21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Marxism and Freudianism are Not Science
The difficulties connected with my criterion of demarcation (D) are important, but must not be exaggerated. It is vague, since it is a methodological rule, and since the demarcation between science and nonscience is vague. But it is more than sharp enough to make a distinction between many physical theories on the one hand, and metaphysical theories, such as ' psychoanalysis, or Marxism (in its present form), on the other. This is, of course, one of my main theses; and nobody who has not unde...Marxism did not allow itself to be tested, Freudianism was so flexible as to have an explanation for everything.
06 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Skinner and Freud's View of Child Learning
The theories that did dominate psychology, especially in America, were Freudianism and the behaviorism of psychologists like B. F. Skinner. Both theories had lots of things to say about young children. But like Aristotle with the teeth, neither Freud nor Skinner took the step of doing systematic experiments with children or babies. Freud largely relied on inferences from the behavior of neurotic adults, and Skinner on inferences from the behavior of only slightly less neurotic rats. And like ...Folksonomies: psychology inference
Folksonomies: psychology inference
They got it mostly wrong because they relied on a philosophical inference method of science.