What is psychologic?

Jan Smedslund

pp. 453-457

in: Michael E. Hyland, William J. Baker, René van Hezewijk, Terwee (eds), Recent trends in theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1990

Abstract

Psychologic is an attempt to explicate and systematize the implicit common sense psychology embedded in everyday language and taken for granted by its users. The resulting system consists of definitions, axioms, and logically derived theorems and corollaries. It allows one to distinguish clearly between conceptual relationships which follow necessarily from the definitions of the terms involved, and empirical relationships which can only be determined through observation. The distinction between conceptual and empirical relationships allows one to avoid pseudo-empirical research, that is, studying logically necessary relationships by empirical methods, and to test one's procedures through comparing outcomes with what follows logically from assumed conditions. Four major objections to psychologic are discussed under the headings of contextuality, intrinsic contestability, prototypicality, and lack of universality of the basic concepts. It is concluded that, without the support of psychologic, empirical psychology remains a pseudoscience.