The Historical Context of Transformation

Abstract

As indicated at the volume’s outset, discontent with the positivist-empiricist program for accumulating behavioral knowledge is becoming increasingly apparent. Many of the concerns voiced within these pages are echoed throughout the socio-behavioral sciences.¹ In many instances these concerns have been stimulated by significant developments within various sectors of philosophy. In effect, the present arguments are nurtured by a context of generalized ferment and must be located within an historical process. Although previous chapters have touched on various facets of this process, the time is at hand for a more coherent elaboration of both the process and the place of the present arguments within it. Three specific tasks are to be undertaken. First, we shall scan several developments of the past century forming the grounding context for the present theses. This analysis will locate a critical antinomy, the dynamics of which have shaped a number of major colloquies both within philosophy and psychology, and the recapitulation of which we are witnessing in contemporary debate. Second, we shall focus on the current attempts of scholars (and particularly psychologists) to explore alternative orientations toward science. We shall review the efforts of a variety of heterodox schools and assay their progress to date. This analysis will set the stage for a consideration of the future. In particular, we shall be concerned with locating metatheoretical suppositions that form a basis for unification among the dissident encampments. If such a metatheory can be charted, it may serve as a phalanx for the future.