[MD] Psychology and Philosophy

[david buchanan]

pirsigaffliction said to Mark:
My suspicion, which puts us at odds, is that you have a reductionist view of the discipline of psychology, one that only focuses on reductionists.  But I don't know.  ...The problems you want to talk about seem to me much more discussable only when we don't talk at such an abstract level as you do.  But I'm likely in the minority here, as Pirsig does discuss these problems at that level of abstraction.  But either way, your conditional claim that "the intent of psychology to 'understand' the mind through rigorous data collection" doesn't seem right to me as history or conceptual substance. ...


dmb says:
My suspicion is that Mark's problem with psychology is personal, not philosophical. I suspect Mark is here largely because he is sympathetic with Pirsig's criticisms of psychiatry and/or Pirsig's defense of insanity as a kind of adjustment period. It's between the lines, but the man is complaining about his own personal encounter with psychology. 

psyche * logos = psych * ology = an account of the psyche