ABSTRACT
The “Received View” is a label used in the philosophy of science to characterize the prescribed way of asking and answering questions in a given academic discipline. It is the way of understanding things currently in vogue among a large number of practitioners and in the popular mind (Webster, Jacox and Baldwin 1981:23). The Received View is a very powerful and dogmatic orthodoxy, controlling academic departments, and key journals as well as grant-and/or fellowship-bestowing agencies. The Received View dictates the criteria that are to control “convincing” and “unconvincing” contributions to the field. As a label, the term “Received View” is a sarcastic and unfriendly one in the hands of its critics, and it is in this sense that it has been adopted here.
