Psychology between science and common sense: William James and the problems of psychological language in the Principles |
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| Institution: | Department of Psychology, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA, 30118, USA;University of New Mexico, Department of Psychology, United States;Department of Psychology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S 0A2, Canada;University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA;University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA;Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA;Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, V5A 1S6, Canada;Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland;University of Finance and Management in Warsaw, Faculty of Psychology, ul. Pawia 55, 01-030 Warszawa, Poland;Centre for Human Interactivity, Dep. of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Odense Campus, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | The suspicion that language can become an obstacle to human knowledge is not new in the Western intellectual tradition. Following the empiricist legacy, many authors have suggested the perils and pitfalls of common sense language for science. Applied to psychology, this leads to the issue of the reliability of psychological language for scientific psychology. William James, in his Principles of Psychology, was one of the first psychologists to address this problem explicitly. The goal of this paper is to situate his position and contrast it with contemporary debates over the status of folk psychology. The results indicate that James conceived of common sense psychology in a very complex manner, and pointed to a kind of illusion that remains ignored in the current literature, with negative consequences for psychology. I conclude by suggesting the relevance of James for contemporary debates in theoretical and philosophical psychology. |
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| Keywords: | William James Scientific psychology Common sense Folk psychology History of psychology Theoretical and philosophical psychology |
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