Summary
This paper is about the efforts the norwegian psychologist Jan Smedslund made in analyzing and checking philosophically his theory called ‘Psycho-logic’. I am going to reconstruct and discuss the debates between Smedslund and several critics, which have been going on since about 1978, mainly in the “Scandinavian Journal of Psychology”. A result will be that the kind of modal logics Smedslund uses — a type with realistic semantics and epistemology — is not the proper one for the analysis of ‘Psycho-logic’.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literaturliste
Bandura, Albert (1978). “On distinguishing between logical and empirical verification. A comment on Smedslund”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (19), 1978, 97–99.
Bergenholtz, H./Schaeder, B. (Hg.), “Empirische Textwissenschaft. Aufbau und Auswertung von Text-Corpora”. 1979.
Bradley, R./Swartz, N. “Possible Worlds. An Introduction to Logic and Its Philosophy”. Oxford 1979.
Brandstädter, Jochen (Hg.) “Struktur und Erfahrung in der psychologischen Forschung”. Berlin/New York 1987.
Brandstädter, Jochen: “A rose has no teeth — Zum Problem der Unterscheidung zwischen Begriffsverwirrungen und überraschenden empirischen Befunden in der Psychologie”. In: Brandstädter, S. 1–13.
Bungarten, Theo: “Das Korpus als empirische Grundlage in der Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft”. In: Bergenholtz/Schaeder, S. 28–49.
Davis, Keith E. “From Euclid to Spinoza to Smedslund”. Review.Contemporary Psychology (35), 1990, No. 11, S. 1061–1062.
Gergen, K.J./Davis, K.E. (Eds.) “The social construction of the person”. Berlin 1985.
Grewendorf, G./Hamm, F./Sternfeld, W. “Sprachliches Wissen. Eine Einführung in moderne Theorien der grammatischen Beschreibung”. 1. Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 1987.
Jones, A.J.I. (1980). “Psychology and ‘ordinary language’ — a critique of Smedslund”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (21), 1980, 225–229.
Laucken, U. (1982). “Aspekte der Auffassung und Untersuchung von Umgangswissen”.Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Psychologie und ihre Anwendungen (41), 1982, 87–113.
Laucken, U. (1984). “Von Setzungen und ihren Folgen. Dargelegt an Beispielen aus der Wahrnehmungspsychologie”.Psychologische Beiträge (26), 1984, 250–62.
Lewandowski, Theodor. “Linguistisches Wörterbuch”. Bände 1–3. 5. überarbeitete Auflage, Heidelberg/Wiesbaden 1990.
McCrae, R./John, O.P. “An Introduction to the Five Factor Model and its Applications”.Journal of Personality Nr. 60 (2), 1992.
Mittelstrass, Jürgen (Hg.) “Enzyklopädie Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie”. Mannheim/Wien/Zürich 1984.
Ray, J.J. (1988). “Semantic overlap between scale items may be a good thing: Reply to Smedslund”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (29), 1988, 145–147.
Royce, J.R./Mos, L.P. (Eds.) “Annals of Theoretical Psychology” (2), New York 1984.
Semin, G.R./Gergen, K.J. (Eds.) “Everyday understanding;: Social and Scientific Implications”. London/New York/New Delhi 1990.
Shotter, J./Burton, M. “Common sense accounts of human action: the descriptive formulations of Heider, Smedslund and Ossorio”. In: L. Wheeler (Ed.) “Review of Personality and Social Psychology”. London 1983.
Sjöberg, Lennart (1982a). “Logical versus psychological necessity: A discussion of the role of common sense in psychological theory”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (23), 1982, 65–78.
Sjöberg, Lennart (1982b). “Common sense and psychological phenomena: A reply to Smedslund”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (23), 1982, 83–85.
Sjöberg, Lennart (1983). “Comments on Smedslund's ‘Revising explications of common sense through dialogue”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (24), 1983, 93–95.
Smedslund, Jan, et al. (1959) “Apprentissage des notions de la conservation et de la transitivité du poids”. In:Etudes d'epistémologie génétique (9), 1959, p. 85–124.
Smedslund, Jan (1953). “The problem of ‘What is learned?”.Psychol. Rev. (60), 157–158.
Smedslund, Jan (1955). “Multiple probability learning. An inquiry into the origins of perception”. Oslo, University Press, 1955.
Smedslund, Jan (1961a). “The acquisition of conservation of substance and weight in children. III. Extinction of conservation of weight acquired ‘normally’ and by means of empirical controls on a balance”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (2), 1961, 85–87.
Smedslund, Jan (1961b). “The acquisition of conservation of substance and weight. V. Practice in conflict situations without external reinforcement”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (2), 1961, 156–160.
Smedslund, Jan (1961c). “The acquisition of conservation of substance and weight. VI. Practice on continuous material in problem situations without external reinforcement”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (2), 1961, 203–210.
Smedslund, Jan (1963a). “The concept of correlation in adults”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (4), 1963, 165–173.
Smedslund, Jan (1963b). “Patterns of experience and the acquisition of concrete transitivity of weight in eight-year-old children”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (4), 1963, 251–256.
Smedslund, Jan (1963c). “The acquisition of transitivity of weight in five- to seven-year-old children”.J. genet. Psychol. (102), 1963, 245–255.
Smedslund, Jan (1963d). “The development of concrete transitivity of length in children”.Child Developm. (34), 1963, 389–405.
Smedslund, Jan (1969). “Meanings, implications and universals: towards a psychology of man”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (10), 1969, 1–15.
Smedslund, Jan (1970). “Circular relation between understanding and logic”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (11), 1970, 217–219.
Smedslund, Jan (1971). “Psychological diagnostics”.Psychological Bulletin (71), 1971, 237–248.
Smedslund, Jan (1978a). “Bandura's theory of self-efficacy: a set of common sense theorems”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (19), 1978, 1–14.
Smedslund, Jan (1978b). “Some psychological theories are not empirical: Reply to Bandura”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (19), 1978, 101–102.
Smedslund, Jan (1979). “Between the analytic and the arbitrary: A case study of psychological research”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (20), 1979, 129–140.
Smedslund, Jan (1980a). “From Ordinary to scientific language: Reply to Jones”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (21), 1980, 231–232.
Smedslund, Jan (1980b). “Analyzing the primary code: From empiricism to apriorism”. In: D.R. Olson (Ed.) “The Social Foundations of Language and Thought. Essays in Honor of Jerome S. Bruner”. New York/London 1980.
Smedslund, Jan (1981). “The logic of psychological treatment”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (22), 1981, 65–77.
Smedslund, Jan (1982a). “Common sense as psychosocial reality: A reply to Sjöberg”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (23), 1982, 79–82.
Smedslund, Jan (1982b). “Revising explications of common sense through dialogue: Thirtysix psychological theorems”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (23), 1982, 299–305.
Smedslund, Jan (1982c). “Seven common sense rules of psychological treatment”.J. Norwegian Psychological Assoc. (19), 1982, 441–449.
Smedslund, Jan (1983). “Lövlie, Anne-Lise:The Self, Yours, mine or ours (1982)/The self of the psychotherapist. Movement and stagnation in psychotherapy”. Review.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (24), 1983, 251–256.
Smedslund, Jan (1984a). “What is necessarily true in psychology?” In: J.R. Royce & L.P. Mos (Eds.)Annals of Theoretical Psychology (2), New York 1984, 241–272.
Smedslund, Jan (1984b). “Psychology cannot take leave of common sense: Reply to Tennessen, Vollmer, and Wilkes”. In: J.R. Royce & L.P. Mos (Eds.)Annals of Theoretical Psychology (2), New York 1984, 295–302.
Smedslund, Jan (1984c). “The invisible obvious: culture in psychology”. In: K. M. Lagerspetz & P. Niemi (Eds.) “Psychology in the 1990's”. Elsevier Science publishers B.V., Amsterdam 1984.
Smedslund, Jan (1985). “Necessarily true cultural psychologies”. In: K.J. Gergen & K.E. Davis (Eds.), “The social construction of the person”, Berlin 1985, 73–87.
Smedslund, Jan (1986a). “The explication of psychological common sense: Implications for the science of psychology”. In: R. Barcan Marcus et al. (Eds.) “Logic, methodology and philosophy of science VII”. Amsterdam 1986, 481–494.
Smedslund, Jan (1986b). “How stable is common sense psychology and can it be transcended? Reply to Valsiner”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (27), 1986, 91–94.
Smedslund, Jan (1987a). “Das Beschreiben von Beschreibungen, Erklären von Erklärungen und Vorhersagen von Vorhersagen: paradigmatische Fälle für die Psychologie”. In: J. Brandstädter (Hg.), “Struktur und Erfahrung in der psychologischen Forschung”. Berlin 1987.
Smedslund, Jan (1987b). “Ebbinghaus, the illusionist: How psychology came to look like an experimental science” In:Passauer Schriften zur Psychologiegeschichte, 5. Ebbinghaus-Studien II. Beiträge zum Internationalen H. Ebbinghaus-Symposion in Passau, Mai–June 1985. Passau 1987, 225–239.
Smedslund, Jan (1987c). “The epistemic status of inter-item-correlations in Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire: the a priori versus the empirical in psychological data”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (28), 1987, 42–55.
Smedslund, Jan (1988a). “Psycho-Logic”. Heidelberg/New York 1988.
Smedslund, Jan (1988b). “What is measured by a psychological measure”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (29), 1988, 148–151.
Smedslund, Jan (1990a). “A critique of Tversky and Kahneman's distinction between fallacy and misunderstanding”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (31), 1990, 110–120.
Smedslund, Jan (1990b). “Psychology and Psychologic: Characterisation of the Difference”. In: G.R. Semin/K.J. Gergen (Eds.) “Everyday understanding: Social and Scientific Implications”. London/New York/New Dehli 1990, 45–63.
Smedslund, Jan (1991a). “The pseudoempirical in psychology and the case for psychologic”.Psychological Inquiry (2), 1991, 325–338.
Smedslund, Jan (1991b). “Psychologic: A technical language for Psychology”.Psychological Inquiry (2), 1991, 376–382.
Smedslund, Jan (1992). “The ambiguity of covariation: A conceptual note”. Manuskript, 11 S. 1992.
Steenstrup, B. (Hg.) “Hvem er hvem?” Oslo 1979.
Tennessen, Herman (1984). “What is remarkable in Psychology?”. In:Annals of Theoretical Psychology (2), 1984, 273–278.
Ulverstad, Bjarne: “Corpus vs Intuition in Syntactical Research”. In: Bergenholtz/Schaeder, S. 89–108.
Valsiner, Jaan (1985). “Common sense and psychological theories: The historical nature of logical necessity”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (26), 1985, 97–109.
Valsiner, Jaan (1986). “Transcending common sense in psychological theorizing: A developmental perspective”.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (27), 1986, 184–189.
Vollmer, Fred (1984). “On the Limitations of Commonsense Psychology”. In:Annals of Theoretical Psychology (2), 1984, 279–286.
Wilkes, K. V. “It Ain't Necessarily So”. In:Annals of Theoretical Psychology (2), 1984, 287–294.
Wolf, Ursula, “Möglichkeit und Notwendigkeit bei Aristoteles und heute. München 1979.
Zinkernagel, Peter. “Conditions for description”. Translated from the Danish by Olaf Lindum. London/New York 1962. (Original Kopenhagen 1957).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mock, V. Common sense und logik in jan smedslunds ‘Psychologik’. Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 27, 281–306 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262618
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02262618