The pursuitworthiness of majority world psychology

Abstract

The recent pluralist turn in philosophy of science claims that we ought to support and maintain multiple epistemic frameworks for learning about phenomena. This position is especially clear in Massimi’s Perspectival Realism, which argues that it is only by having more than one perspective on a phenomenon that the potential for reliable knowledge about it emerges. This paper applies Perspectival Realism to the case of psychology—with a focus on developmental psychology—arguing first, that the discipline has pursued frameworks almost exclusively within a Minority World perspective, and second, that the lack of alternative perspectives precludes the field from knowing if its methods of knowledge production are reliable. To redress this problem, it advocates the pursuit of Majority World psychological frameworks, and points towards ways in which this could be achieved.