(DOWNLOAD) "Psychology, Religion, And Critical Hermeneutics: Comments on Reber, Slife and Whoolery, Nelson, And Richardson." by Journal of Psychology and Theology * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Psychology, Religion, And Critical Hermeneutics: Comments on Reber, Slife and Whoolery, Nelson, And Richardson.
- Author : Journal of Psychology and Theology
- Release Date : January 22, 2006
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 211 KB
Description
The articles in this issue have provided an important analysis of how psychology, so often stuck in Enlightenment foundationalism, needs to "catch up" with changes in the philosophy of science. These changes reveal that the older Enlightenment goal of emptying oneself of all preconceptions in order to perform "objective, neutral, and detached" investigation is no longer realistic. While some individuals in the harder sciences recognize this impossibility, it seems to be a lingering expectation in the human sciences. Positivism dies hard. We applaud the manner in which these articles expose the hidden assumptions beneath many forms of so-called scientific psychology. Indeed, many of these psychologies move quickly from a methodological naturalism to an ontological naturalism, not realizing that they have switched hats and are now speaking about the ultimate context of our lives. Ontological naturalism lies far beyond anything which empirical science can demonstrate. It is a "faith" perspective--an assumptive world out of which some psychologists mistakenly attempt to do their more modest empirical work. While ontological materialism has every right to argue its case in the public arena, it should do so with the awareness that it is speaking philosophically rather than scientifically. Indeed, as the fine articles in this issue communicate, this is scientism, not science. Scientists often make poor philosophers, particularly when it comes to understanding the ontological substructure of their own work.