Elizabeth Valentine’s ‘Philosophy and History of Psychology’

Abstract

Elizabeth Valentine’s work is a testament to an open-minded and inclusive psychologist seeking to find meaningful insights into human nature wherever she can. For Valentine, psychology is a hybrid science, it must make reference to human subjectivity, whilst still maintaining objectivity in its findings. Precisely this is the challenge that psychology as a science faces: how to do justice to human subjectivity in a reliably objective way. Yet, it is precisely because of this subjective element to human reality that psychology is so apt for conversation with insights from other domains – particularly philosophy. The relationship here is mutually beneficial. Philosophy requires psychology to keep it empirically grounded in reality; but psychology needs philosophy to broaden and enrich its conceptual landscape. By way of example, this paper will critically reflect on Valentine’s views of consciousness, and how psychologists should deal with the metaphysical problems surrounding the mind-brain relationship.