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Gintis meets Brunswik – but fails to recognize him

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2007

Kenneth R. Hammond
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. kenneth.hammond@colorado.eduBrunswik.org

Abstract

With a few incisive (and legitimate) criticisms of crucial experiments in psychology that purported to bring down the foundations of modern economics, together with a broad scholarly review that is praiseworthy, Gintis attempts to build a unifying framework for the behavioral sciences. His efforts fail, however, because he fails to break with the conventional methodology, which, regrettably, is the unifying basis of the behavioral sciences. As a result, his efforts will merely recapitulate the story of the past: interesting, provocative results that are soon overthrown because they are limited to the conditions of the experiment. Gintis is keenly aware of this limitation – and thus meets Brunswik, but fails to recognize him; this we know because he seems unaware of the fact that Brunswik said it all – and provided a detailed defense – a half century ago.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
2007 Cambridge University Press

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