In 1927, the Scottish philosopher John Anderson arrived in Australia to take up the chair of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. By the late 1930s, the ‘macrostructure’ of his realist system was in place. It includes a theory of process and a substantial metaphysics, one that opposes positivism, linguistic philosophy and all forms of idealism. However, beyond Australia it remains largely unknown, despite its bearing on a number of current issues in psychology and the social sciences generally. This article outlines Anderson’s transition from Hegelian idealism to realism, describes aspects of his ontology and epistemology, compares some of Anderson’s ideas with Dewey’s pragmatism and explains their relevance to present-day psychology.
Anderson, J. ( 1937) ‘How We Think. By John Dewey’, The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy15: 224-30.
2.
Anderson, J. ( 1939a) ‘Logic and Ethics’, Australasian Journal of PhilosophyXVII: 55-65.
3.
Anderson, J. ( 1939b) ‘Logic and Experience’, The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy17: 257-72.
4.
Anderson, J. ( 1954) ‘Lectures on Criticism’ 1-43; retrieved from: http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/setis/id/anders033
5.
Anderson, J. ( 1962) Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson.
6.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1926]) ‘The Truth of Propositions’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 20-6.
7.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1927a]) ‘Empiricism’, in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, pp. 3-14.
8.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1927b]) ‘The Knower and the Known’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 27-40.
9.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1929]) ‘The Non-existence of Consciousness’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy . Sydney : Angus & Robertson , pp. 60-7.
10.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1930]) ‘Realism and Some of its Critics’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 41-59.
11.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1932a]) ‘The Place of Hegel in the History of Philosophy’, in Studies in Empirical Philosophy . Sydney: Angus & Robertson , pp. 79-87.
12.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1932b]) ‘Realism versus Relativism in Ethics’, in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, pp. 238-47.
13.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1935]) ‘Marxist Philosophy’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 292-313.
14.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1936a]) ‘The Cogito of Descartes’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 101-14.
15.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1936b]) ‘Causality and Logic’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 122-5.
16.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1938]) ‘The Problem of Causality’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 126-36.
17.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1940]) ‘Freudianism and Society’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 340-58.
18.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1952]) ‘Hypotheticals’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 137-47.
19.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1962a]) ‘Relational Arguments’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 148-61.
20.
Anderson, J. ( 1962[1962b]) ‘Empiricism and Logic’ , in Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. 162-88.
21.
Anderson, J. ( 2005[1944]) Space-time and the Proposition . Sydney: Sydney University Press .
22.
Anderson, J. ( 2007[1949]) Space, Time and the Categories: Lectures on Metaphysics 1949-50. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
23.
Armstrong, D.M. ( 1997) A World of States of Affairs. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
24.
Armstrong, D.M. ( 2007) ‘Introduction’, Space, Time and the Categories: Lectures on Metaphysics 1949-50 by John Anderson , ed. C. Cole.Sydney: Sydney University Press, pp. vii-xiii.
Baker, A.J. ( 1986) Australian Realism: The Systematic Philosophy of John Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
Baker, A.J. ( 2004) ‘Alexander, Anderson and Realism’, Heraclitus115: 1-8.
28.
Bechtel, W. and Graham, G. , eds (1998) A Companion to Cognitive Science . Oxford: Blackwell.
29.
Bennett, M.R. and Hacker, P.M.S. ( 2003) Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
30.
Berkeley, G. ( 1945[1710]) A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. London: Thomas Nelson & Sons.
31.
Bernstein, R.J. ( 1967) John Dewey. New York: Washington Square Press.
32.
Boag, S. ( 2008) ‘"Mind as Feeling" or Affective Relations? A Contribution to the School of Andersonian Realism’, Theory & Psychology18(4): 505-25.
33.
Burnet, J. ( 1957) Early Greek Philosophy. Cleveland : World Publishing Co.
34.
Candlish, S. ( 1999) ‘A Prolegomenon to an Identity Theory of Truth’ , Philosophy74: 199-220.
35.
Chaiklin, S. and Lave, J., eds (1996) Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Cohen, M.R. ( 1946) A Preface to Logic. London: Routledge & Sons.
37.
Cumming, L. ( 1987) ‘Ryle on "Logic and Professor Anderson"’ , Dialectic30: 109-16.
38.
D’Agostino, F. ( 1992) ‘Social Sciences, Epistemology of’ , in J. Dancy and E. Sosa (eds) A Companion to Epistemology . Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, pp. 479-83.
39.
Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. ( 2005) ‘Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research’, in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 1-32.
40.
Dewey, J. ( 1929) Experience and Nature. London : George Allen & Unwin.
41.
Dewey, J. ( 1938) Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. New York : Irvington.
42.
Earman, J. ( 2007) ‘Aspects of Determinism in Modern Physics’ , in J. Butterfield and J. Earman (eds) Philosophy of Physics - Part B. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 1369-1434.
43.
Erwin, E. ( 1997) Philosophy and Psychotherapy: Razing the Troubles of the Brain. London: Sage.
44.
Føllesdal, D. ( 1979) ‘Hermeneutics and the Hypothetico-Deductive Method’ , Dialectica33(3-4): 319-36.
45.
Franklin, J. ( 2003) Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia . Sydney: Macleay Press .
46.
Friedman, M. ( 1999) Reconsidering Logical Positivism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
47.
Gergen, K.J. ( 1988) ‘Knowledge and Social Process’, in D. Bar-Tal and A. W. Kruglanski (eds) The Social Psychology of Knowledge . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 30-47.
48.
Giorgi, A. ( 2006) ‘The Value of Phenomenology for Psychology’ , in P. Ashworth and M. Cheung Chung (eds) Phenomenology and Psychological Science: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Springer, pp. 45-68.
49.
Grave, S.A. ( 1984) A History of Philosophy in Australia. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press .
50.
Harré, R. ( 1989) ‘Metaphysics and Methodology: Some Prescriptions for Social Psychological Research’, European Journal of Social Psychology19: 439-53.
51.
Hegel, G.W.F. ( 1964) The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. N. Kemp. London: Macmillan.
52.
Heidegger, M. ( 1962[1927]) Being and Time, 7th German edn, trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. Oxford : Basil Blackwell.
53.
Heil, J. ( 1981) ‘Does Cognitive Psychology Rest on a Mistake?’ , MindXC: 321-42.
54.
Heil, J. ( 2003) ‘Levels of Reality’, Ratio16(3): 205-21.
55.
Held, B.S. ( 2007) Psychology’s Interpretive Turn. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association .
56.
Henry, R., ed. (2009) Psychologies of Mind: The Collected Papers of John Maze. London: Continuum International.
57.
Hibberd, F.J. ( 2005) Unfolding Social Constructionism. New York: Springer.
58.
Holt, E.B., Marvin, W.T., Montague, W.P., Perry, R.B., Pitkin, W.B. and Spaulding, E.G. ( 1912) The New Realism: Coöperative Studies in Philosophy . New York: MacMillan.
59.
Horst, S.W. ( 1996) Symbols, Computation, and Intentionality. Berkeley: University of California Press .
60.
Hume, D. ( 1975[1740]) A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge.Oxford : Clarendon Press.
61.
Hume, D. ( 1975[1777]) ‘Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding’, in L. A. Selby-Bigge (ed.) Enquiries. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 5-165.
62.
James, W. ( 1912) Essays in Radical Empiricism. New York : Longmans, Green.
63.
James, W. ( 1947[1909]) A Pluralistic Universe. New York: Longmans, Green.
64.
Judge, B. ( 1985) Thinking about Things: A Philosophical Study of Representation . Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press .
65.
Kennedy, B. ( 1995) A Passion to Oppose: John Anderson, Philosopher . Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
66.
Kimball, M.M. ( 2003) ‘Feminists Rethink Gender’, in D. B. Hill and M. J. Kral (eds) About Psychology: Essays at the Crossroads of History, Theory, and Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 127-46.
67.
Kirk, G.S. ( 1962) Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
68.
Kukla, A. ( 1989) ‘Nonempirical Issues in Psychology’ , American Psychologist44(5): 785-94.
69.
Liebrucks, A. ( 2001) ‘The Concept of Social Construction’ , Theory & Psychology11(3): 363-91.
70.
MacIntyre, A. ( 2007) After Virtue, 3rd edn. London: Duckworth.
71.
Mackay, N. ( 2003) ‘Psychotherapy and the Idea of Meaning’ , Theory & Psychology13(3): 359-86.
72.
Mackie, J. ( 1951) ‘Logic and Professor Anderson’, The Australasian Journal of PhilosophyXXIX: 109-13.
73.
Mackie, J. ( 1962) ‘The Philosophy of John Anderson’, The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy40: 265-82.
74.
Mackie, J. ( 1974) The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation . Oxford: Clarendon Press.
75.
Maze, J.R. ( 1983) The Meaning of Behaviour. London : Allen & Unwin.
76.
Maze, J.R. ( 1991) ‘Representation, Realism and the Redundancy of "Mentalese"’ , Theory & Psychology1: 163-85.
77.
McIntyre, L. ( 2006) Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
78.
McMullen, T. ( 1997) ‘Sperry on Consciousness as an Emergent Causal Agent’ , Australian Journal of Psychology49(3): 152-5.
79.
Merleau-Ponty, M. ( 1962[1945]) Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
80.
Michell, J. ( 1988) ‘Maze’s Direct Realism and the Character of Cognition’, Australian Journal of Psychology40: 227-49.
81.
Michell, J. ( 1990) An Introduction to the Logic of Psychological Measurement . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
82.
Michell, J. ( 1997) ‘Quantitative Science and the Definition of Measurement in Psychology’, British Journal of Psychology88: 355-83.
83.
Michell, J. ( 1999) Measurement in Psychology: A Critical History of a Methodological Concept. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
84.
Michell, J. ( 2000) ‘Normal Science, Pathological Science and Psychometrics’ , Theory & Psychology10: 639-67.
85.
Michell, J. ( 2003) ‘The Quantitative Imperative: Positivism, Naïve Realism and the Place of Qualitative Methods in Psychology’ , Theory & Psychology13(1): 5-31.
86.
Michell, J. ( 2004) ‘The Place of Qualitative Research in Psychology’ , Qualitative Research in Psychology1: 307-19.
87.
Michell, J. ( 2009) ‘Observing Mental Processes’, manuscript in preparation.
88.
Passmore, J. ( 1962) ‘John Anderson and Twentieth-century Philosophy’ , Studies in Empirical Philosophy. Sydney : Angus & Robertson, pp. ix-xxiv.
89.
Passmore, J. ( 1970) Philosophical Reasoning, 2nd edn. London: Duckworth.
90.
Passmore, J. ( 1977) ‘Anderson as a Systematic Philosopher’ , Quadrant21(June): 48-53.
91.
Peirce, C.S. ( 1931-58) Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. 8 , ed. C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Petocz, A. ( 1999) Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
94.
Petocz, A. ( 2004) ‘Science, Meaning and the Scientist-practitioner Model of Treatment’, in D. Jones (ed.) Working with Dangerous People. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press, pp. 25-42.
95.
Quine, W.V. ( 1990[1951]) ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’ , in R. R. Ammerman (ed.) Classics of Analytic Philosophy. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, pp. 196-213.
96.
Rantzen, A.J. ( 1993) ‘Constructivism, Direct Realism and the Nature of Error’, Theory & Psychology3: 147-71.
97.
Richardson, F.C., Fowers, B.J. and Guignon, C.B. ( 1999) Re-envisioning Psychology: Moral Dimensions of Theory and Practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
98.
Robinson, D.N. ( 2007) ‘Theoretical Psychology: What Is it and Who Needs it?’, Theory & Psychology17(2): 187-98.
99.
Russell, B. ( 1984[1946]) A History of Western Philosophy . London: Unwin Hyman.
100.
Ryle, G. ( 1950) ‘Logic and Professor Anderson’, The Australasian Journal of PhilosophyXXVIII: 137-53.
101.
Sherwood, M. ( 1969) The Logic of Explanation in Psychoanalysis. New York: Academic Press.
102.
Shotter, J. ( 2003) ‘"Real Presences": Meaning as Living Movement in a Participatory World’, Theory & Psychology13(4): 435-68.
103.
Slife, B.D. and Williams, R.N. ( 1995) What’s behind the Research? Discovering Hidden Assumptions in the Behavioral Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
104.
Smedslund, G. ( 2008) ‘All Bachelors Are Unmarried Men (p < 0.05)’ , Quality & Quantity42: 53-73.
105.
Smedslund, J. ( 1994) ‘What Kind of Propositions Are Set forth in Developmental Research?’, Human Development37: 280-92.
106.
Solso, R.L., MacLin, M. Kimberly and MacLin, O.H. ( 2005) Cognitive Psychology. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
107.
Still, A. and Costall, A., eds (1991) Against Cognitivism. Hemel Hempstead, Herts: Harvester Wheatsheaf .
108.
Sutcliffe, J.P. ( 1993) ‘Concept, Class, and Category in the Tradition of Aristotle’, in I. Van Mechelen, J. Hampton, R. S. Michalski and P. Theuns (eds) Categories and Concepts: Theoretical Views and Inductive Data Analysis. London: Academic Press, pp. 35-65.
109.
Thom, P. ( 1981) The Syllogism. Munich: Philosophia Verlag.
110.
Toulmin, S. ( 1979) ‘The Inwardness of Mental Life’, Critical Inquiry6: 1-16.
111.
Turtle, A. and Hibberd, F.J. ( 2002) ‘History & Philosophy of Psychology at the University of Sydney’, European Society for the History of the Human Sciences newsletter20(2), available at: http://psychology.dev.ac.uk/eshhs [‘News and Newsletter Highlights’, Local Reports]
112.
Valsiner, J. ( 2006) ‘Dangerous Curves in Knowledge Construction within Psychology’, Theory & Psychology16(5): 597-612.
113.
Watson, J.B. ( 1913) ‘Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it’ , Psychological Review20: 158-77.
114.
Weblin, M. ( 2003a) ‘History (1952)’, J.A.9: 2-5.
115.
Weblin, M, ed. (2003b) A Perilous and Fighting Life: From Communist to Conservative: The Political Writings of Professor John Anderson. Melbourne: Pluto Press.
116.
Weblin, M. ( 2005) ‘Glasgow Hegelianism’, J. A. 25: 2-4.
117.
White, M. ( 1952[1950]) ‘The Analytic and the Synthetic: an Untenable Dualism’, in L. Linsky (ed.) Semantics and the Philosophy of Language . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 272-89.
118.
Wittgenstein, L. ( 1967[1953]) Philosophical Investigations , 3rd edn, trans. G. E. N. Anscombe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
