Abstract

William James once defined philosophy as the habit of always seeing an alternative. In that same spirit, Joseph F. Rychlak, in a long and integrated series of books and articles, calls on psychologists to be more philosophical in the Jamesian sense, and thus more open to alternative approachs to their discipline. Rychlak’s recent book Logical Learning Theory: A Human Teleology and Its Empirical Support is an application of a naturalistic and rigorous humanism to "experimental literature in cognitive processing, human and animal learning, memory, emotion, motivation, perception, brain functioning, human development, language acquistion, and self-image" . This review covers the basic outline or architecture of the book, some of the concepts that are key to understanding Rychlak’s systematic position, examples of empirical support, and appreciative and critical commentary