Hartshorne over de waarneming: vruchtbare ideeën

Referentie:

Hartshorne, Charles, The Philosophy and Psychology of Sensation, Port Washington, NY:Kennikat Press, 1968, 288 p. (oorspronkelijke uitgave Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1934) .

Informatief extract:

"But Hartshorne has not simply developed his metaphysical ideas and hoped that scientists here and there would find them fruitful. Nor has he depended, as we have here at the Center for Process Studies, on collaborative work. He has directly entered scientific fields with hypotheses suggested by his metaphysics, proposed testable hypotheses, and himself tested them against the empirical evidence.
His first book was of this sort. It is entitled The Philosophy and Psychology of Sensation. Generally a sensation has been taken to be primitive, and sensa related to different sense organs have been taken to be incommensurable. Hartshorne’s metaphysics led him to the hypothesis that more fundamental than the sensa are affects and that the same affect is expressed in sensa associated with diverse sense organs. His theory has not been influential in the ongoing course of psychology, so that those who do not understand how academic disciplines develop may suppose that it is outdated. Wayne Viney, a psychologist who has written about it in this volume, notes that there is much more evidence for the theory today than when Hartshorne put it forward. He also notes that even now a research program based on this hypothesis could prove quite fruitful."

[citaat uit: Cobb, John B., Jr., "The Philosophy of Charles Hartshorne", Process Studies 21 (1992) 2, p. 75-84, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2828 (geraadpleegd op 6.11.2007)]

Creatieve commentaar:

Hartshorne zegt in zijn voorwoord:"It will be obvious that I have been much influenced by two philosopher-scientists who appear to have a good deal in common - Charles S. Peirce and Professor A.N. Whitehead. ... The central idea of this book occured to me, however, at a time when I was quite ignorant of these philosophies." [p. vii]

Het is een uitgebreid boek waarin de Hartshorne van de wijsgerige theologie nog niet naar boven komt: de waarneming staat centraal. De uitspraak van Wayne Viney aangehaald door Cobb zou ik eens aan specialisten willen voorleggen. Er is aan het departement Wijsbegeerte al vast een onderzoeksgroep die zich men deze zaken bezighoudt. Ik heb het gevoel dat men nog steeds vrij eenzijdig in de (filosofische) psychologie te werk gaat. Hoeveel invloed heeft Hartshorne met dit boek gehad?

Op het eerste zicht is het werk vrij omvangrijk: 8 hoofdstukken en 40 secties. Alle aspecten van de waarneming komen aanbod. Dit boek staat alvast op mijn verlanglijstje. Het is in alle geval een thema waarop op fundamenteel niveau nog veel discussie aan de gang is.