The answer is “yes,” although it is different from physics and chemistry, and historically there has been considerable confusion surrounding this issue. In 1948 Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim formulated what they called the “deductive nomological model” of scientific explanation (Hempel & Oppenheim, 1948). A deductive nomological model is one in which a single event […]
Entries from October 2011
Is Psychology an Empirical Science?
October 14th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Free Will and the 9.11 Hijackers
October 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment
The “problem of free will” has vexed psychologists and philosophers for centuries. In this note I will discuss it briefly and apply it to the dreadful events of 9.11. Free will presents as a problem because of the apparent tension between determinism and choice. “Determinism” means one can cite causally sufficient antecedent conditions to explain […]
Charles Darwin and the “New Darwinists”
October 14th, 2011 · 1 Comment
I recently was stimulated to re-read Darwin’s two greatest works, which are On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871). Without diminishing their importance, Darwin is pervasive in a way that philosophers (Socrates, Plato) or psychologists (James, Hall, Skinner, Freud, Rogers, and Sullivan) aren’t. Philosophy primarily is speculative and classical psychology […]
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