A new philosophy of science has been proposed, one that especially aims at dealing with the problems of the "disunified sciences". This philosophy states, among other things, that there is a central dimension of progress in science that can be abstracted from some descriptions of early science, but that has been ignored, to all intents and purposes; the significance of this dimension of progress in science overlooked. The dimension refers to progress in the unification of the elements of science, of (...) the findings, the theories, the problems, the methods, the organizations, as well as to progress in developing a philosophy of unification, with its goal of achieving unification. When achieved, a science's unification changes the competition of its practitioners from that of undermining each others' works to that of attempting to arrive first at generally agreed-on goals employing consensually accepted methods, within an agreed upon characterization of science. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the philosophy of unified positivism, a purpose of which is to open to our science a new field of study, that of unification psychology. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

Abstract Psychology's goal has been to become a science, taking the modern natural sciences as the model. It has not been understood that each science undergoes a transition from early disunification to later unification, that a fundmental dimension is involved that differentiates sciences. Psychology is a modern disunified science, distinguished by its chaotic knowledge and ways of operating. A philosophy of science based on modem unified science, as philosophies generally are, is inappropriate as a means of understanding psychology or of (...) guiding its development. We need a philosophy to describe the special problems of theory construction of modern disunified sciences, and to advance paths by which to work on those problems. Theory tasks to be undertaken in large quantities range from articles to reduce artificial diversity to the construction of grand unified theory. Psychology must begin those tasks, and it must understand its characteristics as a modern disunified science, if it is to make good decisions concerning its development and organization. Otherwise it will continue on its path towards fragmentation, an impenetrable obstacle to full development as a science and a profession. (shrink)

Comments on the review by Stephen Yanchar of the current author's book, "Behavior and Personality: Psychological Behaviorism." The past fifteen years has seen an accelerating growth of interest in psychology's fragmentation and the importance of unification, in a manner that did not exist before. Stephen Yanchar is one of the contemporary leaders in the unification movement, with a focus on philosophy, to which he has been contributing important works. Yanchar's philosophy , fundamental understanding of what psychology is and should be, (...) conception of unifying psychology and, as we will see, his agenda for the field of theoretical and philosophical psychology, are quite different from those of my philosophy of unified positivism and theory of psychological behaviorism . Thus, although this has not been made clear, Yanchar's review is based on a philosophical position that really does not accept psychology as a science. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)