Realism and psychology: collected essays

944 Pages·2011·4.244 MB·English

by  Mackay, Nigel

Realism and Psychology
Philosophy of
History and Culture
Editor
Michael Krausz
Bryn Mawr College
Advisory Board
Annette Baier (University of Pittsburgh)
Purushottama Bilimoria (Deakin University, Australia)
Cora Diamond (University of Virginia)
William Dray (University of Ottawa)
Nancy Fraser (New School for Social Research)
Clifford Geertz† (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)
Peter Hacker (St. John’s College, Oxford)
Rom Harré (Linacre College, Oxford)
Bernard Harrison (University of Sussex)
Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago)
Leon Pompa (University of Birmingham)
Joseph Raz (Balliol College, Oxford)
Amélie Rorty (Harvard University)
VOLUME 30
Realism and Psychology
Collected Essays
Edited by
Nigel Mackay
Agnes Petocz
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
On the cover: Philosophy corner with jaracanda in bloom, main quad, University of Sydney.
Photo courtesy Fiona Hibberd.
It’s real, that tree in the quad:
Not dreamed up by man or by God.
It continues to be, without Him or me:
Who could possibly think this is odd?
(T. McMullen, 2010)
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Realism and psychology : collected essays / edited by Nigel Mackay, Agnes Petocz.
p. cm. — (Philosophy of history and culture ; v. 30)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18887-7 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Cognition. 2. Psychology. 3. Realism. I. Mackay, Nigel. II. Petocz, Agnes.
BF311.R35 2011
150.19’8—dc22
2010048118
ISSN 0922-6001
ISBN 978 90 04 1888 7
© Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
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provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center,
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Fees are subject to change.
For
JOHN MAZE
CONTENTS

Acknowledgements xi
List of contributors xv
Introduction 1
Part 1: The Nature and Context of Realism
1. Realism and the state of theory in psychology.
N. Mackay & A. Petocz 17

2. Essays in realism: Analysis and discussion.
N. Mackay & A. Petocz 52

3. Anderson’s development of (situational)
realism and its bearing on psychology today.
F. J. Hibberd 119

Part 2: From Philosophy to Psychology
4. The knower and the known.
J. Anderson 161

5. The concept of attitude.
J. R. Maze 183

6. Drives and consummatory actions.
J. R. Maze 231

7. Maze's direct realism and the character of
cognition.
J. Michell 280
CONTENTS viii

Part 3: Critiques and Developments
8. “Out there”, not “in here”: A Realist account of
concepts
T. McMullen 325

9. Representationism, realism and the
redundancy of ‘mentalese’.
J. R. Maze 357

10. Constructivism, direct realism and the
nature of error.
A. Rantzen 387

11. Concept, class, and category in the tradition
of Aristotle.
J. P. Sutcliffe 422

12. Normal science, pathological science and
psychometrics.
J. Michell 461

13. Social constructionism, deconstructionism
and some requirements of discourse.
J. R. Maze 500

14. Reply to Gergen.
F. J. Hibberd 535

15. On some accounts of meaning and their
problems.
N. Mackay 548

16. Why psychology has neglected symbolism
and what a realist approach can offer.
A. Petocz 597

17. A new psychology—the metaphysical and
the mundane.
P. Bell 652
CONTENTS ix

18. The place of qualitative research in psychology.
J. Michell 678

19. Science, meaning and the scientist-practitioner
model of treatment.
A. Petocz 699

20. Addressing mental plurality: justification,
objections and logical requirements of
strongly partitive accounts of mind.
S. Boag 727

21. Rezoning pleasure: Drives and affects in
personality theory.
D. McIlwain 755

22. A realist account of mental causation.
S. Medlow 802

23. Drive theory reconsidered (again!).
G. Newbery 839

Afterword 872
Index of Persons 882
Subject index 892
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to acknowledge the following for kind permission to re-
print, in whole or part, copyright material in this volume:
Anderson, J. (1926). The knower and the known. Proceedings of the
Aristotelian Society, 27, 61-84. Copyright  1926 by The Aristo-
telian Society. Reprinted with permission of The Aristote-
lian Society.
Bell, P. (2003). Neo-psychology or neo-humans? A critique of Mas-
sumi's "Parables for the Virtual" (2002). Continuum, 17(4), 445
- 462. Copyright  2003 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with
permission of Taylor & Francis and the author.
Boag, S. (2005). Addressing mental plurality: justification, objections
and logical requirements of strongly partitive accounts of
mind. Theory & Psychology, 15(6), 747-767. Copyright  2005
by Sage. Reprinted with permission of Sage and the author.
Hibberd, F. J. (2002). Reply to Gergen. Theory & Psychology, 12(5), 685-
694. Copyright  2009 by Sage. Reprinted with permission
of Sage and the author.
Hibberd, F. J. (2009). Anderson's development of (situational) real-
ism and its bearing on Psychology today. History of the Hu-
man Sciences, 22(4), 1-30. Copyright  2009 by Sage. Re-
printed with permission of Sage and the author.
Mackay, N. (2003). Psychotherapy and the idea of meaning. Theory &
Psychology, 13(3), 359-386. Copyright  2003 by Sage. Re-
printed with permission of Sage.
Mackay, N. (2003). On 'just not getting it': A Reply to Macnamara
and to Raskin and Neimeyer. Theory & Psychology, 13(3), 411-
419. Copyright  2003 by Sage. Reprinted with permission
of Sage.
Maze, J. (1973). The concept of attitude. Inquiry, 16, 168-205. Copy-
right  1973 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission
of Taylor & Francis and the author.
Maze, J. (1983). Drives and consummatory actions. From J. Maze
(1983) The meaning of behaviour (pp. 131-163). London: Allen
xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

& Unwin. Copyright  1983 by Allen & Unwin. Reprinted
with permission of Taylor & Francis and the author.
Maze, J. (1991). Representationism, realism and the redundancy of
"mentalese". Theory & Psychology, 1(2), 163-185. Copyright
 1991 by Sage. Reprinted with permission of Sage and the
author.
Maze, J. (2001). Social constructionism, deconstructionism and some
requirements of discourse. Theory & Psychology, 11(3), 393-
417. Copyright  2009 by Sage. Reprinted with permission
of Sage and the author.
McIlwain, D. (2007). Rezoning pleasure: Drives and affects in person-
ality theory. Theory & Psychology, 17(4), 529–561. Copyright 
2007 by Sage. Reprinted with permission of Sage and the au-
thor.
Michell, J. (1988). Maze's direct realism and the character of cogni-
tion. Australian Journal of Psychology, 40(3), 227-249. Copyright
 1988 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission of
Taylor & Francis and the author.
Michell, J. (2000). Normal science, pathological science and psycho-
metrics. Theory & Psychology, 10(5), 639-667. Copyright 
2000 by Sage. Reprinted with permission of Sage and the au-
thor.
Michell, J. (2004). The place of qualitative research in psychology.
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1(4), 307-319. Copyright 
2004 by Taylor & Francis. Reprinted with permission of Tay-
lor & Francis and the author.
Petocz, A. (2004). Science, meaning and the scientist-practitioner
model of treatment. In D. Jones (Ed.), Working with dangerous
people: The psychotherapy of violence (pp. 25-42). Oxford: Rad-
cliffe Medical Press. Copyright © Jones, David (ed.) & Rad-
cliffe Medical Press. Reproduced with the permission of the
copyright holder.
Sutcliffe, J. P. (1993). Concept, class, and category in the tradition of
Aristotle. In I. van Mechelen, J. Hampton, R. S. Michalski & P.
Theuns (Eds.), Categories and concepts: Theoretical views and in-
ductive data analysis. London: Academic Press. Copyright 
1993 by Academic Press. Reprinted with permission of El-
sevier.