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The Psychology Of Science : Abraham Maslow

Decent Essays

“When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to resemble nails” (Abraham Maslow). How might this apply to ways of knowing, as tools, in the pursuit of knowledge? “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” In the book The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, Abraham Maslow used this metaphor to illustrate the limited and confined perspective that the public uses to view the world, which is of a familiar and personal bias. The personal bias sprouts from the place of comfort for people, if a lawyer is faced with a problem they will approach such problem from a legal stand point. The problem with be evaluated using the tools that they as a lawyer were taught and equipped to use. Yet a person with an alternate background in education will use a different set of tools to conquer the same problem, such an act of problem solving can not only be viewed differently but approached from an array of positions to ultimately come to the same conclusion in terms of reaching a solution to a problem. In each scenario people utilized the tools they had available to them based off of life experiences and skill sets, both of which were familiar to that given person. Through the previously stated quote it can be gathered that Maslow believed that the procedures of the “natural sciences were not sufficient in tackling the problems faced in an attempt to better understand human consciousness,” it should, however,

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