ABSTRACT
The distinction between hard and soft sciences is discussed, and the role of psychology among social sciences is highlighted. It is argued that the main factor that distinguishes social sciences from physical sciences is not replicability and usage of mathematics but the nature of objects studied. In contrast to physical sciences, entities studied by social sciences include working of the human mind, to which physical causality is inapplicable. This determines the difference between ‘systems’ working in nature and in the mind. A physical system is a mechanism that consists of parts connected in a causal way through the four known physical forces. Alternative to a physical mechanism is a magical system that consists of parts connected by a magical bond – participation. We hope that arguments presented in this book would shift the view that psychology and other social sciences, if compared to hard scientific disciplines, are ‘crippled’ sciences. Instead, the book argues that disciplines that explore the work of the human mind reveal psychological foundations for that very method that brought hard sciences to glory.
