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Show Visiting Psychologist Critiques Humanism "Our world views are undergoing a transition transi-tion from threat of the mechanomorphic, posi-tivist, posi-tivist, object-oriented, impersonal point of view as propounded by Freudian and Behavioristic psychologies, to the humanistic point of view that stresses self, identity, motivation of object, and man's ability to shape his own fate," said Abraham Maslow, President and Chairman of the Psychology Department at Brandeis University. Uni-versity. Dr. Maslow's lecture was followed by a critique of his comments by Dr. Jennings Olson, Ol-son, of the Weber State Philosophy Department, and Dr. Richard Henson, of the University Philosophy Department. Moderating was Dr. Ray Canning, also of the University Philosophy Department. Dr. Maslow's theme was that the view of Classical Science, that relegated people to the status of "things to be moved" was becoming obsolete, and that a new view of Humanism that elevated people to the condition of being "movers," is taking over. Dr. Maslow was careful to stress, however, that the Humanistic view is not replacing the Classical Science Principal, but rather building upon it and progressing further into evaluation of the "human" things such as fine arts, social sciences, psychology, philosophy, and advoca tion of the "full life." This Humanistic evaluation evalua-tion considers the aspects of human wonder, awe, compassion, respect, and experience, of essence and of equal importance to that of the scientific determination of value. The antithesis anti-thesis to these "human aspects" he calls "de-sacralization," "de-sacralization," and which Dr. Maslow describes as, "unemotional, coldly objective, expert, and purely technological. By example, Dr. Maslow used the definition: "A kiss is the juxtaposition of the upper ends of two gastro-intestinal tracts." This type of desacralization, Dr. Maslow believes, is unwarranted and detrimental. "Science "Sci-ence needs to get rid of this taboo on tenderness tender-ness and stress the human qualities such as humility, awe, peak experience, and respect as important integral factors of science. The first speaker of the critique was Dr. Olson, who described, Dr. Maslow very warmly, asked two "friendly questions" of Maslow, as an Empirical scientific, pragmatic Humanist concerning the fact "is there not a difference between the Logic of science and the competency compet-ency of the inquirer." Dr. Henson agreed with Dr. Maslow on most issues, but cautioned against an approach to psychology that doesn't allow for consideration of the gross human characteristics of human nature. |