Hi, I was just wondering: why is the study of history and philosophy important for our understanding of modern pyschology? Thanks!

-- Alisha Mellar (tenee47@hotmail.com), June 18, 2003

Answers

There is a short answer on the importance of philosophy on this webpage at http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl? msg_id=00Ax18 There are other threads on history and philosophy that will address your question--have a look at all the entries that are indexed here. Most history of psychology texts these days also include a chapter on the significance of history.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), June 19, 2003.

I think the history and philosophy of psychology are important mainly for two reasons: 1) knowing the history helps you approach modern psychological problems with a sense of what's worked and not worked in the past, and adds to the theorizing of modern problems. Knowing the history allows you to spot trends in the discipline and provide a context for these trends. 2) knowing some of the philosophy behind psychology is extremely important since the roots and foundations of psychology are found in philosophy. More generally, knowing something about the philosophy of science is very useful no matter what branch of science you are engaged in. Knowing the assumptions of the methods you're using to derive scientific knowledge permits a depth of understanding that could not be achieved without knowing and critically evaluating these assumptions.

Although it would be favorable for everyone to have a thorough grounding in the history and philosophy of their discipline, I think it's hardly possible given the specialization required in different areas of work. However, even a light to moderate exposure of historical and philosophical issues helps a great deal, and might be considered mandatory for all scientists.

-- Daniel J. Denis (dand@yorku.ca), June 19, 2003.