Philosophical Principles of the History and Systems of Psychology: Essential Distinctions

By: Frank Scalambrino

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Synopsis: Taking philosophical principles as a point of departure, this book provides essential distinctions for thinking through the history and systems of Western psychology. In line with the aims of the American Psychological Association’s Society for the History of Psychology, this book is concisely designed to help readers navigate through the length and complexity found in history of psychology textbooks. Neither a history textbook, seeking to maximize inclusion of historical content, nor a doxography, this book presents philosophical and historically-based principles and distinctions for organizing and thinking through the diversity, complexity, and history of systems constituting contemporary Western psychology. From Plato to beyond Postmodernism, this book examines the choices and commitments made by theorists and practitioners of psychology and discusses the philosophical thinking from which they stem. What kind of science is psychology? Is structure, function, or methodology foremost in determining psychology’s subject matter? Psychology as the Behaviorist views it is not the same as the Psychoanalyst’s view of it, or the Existentialist’s, so how may contemporary psychology philosophically-sustain both pluralism and incommensurability? This book will be of great value to students and scholars of the history of psychology.