up freedom and let
others make the choices of one’s life.
Heidegger

 Guilt
 If we do not exercise our personal freedomGuilt
 Authentic life  Minimize guilt.
Heidegger

 Acceptance of the fact that at some point in the future we will be

nothing  anxiety (acceptance takes courage).
 Making personal choices  anxiety.
 Authentic people are always experimenting  anxiety.
 Exercising one's freedom in life  anxiety.
 Anxiety: A necessary part of living an authentic life.
Heidegger

 The free individual is responsible for the consequences of choices.

 One cannot blame God, parents, circumstances, etc.
 Freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand.
Heidegger

 Humans choose, evaluate, accept, reject, and expand. To exist is to

become different. Humans choose the nature of their own
existence.
 Limits of personal freedom: We are thrown into the Dasein by
circumstances beyond our control.
 Thrownness determines the conditions under which we exercise
our freedom.
Problem 2: The relationship between mind and body

 I. Dualism: Two substances

 II. Monism: One substance
Dualism

 Interactionism: Descartes: res extensa - res cogitans. Mutual

influence of mind and body. Mental -> physical; physical -> mental.
 Parallelism: Leibniz: Mental and physical, mind and body: parallel
mode.
 Emergentism: Mental processes are produced by physical (brain)
processes. Yet, mental processes, though produced by brain
processes, are qualitatively different from the physical system from
which they emerge.
Monism

 Materialism: Everything is physical or material. Our mind is a result

of the physical. (Lamettrie)
 Spiritualism: Everything is spiritual, mental or immaterial (Berkeley).
 Identity-theory (double aspect monism): Mind and body are the
same. We use different languages to describe these processes.
(Spinoza, Schelling)
 Epiphenomenalism: Physical events are causal with respect to
mental events. Mental events have no independent existence.
(Huxley)
Problem 3: Concepts

 Are psychological concepts of a natural or of a socio-historical kind?

Problem 4: The nature of human nature

Theories of human nature