Paying the price of naïve realism: A critical realist reflection

Abstract

Using critical realism, this note summarises the shortcomings of current psychology that arose from its disciplinary break from philosophy during the early 20th century. By seeking autonomy from the older discipline and its self-confident jurisdiction over the mind it paid a serious price. Methodologism, predicated on a naïve version of realism, drove the rationale of the new discipline, leaving psychologists unfamiliar with the metaphysical justification for their own theory and practice. The combined assumptions of empiricism and positivism, and their de-philosophised expression in psychological theory and practice, were to bring the discipline to a point of crisis in the second half of the 20th century. This crisis afforded the possibility of the ‘linguistic turn’ and ‘postmodern psychology’ (the unexplored end point to this note).