Od naturalistycznego do humanistycznego paradygmatu w głównych naukach behawioralnych i kryminologii

Abstract

The author begins with a characterization of behavioural sciences, to which he includes the sciences dealing with a human being and the society. Typical behavioural sciences are criminology and a science of social pathology, tightly connected with the former one. Having explained the concept of paradigm and commented on the structure of science, which usually includes also basic ontological assumptions, the author presents a naturalistic paradigm of behavioural sciences formulated by positivism. It includes the following elements: 1) strict determinism in conceiving human behaviour; 2) methodology based on natural sciences; 3) reductionists tendencies consisting in attempts to explain human behaviour by reference to biological or the like processes. A naturalistic paradigm, dominating for several decades, have produced distinct symptoms of a crisis in behavioural sciences. Their development is insufficient. Thus, it is high time to focus attention, on antipositivistic tendencies which have become stronger and stronger since the 1960s. They can be traced in such trends as interactionism, phenomenological sociology, ethnomethodology or humanistic psychology. A new paradigm — the humanistic paradigm — starts to appear. It contains the following elements: 1) since a human being possesses some onthological autonomy, strict determinism must be rejected; 2) the methodology of natural sciences must be complemented with methods allowing to reach to the abundance of psychical states of an individual; 3) instead of the simplyfying reductionism, a complex outlook on human behaviour, where autonomy and different determinants appear simultaneously, must be applied. There is an urgent need to perform a thorough analysis of the elements of a humanistic paradigm and to develop new theories and new empirical research within its frames.