AbstractsPsychology

1. FORMAL DEFINITION A philosophy of psychology may suggest an ultimate, empirically derived principle to serve as an hypothesis for the interpretation of psychological data and theory. The formal limits and extent of a philosophy of psychology may be defined "by comparison with two similar disciplines, namely, philosophical psychology and scientific psychology. Philosophical psychology may make psychological data and theory amenable to an a priori point of view, whereas philosophy of psychology is empirically conditioned. Here it has an investigative spirit in common with scientific psychology. It differs from scientific psychology by including the consideration of values as such. Scientific psychology has philosophical implications. Thus, mechanistic categories of current psychology favor materialism. Categories presupposing purpose permit idealistic positions. Operationism suggests positivism. It is the task of philosophy of psychology to make such implicit philosophical issues explicit, and to construct an interpretative principle upon an empirical basis. 2. EMPIRICAL BASIS Psychological data may be organized into theory under four principles: (1) The principle of psycho-physical correlation. From numerous instances of the effects of neural and glandular functioning, and of disease and drugs, upon mental life it is inferred that mental and physiological processes are correlated. (2) The principle of instrumental behavior. Motor response, perception, imagination, thinking, appreciation, and self-consciousness are used "by the individual as a means to some end. (3) The principle of value response. The world is of value to us when, in our commerce with it, needs are met and desires satsified. The social group provides an objective ground for value experience. Purposeful planning for value experience is ideal motivation. (4) The ego principle. The individual is a psychological unit. Within the world he accepts as real he refers his past experience to his present, self-enhancing purposes. This reference presupposes the personal identity to which the experience of self-consciousness attests. The four principles are complementary. The facts to which the principles, taken together, apply, constitute the subject matter of psychology. For example, mental reactive equipment used in instrumental behavior is psychologically significant because it functions for the ego in achieving ego-enhancing values in a social context. The mental life of animals and idiots is excluded, and is subject matter for comparative psychology, rather than psychology proper. Within this scope, no limits are placed upon psychological investigation by these principles. For example, further investigation in physiological psychology will strengthen the evidence for psycho-physical correlation. Psychological theory and data, as sytematized by the four complementary principles, constitute the empirical basis of philosophy of psychology. 3. PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS Three philosophical problems arise from these empirically based principles: (1) The…