Psychology and Psychologizing
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 7:00pm
UCLA Campus: Ackerman Union 3517
It's common to hear speculation on the psychological motives of the people around us--friends, family, and public figures. Our topic this week is the danger of ascribing motive on the basis of little or no evidence, that is, the process of "psychologizing".
We will use Ayn Rand's article "The Psychology of Psychologizing" in The Voice of Reason as a frame of reference. Please consider the following questions:
- What is "psychologizing"? What are some examples?
- What are the dangers of psychologizing?
- Why do people psychologize? What facts about human knowledge does psychologizing ignore?
- "Just as reasoning, to an irrational person, becomes rationalizing, and moral judgment becomes moralizing, so psychological theories become psychologizing." What do these three activities have in common?
- Do well-meaning people psychologize? What are their reasons?
- What are some ways psychologizing emerges in debates? How is it used as a substitute for argument?
- How does one rationally draw conclusions about a person's character?
