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1	Objective Science of Biased Philosophy: Does Naturalism Play a Dogmatic Role in Psychology? Starks, Shannon 30 June 2014 (has links) (PDF) Students and consumers of psychological science are routinely taught that the scientific approach used in psychological research facilitates its providing the most accurate information about human behavior. Because this approach to knowledge acquisition is supposed to be based on objective evidence and systematic reasoning rather than the biased interpretation of other approaches, these other approaches are often marginalized as being inferior. Critics of these claims assert that psychological science is subject to biases just as other approaches are and that the philosophy of naturalism not only pervades, but is also hidden and largely unquestioned in mainstream psychology. This study examines this claim, beginning with a dialectical contrast between naturalistic and non-naturalistic cultures to concretize practical features of naturalism and non-naturalism. It then uses those features to frame an in-depth analysis of introductory psychology textbooks where a compendium of the important settled principles and findings of all major sub-areas of the discipline should be found. Results show that naturalistic features are to be found throughout all the sub-areas of psychology and that non-naturalistic features are absent or marginalized in the texts. methodological naturalism ontological naturalism non-naturalism philosophy bias dialectical approach introductory psychology Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard Azande purpose lawfulness supernatural dualism Western rationality Psychology
2	Holmes, Alice, and Ezeulu: Western Rationality in the Context of British Colonialism and Western Modernity Schultz, Andrew B. 19 July 2007 (has links) (PDF) This thesis examines Western rationality, contextualizing that subject in British colonialism and Western modernity. Using Scott Lash's description of academic characterizations of modernity, I explore the “high" modernity of the social sciences represented in the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. I then explore the cultural studies critique of that characterization of modernity in the book Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. Using the theory of Jean Francois Lyotard, Martin Heidegger, and Theodor Adorno, I look at Western rationality through its manifestation in British colonialism. I argue that colonialism is a site where rationality's negative legacy is manifest, and that the paradoxical representations of rationality in the books by Carroll and Doyle indicate a problem with the assumption that Western rationality was a universal epistemology. Contrary to the British's own ideas of their rationality, I find that Western rationality is ultimately a culturally-grounded discourse. Using Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God, I examine the intersection between Western rationality and other forms of cultural knowledge, an intersection that occurred through British colonialism. Achebe argues against the universal model of Western rationality and posits instead a relative valuing of each culture's methods of arriving at truth. I use his novel to illustrate the limits of Western rationality and its claim to universality. rationality rational enlightenment reason logic Western Rationality the West colonialism modernism modernity postcolonial postcolonialism eurocentrism ratiocentrism eurocentric ratiocentric Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chinua Achebe Arrow of God Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle Hound of the Baskervilles English Language and Literature

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Objective Science of Biased Philosophy: Does Naturalism Play a Dogmatic Role in Psychology?

Holmes, Alice, and Ezeulu: Western Rationality in the Context of British Colonialism and Western Modernity