ABSTRACT
The central idea that I stress in this book is both familiar and ignored. Our theories and explanations of ourselves and the world in which we are embedded are, in large part, based on deep-seated assumptions. Most of these assumptions go unrecognized or unspoken as we rush through the mechanical details of our empirical studies. This is not a radical idea; Gleiser (2002) makes a similar argument for cosmology and other scholars (e.g., Hanson, 1958) have argued extensively that all facets of science are subject to this same kind of pressure. The particular argument I present in this chapter is that scientific psychology is likewise impelled in specific directions by long lasting and deeply held beliefs about the nature of the human mind—spirit—soul separate from that of the brain—body.
