Book Review: Radical Science

One of the most exciting and rapidly developing fields in contemporary philosophy has been the philosophy of science. Part of the excitement of the philosophy of science stems from its practical ramifications. Unlike, say, the philosophy of language – which tends to be rather arid and esoteric – the philosophy of science is methodological in a down-to-earth sense: it strives to discover how we can acquire an objective understanding of the natural world. The discipline of psychology is, in essence, an attempt to theoretically shape that most mysterious of objects – the human mind – within the natural order and thereby creates a science of the human mind. This quest has all the makings of a great and exhilarating story of discovery. Unfortunately, psychological investigations have often capsized on the reef of triviality (e.g. psychotherapy 'outcome studies') or come to grief on the rocks of methodological incoherence (e.g. psychoanalysis).

In A Science of the Mind, Peter du Preez, a South African psychologist, applies contemporary philosophy of science to the field of psychology. His focus is on what Larry Laudan calls 'research traditions' – their logical structure and their sociological dynamics. Du Preez is obviously quite at home within this field and

Alec Duncan-Grant