Is empirical psychology, according to Kant, a natural science? A critical evaluation of Patrick R. Frierson’s commentary

Una evaluación crítica del comentario de Patrick R. Frierson

Autores

  • Martín Arias Albisu CONICET

Resumo

In his interesting "Kant’s Empirical Psychology" (2014), Patrick R. Frierson attempts to show that, for Kant, empirical psychology is a natural science that contains natural causal laws. The aim of this paper is to concisely expound and criticize such attempt. The three main theses of our critical exposition can be summarized as follows: 1) given that the category of causality cannot be applied in the domain of inner sense, which is the field of study of empirical psychology, it is not possible to establish causal laws in the domain in question; 2) if such laws could be formulated, they could not be tested, because it is not possible to manipulate inner phenomena in order to carry out experiments with them; 3) although, according to Kant, his pragmatic anthropology is a science, this does not imply that empirical psychology, discipline with whose approach the former is related, is likewise a science.

Publicado

2020-11-09

Como Citar

Is empirical psychology, according to Kant, a natural science? A critical evaluation of Patrick R. Frierson’s commentary: Una evaluación crítica del comentario de Patrick R. Frierson. (2020). Epistemología E Historia De La Ciencia, 5(1), 83-105. https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/afjor/article/view/30002