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What Is Necessarily True in Psychology?

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Annals of Theoretical Psychology

Abstract

The position is taken that psychology is not an empirical science and that generally valid propositions in psychology are explications of common sense and hence necessarily true. A proposition in a given context belongs to common sense if and only if all competent users of the language involved agree that the proposition in the given context is true and that its negation is contradictory or senseless. Studies attempting to test necessarily true propositions are labelled pseudoempirical. The paper presents numerous examples of necessarily true propositions and pseudoempirical studies taken from various fields of psychology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Box 1094, Blindem, Oslo 3, Norway

    Jan Smedslund

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  1. Jan Smedslund
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Joseph R. Royce  & Leendert P. Mos  & 

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© 1984 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Smedslund, J. (1984). What Is Necessarily True in Psychology?. In: Royce, J.R., Mos, L.P. (eds) Annals of Theoretical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9191-4_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9191-4_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9193-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9191-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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