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Lecture 3 – Predecessors of psychology: 17/18th century developments
The term ‘psychology’ has been first used (1500) long before the birth of psychology
(1879).
Since the end of the Middle Ages there has been an increase in individualism, mainly due to:
• Increased complexity of society
urbanization and industrialization > diversity in occupations > competition > need
to position the self relative to others.
• Increased control by the state
• Christian emphasis on individuality
• Inventions
mirror (makes people more self-aware), books (novels depicting characters in
increased depth), letters (exchange and express ideas/feelings).
Philosophy
Rationalism
• Nativism (innate knowledge)
• Reason as source of knowledge
• Research method: deductive reasoning
• Application: logic, mathematics
• Proponents: Plato, Descartes
Empiricism
• Tabula rasa (no innate knowledge)
• Perception as source of knowledge
• Research method: observation, experimentation, inductive reasoning
• Application: natural sciences
• Proponents: Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, Berkeley, Hume (natural philosophers)
, Extremes of Empiricism and Rationalism
Idealism - extreme of rationalism
Human knowledge is a construction of the mind, which does not necessarily correspond to
the external world. ‘It is all one grand illusion’.
Realism - extreme of empiricism
Human knowledge tries to uncover properties of the world. Truth of knowledge comes
from comparing it with the real world.
KEY FIGURES
Descartes
Lives in Amsterdam for 20 years and writes the best works there.
In the period there was a lot of knowledge built upon shaky assumptions, which were weak since they originated from
authority.
Descartes reasons as follows:
If we start from scratch, we are left with what we can doubt. Doubt is the building block of
knowledge: method of doubt. He doubts both reasoning (we make errors) and perception
(can be deceiving).
‘I doubt’ is true with absolute certainty > so there is something that is doubting > I call that
something ‘the mind’ > I cannot doubt the existence of this mind > the mind is not material.
After all, you can doubt anything that is material > the mind must then exist separately
from the body: dualism
The doubt is the method, not the goal: he uses it to get to the knowledge
Him concluding that thing about the mind being immaterial/separate from the body is faulty reasoning.
He goes further:
I doubt > I am not perfect > so where do I get the idea of perfection? > I could have made up
less perfect things, but not more perfect things > the idea of perfection must have been
placed in me by something more perfect than me (innate) > whoever placed that idea of
perfection in me must have in itself all the perfection that I have ideas of (God) > since god
is not perceived, the idea of god must be innate (proves the existence of god)
Because god is perfect, it will not fool us: the world we perceive outside of us exists.
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