Psychology without foundations

Department of Organization invites to two guest lectures by Steve Brown, Centre for Philosophy and Political Economy, University of Leicester. This is the first lecture.

Friday, February 22, 2008 - 15:30 to 17:00

In 1934, Gaston Bachelard remarked that 'Physicists have been obliged, three or four times in the past twenty years, not simply to change their minds but, intellectually speaking, to make a totally fresh start'. This statement grounded the epistemic priority Bachelard wished to accord Physics as that knowledge practice most likely provide an exemplary 'phenomeno-technology' capable of briding the debates between rationalism and empiricism. Bachelard's emphasis on the 'fresh start' is to be found in the history of psychology.

Although pre-paradigmatic in most senses, Psychology has demonstrated an unusual enthusiasm for the repetition of foundational gestures. How could one make a break with the logic of making breaks? In this talk I will outline some ideas for a strongly process-oriented approach to the psychological, which studies 'events' or 'actual occasions'. Aspects of experience such as communication or embodiment are treated as thoroughly mediated - the product of multiple intersecting relationships between the biological, the social and the social. The outcome is an image of a mobile, relexively founded discipline which follows the psychological wherever it takes us.

The page was last edited by: Communications // 02/14/2008