One of the primary intellectual challenges of our time is discovering how to develop commitment in an age of uncertainty. This article traces the roots of this challenge to the historic conflict in the physical sciences between deductive and inductive approaches to truth. The attitudes of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Bacon, Hume, and Kant are examined, and the hypothetico-deductive alternative to traditional deductive and inductive approaches is presented. Finally, the implications of both epistemological certainty and uncertainty for the practice of psychotherapy are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgassiJ. (1968). The continuing revolution. New York: McGraw-Hill.
2.
BaconF. (1968). Novum organum. In KaufmanW. (Ed.), Philosophic classics, Vol. II (pp.8–20). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Original work published 1620).
3.
BeaversW. R. (1977). Psychotherapy and growth: A family system perspective. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
4.
BellD. (1963). The end of ideology. New York: Free Press.
5.
CapraF. (1977). The tao of physics. New York: Bantam Books.
6.
DavisW. (1963). The century of science. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
7.
DescartesR. (1968). Meditations on the first philosophy. In KaufmanW. (Ed.), Philosophic classics, Vol. II (pp. 22–63). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Original work published 1641).
8.
FergusonM. (1980). The aquarian conspiracy. Los Angeles: Tarcher.
9.
FullerB. (1976). Being with Bucky. San Francisco: New Foundation.
10.
GailbraithJ. (1977). The age of uncertainty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
11.
GilbertF. (1971). Intellectual history: Its aims and methods. Daedulus, Winter, (pp. 80–97).
12.
HarmanW.RheingoldH. (1984). Higher creativity. Los Angeles: Tarcher.
13.
HoltonG. (1967). Science and culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
14.
HumeD. (1968). Enquiry concerning human understanding, Section VII, Part 1. In KaufmanW. (Ed.), Philosophic classics, Vol. II (pp. 282–362). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (Original work published 1748).
15.
JonesW. T. (1952). A history of western philosophy, Vol. II. New York: Harcourt Brace World.
16.
KantI. (1968). Critique of pure reason. Preface. In KaufmanW. (Ed.), Philosophic classics, Vol. II, (pp. 366–488). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (Original work published 1781).
17.
KeeneyB. D. (1982). What is an epistemology of family therapy?Family Process, 21, 153–168.
18.
PopperK. R. (1965). Conjectures and refutations. New York: Basic Books.
19.
PopperK. R. (1968). The logic of scientific discovery. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
20.
SluzkiC. E. (1983). How to stake a territory in the field of family therapy in three easy lessons. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 9, 235–238.
21.
WalkerM. (1963). The nature of scientific thought. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
22.
WilliamsonD. (1983). The family's bloodless revolution: Personal authority and personal reality in the family of origin. The Family Therapy Networker, 7(3), 28–31, 62–63.
23.
ZerinE. (1984). The “Q” model. Transactional Analysis Journal, 14, 48–62.
