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Summary whole course resume - History and Methods of Psychology (FSWP2-032-A)
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Problem 1Plato (427-347 BC) nativist & rationalist
Knowledge
How can it be justified?
Truth = permanent and rationally justifiable
Perception with the senses is NOT the path to knowledge
According to Plato, truth was in the realm of Forms (not in the material world), thus
it couldn’t be accessed by material senses that reflected the material world
Theory of Forms
Reasoning makes reality reveal to the soul Rationalism
Forms = eternal exist outside the physical realm of Becoming
Nonphysical objects, perfect
Exist fixed and universally outside human minds
Allegory of the cave
Human condition humans are imprisoned in an imperfect body, forced to look by
imperfect eyes copies of the Forms, illuminated by the sun
Plato asks us to abandon the ordinary world and undertake the difficult journey of
escaping the cave and go towards the better world of the Forms
Find truth
Ladder of love: Being drawn to good
Love of beauty = easiest path to world of Forms
Seek immortality of the soul not procreation but preservation of ideas
Intellectual heirs instead of physical heirs
Beauty in the soul is more valued than in the body
Learning as Remembering
Souls are born in heaven, in the realm of Forms, and see all the Forms before their
first incarnation
Nativism character and knowledge are innate
Living is a process of recollection of the knowledge of the Forms we saw when
our soul was born
Three souls
Rational head
Spirited motivated by glory and fame
Desiring irrational wants, self-interest
Reason is motivated by justice
Homunculus problem
Little man inside our heads rational soul
Does this little man also have a little man inside his head? Where does it end?
,Aristotle (384 -322 BC) empiricist
Overview
Empiricism
Observer of nature
Concerned with discovering what is natural
Rejected dualism
Philosophy of explanation
Four ways to explain things and events
Form what makes a thing what it is (not mystical anymore)
Formal cause = defines what something is in its essence
Efficient cause = how things come into existence or what are they made of
Final cause = purpose for which a thing exists (soul)
Matter sheer, physical existence (material cause)
Form cannot exist without matter
Potentiality and actuality
Everything in the universe has potentiality and actuality
Aristotle sees purpose (final cause) everywhere in nature, including non-living things
Psychology
Soul and body
Psychology = study of the soul
Soul = final cause of an organism
Aristotle rejected separation of soul and body
Without soul, there is no body and vice versa
Three levels of soul
Nutritive soul plants
Sensitive soul animals
Rational soul humans
The rational soul
Knowledge is acquired first by the perception of objects, ending in general
knowledge of forms it is a psychological process
Sense perception = starting point of knowledge
Has to do with form, not matter
First stage reception of aspects of an object’s form = special senses
Second stage information processed by special senses is passed on to
other faculties = interior senses (can be flawed)
Common sense = heart
Imagination
Memory (recall of previous experiences in our earthly lives)
Mind
Rational part of the human soul
Unique to humans
Function acquire knowledge of abstract universals
Motivation
Natural goal of human life = human flourishing only one best way of life
Human good turns out to be the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue
Ethical focus = character (wisdom, courage) Morality is a matter of practical
reason
, Descartes (1596-1650) dualist
The brain has the power to think mind is governed by the search of truth
Psychology of Descartes
Aim = show that a number of psychophysiological functions that had been recognized
as corporal could be accounted for in such way that did not involve matter sentient
Mind vs. body
Human soul think
Separation of humans and animals differ humans from animals
Experience humans posses reflective, thoughtful awareness of their own
awareness and animals don’t
Behaviour because of thought, humans can have more flexible behaviour than
animals (e.g.: respond to novel situations by thinking about them)
Language unique to humans, critical for self-awareness
There is an innate human language of the mind
Philosopher
Aim = discover/create methodological rules that should guide scientific thinking
Separate it from religious dogma and mysticism
Radical doubt until finding something so true that couldn’t be doubted
Force himself to find good reasons from believing with certainty in things
He found that the one thing he cannot doubt is his own experience as a self-
conscious thinking entity one cannot doubt that one doubts
Doubting = thinking = existing I think, therefore I am
Radical dualism soul and body are completely different
Do not share matter or form
Two worlds
Objective, scientifically knowable, mechanical-material world
Subjective world of human consciousness through introspection
Cartesian theater where consciousness experience is presented to the mind
Psychology of consciousness
Consciousness = collection of sensations projected to the mind that can be
reflectively examined by oneself
Psychological science = reflective, introspective study of sensation qua sensations
splitting off experience from the self and making it a thing to be studied
consciousness = subjective
difficulties
homunculus problem
how do soul and body interact? he proposed that the pineal gland was the
location of the cartesian theater and that it made possible the soul-body
interaction, but brain studies proved it wrong
problem of the other minds how are we sure that my soul is not the only
one in the universe?
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