Aaro Toomela 
The Psychology of Scientific Inquiry 

This brief sets out on a course to distinguish three main kinds of thought that underlie scientific thinking.
Current science has not agreed on an understanding of what exactly the aim of science actually is, how to understand scientific knowledge, and how such knowledge can be achieved. Furthermore, no science today also explicitly admits the fact that knowledge can be constructed in different ways and therefore every scientist should be able to recognize the form of thought that under-girds their understanding of scientific theory. In response to this, this texts seeks to answer the questions: What is science? What is (scientific) explanation? What is causality and why it matters? 

Science is a way to find new knowledge. The way we think about the world constrains the aspects of it we can understand. Scientists, the author suggests, should engage in a metacognitive perspective on scientific theory that reflects not only what exists in the world, but also the way the scientist thinks about the world.

Table of Content

Chapter1: The problem. Psychology: A science yet to become science.- Chapter2: Science is based on certain assumptions.- Chapter3: Doubts, assumptions, and social sciences and psychology today.- Chapter4: Causality, understanding and explanation: Philosophical roots.- Chapter5: Causality, understanding and explanation: Fundamentally limited views.- Chapter6: Causality, understanding and explanation: Back to the roots.- Chapter7: Theory of causality and modern mainstream psychology.- Chapter8: What next? Back to the future.

About the author

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Aaro Toomela is a Professor of Cultural and Neuropsychology at the Tallinn University, Estonia. His research interests cover all the main fields of psychology—cognitive, developmental, cultural, social, personality, biological, evolutionary, and applied—as well as philosophy, history and methodology of psychology. He has authored scientific papers in all these fields.