Introduction

Arthur W. Staats

pp. 1-8

in: Arthur W. Staats, Leendert Mos (eds), Annals of theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

Part I will describe the philosophy of science, unified positivism, that I employed as the foundation in planning the present volume. This Part introduces the concept of the modern disunified science, as distinctly different from the unified natural sciences in such things as (1) philosophy of science (2) what is recognized as scientific originality (3) competitiveness and the reward system (4) methodological characteristics (5) amount of artificial diversity (6) and amount of investment in establishing unity of knowledge. The disunified sciences are seen to be at an early stage of development in these various characteristics. As a consequence, their multifarious products, while scientific in a particularistic sense, are so unrelated and antagonistic that they do not add up to generally significant, organized, parsimonious, coherent, and consensual knowledge such as that which is produced in unified sciences. The traditional approach of the philosophy of science has been to study the advanced sciences as models that are to be followed by the less advanced sciences. But the advanced sciences underwent their own transition from the primitive state of disunity long ago, and therefore cannot serve as models. Unified positivism states that there has not been a philosophy of science with which to understand the modern disunified sciences. Without that understanding traditional philosophies of science have not been helpful in indicating what psychology and the other social sciences must do to advance to the unified state. Part I outlines various theory construction tasks that are essential, and in so doing indicates that psychology needs to open a new field of study if it is to enter its revolution to unity and to an advanced state of science. Part I provides a foundation for considering various works that address topics in the field of unification (uninomic) psychology including those that follow in the succeeding chapters.