ABSTRACT
The ambiguity of my subtitle is intentional. Its purpose is to epitomize the threefold aim of what follows, namely (1) to describe the epistemological, axiological, and methodological characteristics of the composite conceptual and material framework (or “paradigm”), within which most of what currently passes for the scientific study of mental and behavioral activities in my own field of academic and professional specialization gets done; (2) to locate the origins of this prevailing paradigm and to trace the process by which its constituent beliefs, values, and practices have attained the hegemonic status that they currently enjoy; and (3) to identify some of its limitations and to explore the prospects for its transformation into (or replacement by) a scientific paradigm possessing epistemologically, axilogically, and methodologically more sustainable conceptual and material characteristics.
