Are we not experimenting then? The rhetorical demarcation of psychology and common sense

Scientific disciplines need both autonomy and alliances with other cultural groups. In order to achieve these twin goals, scientists have to engage in boundary rhetoric and popularize the demarcation of their discipline. In the case of psychology in particular such rhetoric involves a paradoxical role for common sense as rhetorical commonplace, counterpart of psychology and object of study. The boundary rhetoric of two leading figures from the history of Dutch psychology, Gerard Heymans and Johannes Linschoten, is analysed with particular attention to common sense. The implications of a rhetorical perspective for the current debates around folk psychology and lay judgement and inference are discussed.