Summary of the literature, videos, tutorials, and exercises for problems 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of course 2.3 History and Methods of Psychology. Notes for PROBLEM 3 ARE NOT included. Some of the literature might differ as this is based on literature used during online tutorials.
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Learning Goals
• Who are these philosophers and what are their theories?
o What do they say about knowledge and the mind?
• What are the differences between the different views?
Terms
• Dualist: there is another reality (God, heaven, the world of ideas) we cannot see, in addition
to the reality we witness
• Empiricist: convinced knowledge is based on perception and the senses.
- Hardcore empiricist do not even think cognitive processing is necessary for acquiring
knowledge e
- Other empiricists think cognitive processing it is helpful in the acquisition of knowledge
• Idealist: thinks the truth consists of ideas and is not a physical thing. Idealist is also monist
• Monist: there is only one form of existence, material or ideal
• Materialist: believes everything is matter, even psychological processes. Also a reductionist
• Reductionist: knowledge happens through senses.
- Real hard core rationalists perception is unnecessary
- Other rationalists knowledge is acquired through reasoning about sensory
perception/perceptual observation
• Nativist: true knowledge is innate, present upon birth. Many nativists are hard-core rationalists.
• Rationalist:
THE GREAT CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHIES
Plato: The Quest For Perfect Knowledge
• Nativist: innate
• Rationalist
• Forms = idealist
• Some kind of dualism in his theory à not the classic dualist due to body mind problem
Cognition: What is knowledge
• Socrates tried to find general definition of virtue
, • According to Greeks: can set humans apart due to their capacity for abstract knowledge
compared to animals who respond only to the concrete here and now
• first thinker to enquire into how knowledge is possible and how it may be justified.
§ Created epistemology (study of knowledge) by citing observations
Truth:
• what seem true based on today’s data may be overturned by tomorrows
• Truth had to be permanent and knowable with certainty
• has two properties
o It has to be true in all times and places à unchangeably true (knowledge of it could
not derive from material sense reflecting the changing material world)
o It must be rationally justifiable
Mathematics and the theory of the forms:
§ to find truth is through logical reasoning à rationalism
§ inspired by the Pythagorean theorem: proof given by every right-angled triangle
§ helped reconcile being and becoming & provided a solution for Socrates questions about
virtue
§ logical but relies on things that may not be proven
§ built on what Socrates said à every just act resembles the form of justice, courage, beauty
and justice (resemble the form of the good)
o wanted to find out what virtue was and teach it to people, regardless of social opinion
so they could act upon their knowledge
§ e.g. the idea of beauty differs in different cultures
§ metaphysical realism: the forms really exist as nonphysical objects à
eternal, existing outside the physical realm of becoming
Imagining the forms:
Metaphors for the forms:
• The smile of the sun – (illumination by the good)
• the forms of the good is to the intelligible world of the forms what the sun is to the
physical world of objects.
• the sun stands for the good
• we need the form of the good to make it possible to see and know about the forms à
helps us see clearly
• The metaphor of the line – (Hierarchy of opinion and knowledge)
• The smile of the sun followed by a line divided into 4 unequal sections who’s length =
degree of truth
, • Divided into 2 larger sections:
o the lower and shorter sections stand for the world of appearances and
opinions, beliefs without proof à based on perception
o The higher and larger section stands for the world of the forms and provable
knowledge about them
1. world of appearances line
§ words of imagining (shortest segment). lowest level of cognition à
dealing with mere images of concrete objects
§ belief: looking at objects themselves à visible things
2. Intelligible world
§ Thinking: more opinion to real knowledge à mathematical knowledge.
(sometimes imperfect because there are mathematical proofs rest upon
assumptions that cannot be proven.
§ Intelligence or knowledge:
• The Allegory of The Cave: The Prison of Culture
o Imagining people imprisoned in a deep cave chained in such a way they look only at
the back of the wall cave. There is a fire behind them that casts a shadow on the people
passing by. For the prisoners, the shadows of artifacts would constitute their only
reality. If the prisoner were released, they would have to give up their familiar reality
for the greater reality of the fire and statues à What if he returned to the cave knowing
the truth? Would others believe him?
o Soul is victim to the conventional beliefs of the society à escape through philosophy
• The ladder of love: being drawn to the Good
o Love of beauty = easiest path from the world to the forms
o Women were not citizens or warriors because they were physically weak, only vehicles
of procreations, out of sight of men, slaves, did chores
o only women allowed into a symposium were the most expensive prostitutes, the
hetaera
1. To love one beautiful body
, § the first rung of the ladder = sexual love steered in right direction by philosophical
guide à begins by going to beautiful bodies
§ Citizens would take young boys who just entered puberty and be their mentor
(sometimes the relationship would last throughout life)
§ Homosexual relationships also formed among women due to the neglect from men
and those men were rarely at home
§ In the conception of life in the symposium love of women was inferior to
homosexual love à leads to children
§ Feared women à seen to pull their eyes from better things such as politics, war,
philosophy.
2. Learning to recognize that the beauty on anybody whatever is akin to that on
another body
§ He is constituted a lover of all beautiful bodies relaxes the vehemence for one
§ beauty in souls is more to be valued than in the body
§ introduces student to other beauties such as art, music, math, philosophy
How to proceed in matters of love: one beautiful body à two bodies à all beautiful bodies
à beautiful practices à beautiful studies à arrives in the end at that study à no end
o in the republic, the ladder of love is elaborated into form of education
Learning as remembering knowledge is within us
• Idea of reincarnation: souls born in heaven and see the forms before their first incarnation à
future fate of a soul depends on how virtuous a life it led on earth and at death souls are
brought to judgement
• The wicked = pay sins beneath the Earth and may come back as beasts
• The virtuous (philosophers) = ascend to heaven, see the forms again, live an honorable life
• The less virtuous = ascend less high in heaven and reincarnate into a less human
• Knowledge is innate à carried by the soul and it already knew everything before you were
born
- See all the forms but you have to relearn it in the real world
Motivation: why do we act as we do?
• Republic: virtue of innate greatness of soul and the academic education it merits.
1. The guardians: (the elite) had access to education (study of philosophy only for the
mature +30) have the rational soul
2. Auxiliaries (aid the guardians by being soldiers) have the spirited soul
3. Productive class à most of the citizens. have the desiring soul
• Class membership determined by which soul rules each citizen
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