The Prohibition Against Psychologizing

Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 15 (1):53-66 (2015)
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Abstract

The prohibition against psychologizing has been a source of confusion to many Randians. Psychologizing is the practice of incorrectly or improperly inferring motives in other people instead of rendering moral judgment. Rand thought that it could manifest in two ways: inquisitorial and excuse-making. However, Rand's concrete examples are preponderantly of the excuse-making type; her bright line between psychology and philosophy is unsuccessfully drawn; and in offering extended, strongly condemnatory analyses of the supposed motives behind psychologizing, she yields to the very temptation she claims to warn against. “Psychologizing” turns out to be an anticoncept.

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Citations of this work

Reflections on My Hero, Nathaniel Branden.Roger E. Bissell - 2016 - Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 16 (1-2):98-105.
The Man Who Would Be Galt. [REVIEW]Dennis C. Hardin - 2020 - Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 20 (2):161-300.

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References found in this work

The Peikovian Doctrine of the Arbitrary Assertion.Robert L. Campbell - 2008 - Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 10 (1):85-170.
Ayn Rand and the cognitive revolution in psychology.Robert L. Campbell - 1999 - Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 1 (1):107-134.

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