Metodologia badań psychologicznych jako forma świadomości historycznej

Abstract

The subject of the present thesis is connected with one of the basic issues of general methodology or philosophy of science. Namely the issues are contingencies and mechanisms of the growth of scientific knowledge. The issues are examined purely in the contexts of determinants of the choice of research problems because this stage of the research process seems to be not yet fully known. In other words — it is about the circumstances which define the choice of a research topic and methods of approaching it. The above mentioned problem is examined firstly from the perspective of logic, i.e. in terms of logical rationalization of activities and idealization of their subjects’ consciousness. On a small scale the topic is looked into in terms of psychological interpretation of empirically identified experiences and behaviors. This thesis is in the field of methodology (of psychological research) and not psychology (of scientific creativity) nor sociology (of scientific cognition). The problems of contingencies and mechanisms of the choice of research subject are in this thesis in some way restricted to determinants which appoint specific topics in psychological studies. Terms such as “science”, “scientific practice” and “scientific discipline” mainly refer to psychology. However, there is a possibility of applying the conclusions drawn and the analysis shown above of the mechanism of the choice of research problem to other scientific disciplines. The possibility of such application is mentioned many times. In both conceptual as well as methodological aspects (one would say “metamethodological” as the main object of scrutiny here is methodology) the present thesis refers to assumptions and solutions worked out by the Poznań School of Methodology. Solutions proposed by the author to detailed problems are either developments or sometimes criticism of the assumptions and solutions mentioned above. Both the work of Poznań School and that of Karl Raimund Popper’s theory of scientific cognition have exerted a major influence on the results of the analysis carried out. The notion of historical consciousness creates also a framework for the present thesis. The term plays a double role and possesses a double meaning: (a) as a certain non-empirical epistemological category it is used as a tool in the logical reconstruction and explanation of the rational activities of a certain kind, among other things scientific investigation activities, and (b) as a certain state of affairs at least partially apprehendable in experience capable of being a subject of empirical scientific knowledge. The structure of the thesis is as follows, the starting point (in chapter one) is a reconstruction and - to some extent - explication of pre-existing ways of expressing methodological consciousness in the perspective of Kmita’s historical epistemology and Popper’s objective epistemology. Afterwards, the attention is focused on ethical consciousness (chapter 2). It allows certain fundamental features to be shown which differentiate the logical (non-empirical) understanding of consciousness from the psychological (empirical) - which is addressed in the 3rd chapter. The two following chapters (chapters 4 and 5) describe the issues of both possible (on the basis of previously drawn conclusions) and factual (in theory and research in the scope of mainly history and psychology) ways of using the conceptual constructs of historical consciousness and historical thinking. In these chapters essential explication of the term rational activity is shown as well as ways of understanding its determinants and mechanisms of determination. The theme of mutual relation between psychology and history is also described in the chapter focusing on the notion of historical psychology. In the following chapter (chapter 6) in the context of a large disproportion in the scope of popularity of various research problems, the matter of choice of the research subject by the researchers is analyzed. The above mentioned theme is continued in chapter 7, where concepts of the Objective Problem Situation and Methodological Nonconsciousness - as a certain variant of non-empiric conception of historical consciousness are proposed. The above mentioned Methodological Non-consciousness is to be, in a way, an alternative - in relation to methodological consciousness - determinant of choice and method of embracing research topics in psychology on the way to solving the above mentioned Objective Problem Situation. In both chapters there has been accomplished an analysis of manifestations of the imperfections of hitherto existing solutions in the scope of explaining scientific research’s contingencies (especially in the field of psychology).