Measuring the Intentional World: Realism, Naturalism, and Quantitative Methods in the Behavioral Sciences

by J.D. Trout

Scientific realism has been advanced as an interpretation of the natural sciences but never the behavioral sciences. This exciting book introduces a novel version of scientific realism--Measured Realism--that characterizes the kind of theoretical progress in the social and psychological sciences that is uneven but indisputable. Trout proposes a theory of measurement--Population-Guided Estimation--that connects natural, psychological, and social scientific inquiry. Presenting quantitative methods in the behavioral sciences as at once successful and regulated by the world, Measuring the Intentional World will engage philosophers of science, historians of science, sociologists of science, and scientists interested in the foundations of their own disciplines.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 5, 1997

About the author

J.D. Trout is a Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at Loyola University Chicago. He received his PhD in Philosophy at Cornell University in 1988, and has also taught at Bryn Mawr College and Virginia Tech. His chief interests include the nature of scientific explanation, the psychology of human judgment, scientific realism and intellectual progress, and social/political issues bearing on well-being. He has also published work in epistemology and experimental and theoretical work in spoken language processing.