Cognitive Science 0257 - Psychological Revolutions

Science proceeds as a series of scientific revolutions, each revolution bringing new frameworks and new modes of understanding. Thomas Kuhn coined the term "paradigm shift" to describe these revolutions, with sciences passing from one paradigm, one way of understanding and organizing the world, to another. Kuhn also famously claimed that psychology has no paradigm, and I believe he was correct. Though it's not for lack of trying - there have been many attempted revolutions, but none of them have been completely successful at providing a shared paradigm. Psychological science is still divided. In this course, we will begin by reading about the theory of scientific revolutions. Then, we'll look back in time and examine successful paradigm shifts from the other sciences. Finally, we'll look at several historical attempts to make a paradigm for psychological science, finishing out the course by looking at some paradigms that might hold promise for the future. KEYWORDS:cognitive science, paradigm, ontology, history of science

Media and Technology Students are expected to spend a minimum of 6-8 hours of work outside of class time per week