But the point is that not everything measurable needs to be quantifiable to the sixth decimal point to call itself scientific. What matters is whether we can come up with consistent and at least semi-quantifiable definitions that are useful enough to make testable predictions. In fact one can argue that social scientists tread on dangerous ground when they start trying to make their discipline too accurate But more importantly, prediction is not actually as important to science as Berezow thinks. The physicist David Deutsch has noted that after watching a magician perform a magic trick ten times you would be able to predict what he would do next, but it doesn’t mean at all that you have actually understood what the magician is doing. Contrary to popular belief, in science understanding is at least as or more important than prediction. If you apply a narrow-minded definition of science then it might indeed be hard to call psychology a science. But what matters is whether it’s useful. And to me the field certainly seems to have its uses. blogs.scientificamerican/the-curious-wavefunction/2013/08/13/is-psychology-a-real-science-does-it-really-matter/
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 04:41:46 +0000
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