| Abstract: | Comment on "Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions" by John T. Cacioppo, Gun R. Semin and Gary G. Berntson (see record 2004-14303-001). While Lau admires the authors efforts to negotiate symbiosis with seemingly incommensurate realist and instrumentalist positions in science. They focused very intently on hashing out the impetus and motivations for engaging in scientific activity under these two broad perspectives. Although Cacioppo et al. made attempts to highlight the divergent points of realism and instrumentalism and subsequently how the two may be concurrently adopted in an iteratively reflective manner by scientists, the choice to not fully interrogate for the reader the respective underlying ontological and epistemic assumptions serves to oversimplify the possibility for, and create the illusion of, symbiosis. Lau goes on to expand his point and make the reader understand that realists and instrumentalists often have different agendas and these differences are grounded by particular ontological and epistemic assumptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
