Gurevich, P. S. Revenge of Psychology

Abstract: The author of the article touches upon the question about the status of psychology as an independent science. This is quite a difficult topic to discuss because psychology was not born ‘from scratch’. Over the course of history psychology had been developing as a part of philosophy but in many ways its development had been defined physiologically. This raises the question of whether psychology has a subject matter of its own. Does psychology possess particular research methods that would allow it to be an independent science? Quite often researchers of different branches of knowledge prove that once psychology had separated from philosophy, it failed to show itself as a branch of natural science. Due to grandiose discoveries in modern neurosciences, the concept of ‘psyche’ is threatened to be eliminated. The most sophisticated mental phenomena are limited to simple brain processes. However, psychology meets these challenges with dignity and continues to get its revenge and to prove its right to be a science. In his research Pavel Gurevich uses research methods obtained from natural science, social studies and humanities. The author bases himself on biology that reveals important sides of human nature. At the same time, the author uses the methods of humanitarian expertise and applies achievements of social studies. The novelty of the article is in the author’s attempt to point out at the convergence of different approaches to analyzing the human nature. Today we can talk not only about human sciences but also define the unity of these sciences, as scientific discoveries made in many different branches of knowledge often remove a strict demarcation between individual branches of knowledge.

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