The Immeasurable Mind: The Real Science of Psychology

Is psychology a science? Unlike Darwinian theory in biology or relativity and quantum theory in physics, psychology lacks the basic quantitative or conceptual foundation for a consensus view about how the mind works. Is psychology on the verge of developing such a foundation? ＂Probably not,＂ answers psychologist William R. Uttal in this iconoclastic and critical examination of psychology’s underlying principles, assumptions, and concepts. In five in-depth chapters and one appendix, he explores the following key issues: *What do we mean by ＂science＂ and can psychology be legitimately described as a science?*What are the general principles that should be applied to any science?*What is the role of mathematics in psychology?*Given the current fragmented state of the discipline, is it possible to identify the general principles of a scientific psychology?*Is experimental psychology just applied epistemology and not really scientific?Uttal comes to the conclusion that psychology is a science only to the extent that it is behaviorist in orientation. By comparing his discipline to other sciences, he identifies its limits, establishes a set of principles that help to define psychology as a science, and suggests plausible future developments.

William R. Uttal (Phoenix, AZ) is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Michigan and professor emeritus of engineering at Arizona State University. He is the author of twenty-five books and more than a hundred scholarly articles.