Abstract

Philosophers and sport psychologists wrestle with mind-body problems, but with different ones. By denying minds to animals, Descartes widened the traditional gulf between humans and animals to the detriment not only of philosophical but also of scientific thinking about mind. Of the major philosophers, only David Hume dared to put human minds on all fours with animal minds. With few exceptions, sport psychologists have followed Descartes rather than Hume. Failure to appreciate the relevance of animal studies to their discipline causes sport psychologists to trade in vague concepts, questionable measurement instruments, defective methodologies, and truncated theories, and to submit their hypotheses to gerrymandered tests. The author exhorts sport psychologists to embrace Humes touchstone, which rejects as bogus any hypothesis to theory about human minds that does not apply evenhandedly to animals-unless there is compelling evidence that the phenomena under investigation are particular to humans. Verf.-Referat