Books:

Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Frederick Suppe (Ed.). The Structure of Scientific Theories (2nd ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.

Patricia Kitcher, Freud's Dream: A Complete Interdisciplinary Science of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.

Bernard J. Baars, The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology. New York: Guilford, 1986.

Psychology only began to assert itself as a separate discipline around 1860. Since religious and philosophical inquiry into the human mind are over 2500 years old, psychology has been a distinct science for well under 10% of that span. Moreover, psychology was professionalized as soon as it arose (the first academic psychologists arrived shortly after the first modern Ph.D. programs), and it came up after the natural sciences were well established. Consequently psychologists have been unusually sensitive to questions about what it means to do good science, and the field has gone through a number of upheavals in which basic assumptions about science were questioned, revised, or rejected.

In this course, we will begin with an overview of 20th century developments in philosophy of science, with an eye to how these might affect research and theorizing in psychology. We will then examine two major historical developments in psychology. The first is the rise and subsequent decline of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic framework. We will be especially interested in what Freud thought was good science in 1895, and how subsequent developments have eventually led both admirers and detractors of psychoanalysis to doubt whether it was science at all. The second case study will focus on the decline of behaviorism and its replacement (in American academic psychology) by cognitive psychology and cognitive science. The key developments took place in the 1950s, though we are still feeling some of the aftereffects of these changes today. Again, views about science played a significant role in the "cognitive revolution" and its aftermath.

Though I will be doing some lecturing where it is needed to provide historical or philosophical background, this course is basically a seminar. While doing the readings you should ask yourself how differing views about science relate to disagreements in the present-day psychology that you have studied and the research efforts that you are personally involved in.

There will be two tests, a formal presentation, and a final paper. The tests will consist entirely of essay questions and will be given on a take-home basis. Tests distributed at the end of the class meeting on Tuesday will be due back at 3pm on Friday.

Your presentation and your final paper will cover some issue, controversy, or important theorist or researcher in the history of psychology. In connection with your presentation topic, you may also be asked to lead a discussion of a relevant issue. Presentations will be scheduled during the last half of the semester; each will be about 20 minutes in length.

Your grade will be based on this formula:

Our Schedule

Date	Topic	Reading
Thursday January 11	Intro to Philosophy of Science
Tuesday-Thursday January 16-18	Worldview Philosophy of Science	Kuhn, Ch. 1-7 [Jan. 17 is Last Day to Add a Class]
Tuesday-Thursday January 23-25	Worldview Philosophy of Science; Logical Positivism	Kuhn, Ch. 8-13, postscript; Suppe, pp. 6-61 [Jan. 24 is Last day to Drop without a W]
Tuesday-Thursday January 30-February 1	Logical Positivism	Suppe, pp. 62-118
Tuesday-Thursday February 6-8	Logical Positivism/ Background to Freud	Kitcher, Ch. 1-2; TEST 1 distributed on Thursday
Tuesday-Thursday February 13-15	Freudian Metapsychology	Kitcher, Ch. 3
Tuesday-Thursday February 20-22	Freud's Conception of Mental Life	Kitcher, Ch. 4-5
Tuesday-Thursday February 27-March 1	"The Consilience that Failed"	Kitcher, Ch. 6-7 [Mar. 2 is Last day to withdraw without final grade]
Tuesday-Thursday March 6-8	The Rise of Behaviorism	Baars, Ch. 1-2
Tuesday-Thursday March 13-15	Defenders of Behaviorism	Baars, Ch. 3
March 19-23	SPRING BREAK
Tuesday-Thursday March 27-29	The Cognitive Revolution	Baars, Ch. 4
Tuesday-Thurday April 3-5	The Cognitive Revolution	Baars, Ch. 4-5
Tuesday-Thursday April 10-12	The Adapters and the Persuaders	Baars, Ch. 6; TEST 2 distributed on Tuesday
Tuesday-Thursday April 17-19	Key Influences from outside Psychology	Baars, Ch. 7
Tuesday-Thursday April 24-26	Key Influences from outside Psychology; Problems and prospects for today's Psychology	Baars, Ch. 8
Tue. May 1 4:30 pm	FINAL PAPERS DUE

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