Is it possible to write a "history of psychology" for the period immediately preceding its recognition as a separate discipline? How did the metaphorical construct we have come to call "the psychological" merge from the ideas of European thinkers from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries? In Mental Machinery, Graham Richards focuses on social constructionist and linguistic perspectives to record the diverse origins of what eventually became the field of psychology.Writing a history of something that "did not exist," Richards suggests, can be approached in one of two ways. One is to redefine the problem as writing a history of "reflexive discourse" rather than of psychology. A second way is to re-examine the canonical texts - of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Hartley, Hume, Mill, and others - in an attempt to reveal what the authors themselves actually intended (and were understood by their contemporaries) to address. Mental Machinery employs both of these methods in a work that offers a radical challenge to received ideas regarding the origins of psychology.

Mental Machinery: The Origins and Consequences of Psychological Ideas, 1600-1850

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Richards, Professor Graham

Psychology & Counseling

The Johns Hopkins University Press

A resurgence of fundamentalist religious thinking on both sides of the Atlantic is creating demands for the anti-evolutionist, Bible-based doctrine of Creationism and the less doctrinaire but equally unprovable concept of 'Intelligent Design' (ID) to be taught in the school science curriculum as genuine alternatives to the theory of evolution. The two sides seem to be intractable: Creationists are impervious to scientific reasoning, and scientists rely on attacking them in sterile, materialist terms. While presenting the scientific case against Creationism and ID, Graham Richards argues that these beliefs contain a number of deep conceptual contradictions which their scientific critics have failed to discern. He also finds the physical-science camp guilty of an arrogant and patronizing contempt for religion in general. This book aspires to widen the debate, encouraging both sides to re-appraise their own positions.

Creationism: Design Errors and Cross-Purposes

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Lindsey Press

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Books by Richards, Professor Graham