Paul Meehl was a person of remarkable genius who made many seminal contributions to psychology and other fields. One of his most important, but less widely known potential contributions is the codevelopment, and the extension and elaboration of meta-science, or the science of science. Meta-science involves applying more rigorous methods (than are usually used) to the study of episodes in the history of science, or the historical track record, in order to address long-standing questions in the philosophy and history of science, aid in the selection of optimally effective methodology, and assist the scientist in higher level and complex integrative judgments (e.g., theory evaluation). Psychologists, given their methodological sophistication, can be major contributors to meta-scientific efforts and to the development of this field.
2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.