PSYC 4008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Phineas Gage, Frontal Lobe, Sound
Document Summary
Description of events usually in chronology and explication of cause and effect based on evidence. Subject to the same epistemological* rules as sciences. Fact should be based on empirical evidence or logic. A statement that cannot be tested is worthless. Be possible to discover historical laws (debatable) Can"t have knowledge others don"t have, discovery was based on the mind of the discoverer. Almost all discoveries depend on discoveries that came before. The intellectual culture in which scientists work (the zeitgeist) shapes their understanding and perception of natural phenomena. The intellectual culture in which scientists work determines whether their insights are realized or accepted. The time (the zeitgeist, the intellectual context) makes the person. Personalistic is subsumed under naturalistic which is dominant. Not trained in history, academic science discipline. Dominant in the histories of science: internalism. Focus is on events most tangibly and immediately related to a particular historical event (e. g. , the discovery of something)
