But, what if there was no currently accepted theory of motivation, other than (a) a few hints and suggestions scattered across cog psych, and (b) an old theory that is little more than a speculative extrapolation from experiments on rats?
That, sadly, is the current situation. But just because it is so poor does not mean that Powers’ theory is the best.
Also, did you really mean to say “best current theory of psychology to explain humans....” I stop your quote there, specifically. Best to explain “humans”? Probably that was just an infelicity in the wording.
Anyhow, the situation in cog psych is that without a clear way to do measurements of motivation, all we have is descriptive stuff from social psychology. That does not add up to a mechanism.
That, sadly, is the current situation. But just because it is so poor does not mean that Powers’ theory is the best.
This looks to me like an uninteresting argument about what the word “best” means. It looks like we both agree that there’s not a superior positive alternative, although it’s fine if you think it’s better to choose the negative alternative of no current theory.
Probably that was just an infelicity in the wording.
No, we really don’t agree. The existing body of cognitive psychology knowledge contains, implicit in it, an outline theory of how motivation works. That theory (be it ever so implicit) is already a whole world better than Powers’ theory, because the latter is so totally arbitrary and inconsistent with the cognitive pscyhology body of knowledge.
(You will ask why: because the latter does not rely on simple control parameters that act like homunculi. But this is a subtle point. Too complex to handle in this context).
But, what if there was no currently accepted theory of motivation, other than (a) a few hints and suggestions scattered across cog psych, and (b) an old theory that is little more than a speculative extrapolation from experiments on rats?
That, sadly, is the current situation. But just because it is so poor does not mean that Powers’ theory is the best.
Also, did you really mean to say “best current theory of psychology to explain humans....” I stop your quote there, specifically. Best to explain “humans”? Probably that was just an infelicity in the wording.
Anyhow, the situation in cog psych is that without a clear way to do measurements of motivation, all we have is descriptive stuff from social psychology. That does not add up to a mechanism.
This looks to me like an uninteresting argument about what the word “best” means. It looks like we both agree that there’s not a superior positive alternative, although it’s fine if you think it’s better to choose the negative alternative of no current theory.
Edited.
No, we really don’t agree. The existing body of cognitive psychology knowledge contains, implicit in it, an outline theory of how motivation works. That theory (be it ever so implicit) is already a whole world better than Powers’ theory, because the latter is so totally arbitrary and inconsistent with the cognitive pscyhology body of knowledge.
(You will ask why: because the latter does not rely on simple control parameters that act like homunculi. But this is a subtle point. Too complex to handle in this context).