DOI
10.1177/095269519500800107
Abstract
William James, one of the major founders of modern scientific psychology, spoke often about 'the psychologist's fallacy' (e.g. James, 1983a [1884]: 161-7; James, 19836 [1890]: 195-6). This fallacy resulted (and still results) from the tendency of psychologists to confuse their analyses of subjective experience with the nature of reality. A related, though less attended , problem revolved for James (and still revolves) around · what I shall call 'the psychologist 's dilemma'. Although other psychologists have been sensitive to this dilemma, both in James's time and more recently perhaps no other thinker has felt and pondered it so deeply. In all, James's psychological arid philosophical works reflect its import and centrality in the history of the human sciences. As I hope will be clear, James's thoughts about this dilemma bear consideration by contemporary psychologists and are relevant to the work of contemporary historians of psychology .
The psychologist 's dilemma, experienced so intensely by James, can be stated rather simply: whether to create a science of the self, objectively considered, or to create a science compatible with the self, as subjectively experienced. The dilemma pivots around the fact that science, as an activity of human selves, falls within the domain of psychology, thus making a 'science of the subject' (i.e. a science of the subjective or psychological) doubly problematic.
Document Type
Restricted Article: Campus only access
Publication Date
1995
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2025 by SAGE Publications
Recommended Citation
Leary, D. E. (1995). William James, the psychologist’s dilemma and the historiography of psychology: cautionary tales. History of the Human Sciences, 8(1), 91-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/095269519500800107