A New Look at New Realism
Subtitle: the Psychology and Philosophy of E.B. Holt
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Milton
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9781351534826
Subjects: Realism; Psychology and philosophy; Réalisme; Psychologie et philosophie
Description: "This volume brings to the attention of contemporary readers a tradition of psychological thought that has received little attention over the last century. Psychology's history has been unimaginatively presented as a fight between behaviorists and mentalists. A third alternative, the New Realism, which cuts through that dichotomy, has been lost. "The New Realism" was indeed once new. This volume provides a glimpse of how this school of thought attempted to redefine the notion of mental processes, including consciousness, in psychological theorizing. Holt's rejected the nativity of iconoclastic Watsonian behaviorists, and thus the New Realism was thoughtful in ways that behaviorist social engineering was not. The implications of these innovations in psychological theorizing are traced from the beginning of the twentieth century to the contemporary period. The contributors provide these intellectual links, along with efforts to look at the relatedness of the human organism and its world. At their beginning, these ideas are embedded in a reverence for William James's work, particularly his later Radical Empiricism. In contemporary psychology, this legacy has given us the framework of ecological psychology as we know it today, and provides the basis for several modern critiques of cognitive psychology. The present volume opens the door for future historical inquiries. This is an exemplary addition to the series on the History of Psychological Ideas."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction-Finding Holt; 1. E.B. Holt to William James, 1905; Part I The Specific Response and the Problem of Illusory Experiences; 2. Observing Mental Processes; 3. Holt's Realism: New Reasons for Behavior Analysis; 4. Realism and Illusion: An Explication of Holt's Approach; 5. When Is an Illusion an Illusion? An Examination of Contrast Information in Grouping and Grid Phenomena; Part II Holt's Legacy and Holt as Legacy.; title: 6. William James's Radical Empiricism: Did E.B. Holt Get It Right?7. A Dislocation of Consciousness; 8. Ecological Realism as a Reaction to New Realism: Holt's Legacy to Gibson; 9. Holt's "Recession of the Stimulus" and the Emergence of the "Situation" in Psychology; Part III Beyond Representation; 10. Interview with an Old New Realist; 11. Against Representationalism: James Gibson's Secret Intellectual Debt to E.B. Holt; 12. James J. Gibson to Edward Reed, 1979; Contributors; Index.