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#1 HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY mental itself, or an illusion created
by the mind
- Materialism= holds that only
the physical is real, and that the
Literature Tip: Hergenhahn; Thorne & Henley
mental can be reduced to the
Learning Goal: What were the main views of the different philosophers physical. -> Reductionism
(PreDiscussion) about the human mind & knowledge? Nativism -> true knowledge is innate & Plato, Aristotle,
present upon birth Descartes, Locke
Rationalism -> knowledge happens trough Plato, Aristotle,
reason Descartes
Determinism -> everything that occurs is based Aristotle, Hume
-> hard-core: perception is
on the laws of nature; everything is
unnecessary
predetermined based on what
-> normal: knowledge is acquired
already has happened -> you can
through reasoning about sensory
predict outcomes if you have
perception
enough information
Dualism -> there is another reality (God, Plato, Descartes
heaven etc.) in addition to the
reality we can perceive PLATO (ca. 427 -347 B.C)
-> body & mind are independent - his writings can be divided into two periods
entities
- he wished to find something permanent that could be object of knowledge
Empiricism -> knowledge is based on Aristotle, Locke, Hume
-> his search carried him far beyond Socrates’ essence
perception & the senses
-> hard-core: cognitive processes
aren’t necessary for acquiring - was a nativist (=the truth ultimately arrived at was inborn) & a rationalist (=
knowledge stressed mental operations as a means of arriving at the truth) & an idealist (=
-> normal: cognitive processes can real world doesn’t exist) & a dualist.
help
1. Period
Monism -> all is one – there is only one Plato(Idealist)
= reported the thoughts & methods of his teacher, Socrates
form of existence
- Idealism= holds that the 2. Period
mind is all that exists (i.e. the only = combined the Socratic method with mystical Pythagorean philosophy
existing substance is mental), and -> mathematical tradition
that the external world is either
1
,Theory of Forms reality
-> the world of knowledge, contains forms or ideas (= the universe is known - the escaped prisoner sees the real objects responsible for the shadows in the
only trough reason) & the world of opinion, consists of the changing particulars cave and, thus, embraces true knowledge – after this experience an effort is
which is conveyed by our senses-> external stimuli (senses are inaccurate) made to steer others away from ignorance & toward wisdom
= everything in the empirical world is a manifestation of a pure form (idea) that
Reminiscence Theory of Knowledge
exists in abstract
- tries to answer how one comes to know the forms if they cannot be known
-> objects are inferior manifestations of pure forms
through experience
e.g.: encountering a cat/dog – are inferior copies of an abstract idea of
- most mystical aspect
“catness”
- the only way to arrive at true knowledge is to ignore sensory experiences and
- form (“catness”) has an existence separate from its individual manifestations
focus on the contents of the mind
- knowledge could only be attained through reason & not trough
= all knowledge is innate and can only be attained through introspection (= the
perceptions/external stimuli
searching of one’s inner experiences)
Anamnesis
- sensory experiences can only remind one of what was already known
= recollection of information we already possess in order to learn to
-> all knowledge comes from reminiscence (= from remembering the
understand & appreciate the perfect form
experiences the soul had before entering the body)
Analogy of the Divided Line/ Ranks of thinking
Nature of the Soul
= attempting to gain knowledge by examining the empirical world via sensory
- believed soul had a 1. rational component that was immortal and two other
experiences – doomed to ignorance/opinion (true knowledge involves grasping
irrational components:
the forms themselves – can only be done by rational thought)
2. The courageous (= varied emotions) 3. The appetitive (= needs such
- Imagining (= lowest form of understanding because it’s based on images)
as hunger, thirst, sex) = were part of the body -> mortal
- beliefs don’t constitute knowledge
- these three components were almost always in a conflict (like Freud)
- mathematical knowledge (=not highest type of knowledge because it’s
-> when wanting to attain knowledge, humans must suppress needs &
applied to the solution of practical/empirical problems)
concentrate on rational pursuits (e.g. introspection)
- embracing the forms themselves (highest form of thinking/knowledge – true
-> when a persons’ rational soul dominates isn’t impulsive – his/her life is
knowledge results only from an understanding of the abstract forms)
dominated by moral principles & future goals instead of the immediate
- the “form of the good” (=highest form of wisdom because it encompasses all
satisfaction of biological/emotional needs
other forms & shows their interrelatedness; makes all other forms knowable; is
Utopia Forms:
equated with God)
- dominant appetitive aspect = workers, slaves
Allegory of the Cave - dominant emotional aspect = soldiers
= represents humans who confuse the shadows of sense experiences with
2
,- dominant reasonal aspect = philosopher-kings Causation & Teleology
(whether one was determined to be one of this was a matter of inheritance) to understand anything we must know 4 causes
1. Material Cause (= the kind of matter of which an object is made, e.g.:
-> created a rudimentary theory of personality
a statue is made of marble)
Sleep & Dreams 2. Formal Cause (= the particular form/pattern of an object)
-> while awake – some better in rationally controlling appetites – but during sleep their appetites
3. Efficient Cause (= the force that transforms the matter into a certain
manifest themselves
- quite similar to Freud
form)
4. Final Cause (= the purpose for which an object exists)
Plato’s Legacy - Teleology
- did little to promote science & much to inhibit it = everything has a purpose (can be either a conscious function
- created dualism that divided the human into a body which was material & or a built-in one
imperfect & a mind/soul which contained pure knowledge - Entelechy
-> immortal rational soul = purpose; everything in nature has a function built into it
- believed that the categories of things in nature remain fixed with a grand
hierarchy (denied evolution)
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C) -> scala naturae (= nature is arranged in a hierarchy ranging from
- son of a court physician neutral matter to the unmoved mover(= pure actuality & is the cause
- it’s assumed that he received training in medicine of everything in nature; gives all natural objects their purposes))
- one of Plato’s most brilliant student = all objects in nature have a purpose & nature itself has a purpose – highly
- founded the world’s first university (lyceum) teleological
- the first philosopher that extensively treat many topics that later became part
of psychology (he covered memory, sensation, sleep, dreams, geriatrics, Hierarchy of Souls
learning) - soul gives life, thus, all living things possess a soul
- but also made contributions to every branch of knowledge - three types of souls – a living things’ potential is determined by that
- the last human to know everything that was knowable during his lifetime 1. Vegetative (nutritive) soul (= is possessed by plants; allows
- followed the Hippocratic, biological tradition growth, assimilation of food, & reproduction)
2. Sensitive Soul (= possessed by animals not plants; also possesses a
- believed that the mind must be employed before knowledge can be attained sensitive soul sense, responds to environment, experiences pleasure
(=rationalism) but that the object of rational thought was the information ‘ & pain, and have a memory)
furnished by the senses (=empiricism) – but was more of a rationalist, but also a 3. Rational Soul (= possessed by humans; provides all functions of the
nativist & determinist previous ones and also allows thinking/rational thought)
3
, - believed that the soul was immortal, but is unable to carry knowledge from life -> postulated an inner potential in humans that may or may not be reached ->
to life first self-actualization theory
Sensation Memory & Recall
= isolated experience -> as a result of sense perception
- perception is explained by the motion of objects that stimulate one of the Remembering
senses = spontaneous recollection of something that had been previously
-> each of the five senses was maximally sensitive to movements in a certain experienced
medium Recall
- believed that we could trust our senses to yield an accurate representation of = involves an actual search for a past experience
the environment -> in conjunction with laws of association
-> sensory experience was a necessary, but not a sufficient, element in the
Laws of Association
attainment of knowledge
-> first attempt for cognitive psychology
Common Sense - of contiguity
= synthesized experience = states that when we think of something, we also tend to think of
= a mechanism that coordinated the information from all the senses things that were experienced along with it
- assumed to be located in the heart - of similarity
-> was supposed to synthesize sensory experience (making it more = thinking of something similar
meaningful) - of contrast
= thinking of the opposite
Passive Reason
- of frequency
= utilization of synthesized experience
= the more often experiences occur together, the stronger will be their
= involved the utilization of synthesized experience for getting along
association
effectively in everyday life
-> associationism (= the belief that one or more laws of association can be
-> didn’t result in understanding
used to explain things / the phenomenon of memory)
Active Reason
Mistakes
= abstraction of principles/essences from synthesized experiences
// assigned thinking & common sense to the heart
= abstraction of first principles from one’s many experiences
// main function of brain- to cool the blood
-> highest form of thinking
// denied evolution
- acting in accordance with one’s nature – caused pleasure
// earth is center of the universe
- source of greatest pleasure
// justified slavery & argued that males are superior to females
4
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