CHIP

Homer’s souls

Psyche - dead, spirit

Menos - vitality, action

Thymos - feelings, goals

Noos - meaning from outside world, higher intellectual function

Concepts absent in Homer’s souls

Higher intellectual reasoning

Consciousness

Founders of empiricism and rationalism respectively

Heraclitus and Parmenides

Founder of critical thinking and naturalism

Thales of Melitus

Founders of materialism and determinism

Democritus

Hippocrates four basic elements matter is reduced to

Earth

Air

Fire

Water

Arche and physis

universal element explains nature

greek doctors early typology of temperament

sanguine - extroverted

choleric - courageous

melancholy - neurotic

phlegmtic - introverted

what was socrates interested in finding out

what virtues are

aporia

socrates’ state of enlightened ignorance

socratic method

asking questions built on an initial thesis to refine understanding of original arguments which refute the original point

interrogated expert and concluded he was the wisest

socrates and people’s capacity

in essence everyone possesses the capacity for moral truth

socrates’ dialogues

attempted to show people the virtues they inherently know

plato’s forms

idealised, externally existing perfect examples and ideas

how do we perceive forms

idealism, through our minds which are in contact with forms

plato’s realms

being - ontos - where forms belong to

becoming - phenomena - what a particular object belongs to

how are phenomena and forms revealed

phenomena - sensory info

forms - thought

plato’s rationalism

true knowledge is knowledge of the forms, not from sensory evidence

plato’s nativism

the body is a temporary prison for the soul

knowledge is innate and carried by the soul from its vision of the forms and previous incarnations

plato’s phaedo

eros - appititive soul - genital

thymos - spirited - courage - chest

logos - realm of forms - head

reason

rational cognitive processes which direct our behaviour, divided from irrational passions and desires

aristotle’s empiricism

looked to the world to define what it is

detailed empirical observations significantly influenced biology

knowledge has to be acted upon by reason

aristotle - what 4 things is something defined by

material

essential

efficient

final

aristotle’s monism

the soul is the efficient cause of the body

they are not separable

aristotle’s types of souls

nutritive - plants

sensitive - animals

rational - humans

aristotle, knowledge, and the soul

knowledge directs the rational soul, and is acquired through the perception of individual objects until a generalised universal form is attained

What is the role of Aristotle's special senses in perception?

Special senses are specialized for perceiving the forms of objects externally. They do not function internally and are integrated by the common sense.

What is the function of the "common sense" in Aristotle's theory, and how can it lead to errors?

integrates information from the special senses, requiring an act of judgment. While the senses are not fallible, errors can occur in the judgments made by the common sense.

What were St. Augustine's key philosophical ideas?

• Original Sin: Humans are born tarnished with sin, contrasting Socrates' view of inherent virtue.

• Against Solipsism: Argued against extreme idealism using analogy and inductive reasoning to infer other minds' existence.

What were Avicenna's major contributions during the Islamic Golden Age?

• Authored "The Book of Healing" and "Canon of Medicine."

• Expanded Aristotle’s psychology with seven interior senses and contemplative/practical intellect.

• Emphasized empiricism: starting with sensory evidence and applying reasoning to form abstract concepts.

Avicenna’s contemplative intellect

concerned with higher reasoning, similar to Aristotle's active mind.

engages with pure reason to understand abstract concepts, such as the nature of God.

Avicenna’s practical intellect

handles everyday, mundane reasoning and actions.

Reflects Avicenna's integration of Aristotle's psychology with Islamic thought.

St Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle

• Introduced Aristotle's philosophy to Christian theodicy in Medieval period

• Applied Aristotle's approach to his cosmological argument - the Five Ways - to explain the existence of God

  • God is the unmoved mover at the end of infinite regressing chain of efficient causes

Was Aquinas an empiricist?

• Yes - No innate ideas - knowledge from experience and region

• Knowledge of God is not drawn purely from reason but indirectly from experience

Aquinas’ dualism

Man is made of body and soul, which are separate but bound by the body

The body is needed for existence in and interaction with the physical world

The soul is the principle of life, and responsible for intellectual, moral, and volitional activities

Aquinas’ faculties

vegetative soul - nutrition and growth

sensitive soul - exterior perceptual and internal senses

rational soul - active and passive intellect

appetetive powers - sensitive and rational

Aquinas’ internal senses

Memory

Common sense

Imagination

Estimative sense

Aquinas’ intellects from the rational soul

Active intellect - abstracts forms and knowledge from experience

Passive intellect - tabula rasa, concepts as dispositions

Aquinas’ appetitive powers

Sensitive - concupisciple (approach good and vv) and irasciple (inclination to difficult goals)

Rational - appetitive - approach behaviours and stimuli response

Cartesian Doubt

Demon + Dream

Indiscernibility of identicals

Indiscernibility of identicals

two things the same - what is true of one must be true of the other

we can doubt the existence but not our minds. as they have different properties, they must be different

cartesian substance dualism

mind - consciousness essence

body - spatial extension essence

interact through pineal gland

evaluate descartes’ substance dualism

interaction problem

computers can do uniquely human functions

the mind IS divisible

epiphenomenalism

brain states cause mind states, which dont cause anything themselves

consciousness is reduced to neuroanatomy, we are automata, emotion is caused by neurochemical reactions

the brain has no causal efficacy

strengths of epiphenomenalism

neuropsychology shows some reactions and functions do not require conscious functioning

neurophysiology shows conscious awareness may follow the brain state that causes it (Libet)

limitations of epiphenomenalism

what then is the evolutionary purpose of the mind

how do the minda and body interact

weve seen that the mind might veto behaviour

if the mind cant affect the brain, how do we know about it?

fodor (1989) - its the end of the world

occasionalism

de malbranche

the mental and the physical dont causally affect each other, god intervenes with each apparent interaction creating an illusion of causality

leibniz’ parallelism

god doesn’t interact at each step but establishes two parallel tracks between the mental and physical world

monads are the foundation of reality

qualities of monads (6)

distinct

apperceptive

non-interactive

sufficient reason to believe they must exists

simple and indivisible

pre-established harmony (body, mind, monads)

idealism

bishop george berkleonly mental stuff

reject a mind-independent reality, all ideas are built from perceptions

samuel johnson didnt like this

use common sense - this abolishes the distinctions between real and imaginary objects, and doesnt account for accurately and mistaken perceptions

materialism

all is physical matter

the mental can be reduced to a physical substance

cognitions are a result of brain function

e.g. hippocrates - mind and body aren’t separate

Thomas Hobbes (and Jean Offray de la Mettri to)

materialist - rejected mental substnce

people as automata too

mechanistic view, that actions, thoughts, and feelings are determined

Physicalism

extending materialism to physical concepts which arent matter

advent of neuroscience - dominant in philosophical accounts of the mind

rejects an alternate reality, ignores m-b interaction problem

how does physical brain give rise to consciousness?

double aspectism

baruch spinoza

substance has mental and physical aspect

perceive via sense matter

look within ourselces for thought

substance is good or nature

pansychism

mental terms for some puposes, physical for others

Locke’s empiricism

sensory experience basis for all mind’s content

internal operations innate e.g. thinking, reasoning, remembering

tabula rasa (some ideas not universally agreed upon, babies dont have ideas)

put simple ideas together using combination, relation, generalisation

Leibniz on Locke

tabula rasa is not plausible - the mind is active not passive

senses only offer instances

Humes empiricism

sense experience made up of impressions and ideas

bundle theory

intellectual enquiry made up of relaitons of ideas and matters of fact

discard metaphysics, divinity

Humes bundle theory

our mind is just a bundle of sensations

Humes intellectual inquiry

relation of ideas - to a term, if you can’t the term has no meaning

matters of fact - if we can’t break complex down into components and track each simple idea to an impression it does not exist

all claims about knowledge must be one or the other

Hume’s radical scepticism

there is no proof of

self, religious claims, concepts, causal relationships between events / validity of induction - generalisation from past to future experience

Kant;s synthesis

experience must come from the senses, but the mind must also have some innate knowledge

mind mediates noumena to phenomena

Kant’s making sense of the world

• The mind actively organizes sensory data into coherent experiences.

• This organization occurs through a priori concepts (e.g., causality, time, space)

synthetic vs analytic knowledge

synthetic - provides new knowledge, most empirical e.g. space, time

analytic - tautological, contains own prood, most rational

Natural philosphy

natural world, cosmos, physics, biology

accepts the physicality of brain and mind - matter

rejects descartes dualism

Physiognomy

• Someone's character reflected in face

• Around 19th century - face reflects character, influenced by your life

• Scientific racism

Phrenology

Pseudoscience / science of brain localisation

Commercialised by Fowler brothers

Early example of faculty psychology

• Mind is compartmentalised

• Judgement, compassion, memory, attention, perception, consciousness

Categories still used to define psychology

example of phrenology

• Broca's area - speech production, 1864

• Wernicke's area - speech understanding, 1874

Stargazing in 1700s

• Astronomers at Greenwich recorded transit time of stars using eye-and-ear method

stargazing and measurement

• 1796 - Astronomer Royal Maskelyne sacked assistant for getting times wrong by about 0.8s

• 1822 - Bessel studied personal equation - people produced consistently different times

What are the Physical Laws of the Mind in psychophysics?

The Physical Laws of the Mind aim to find mathematical laws relating psychic quantities (ψ) to physical quantities (ϕ), connecting subjective experience to objective stimuli.

Who were the early proponents of psychophysics?

• Ernst Weber: Known for formulating the first psychophysical laws through experiments like lifting weights and touch sensitivity.

• Gustav Fechner: Weber's student, extended his work to sound and vision and developed key concepts like absolute thresholds and psychophysical scaling.

What methods were used in psychophysics?

• Estimating magnitudes (e.g., brightness, weight).

• Detecting and discriminating stimuli.

• Experiments such as the two-point threshold and just noticeable difference (JND).

Two-point threshold

The smallest distance where two points of touch are felt as separate.

Just noticeable difference (JND)

The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli.

What was Ernst Weber's contribution to psychophysics?

• Conducted experiments with weights and touch.

• Developed the first psychophysical laws, showing response changes logarithmically with intensity.

• Discovered that the two-point threshold varied across the body.

• Highlighted limitations like subjective variability and lack of accounting for individual differences.

• Introduced ideas like double sensation of pain and temperature-weight illusion.

double sensation of pain

slow and fast

temperature-weight illusion.

cold temperature is felt more heavily

What limitations did early psychophysics face?

• Reliance on subjective reports (e.g., "What counts as one point vs. two?").

• Did not account for individual differences or sample size.

• Fechner's philosophical ideas were rejected, though his experimental methods were embraced.

What is the significance of psychophysics in psychology?

• Laid the foundation for experimental psychology.

• Concepts like JND, absolute thresholds, and psychophysical laws are still widely used.

• Paved the way for the first experimental psychology labs (e.g., Leipzig).

What inspired Wundt to establish the first psychology laboratory in 1879?

Failures of astronomers and successes of psychophysicists inspired Wilhelm Wundt to establish psychology as an experimental discipline.

What is Voluntarism, according to Wundt?

Voluntarism emphasizes will (volition) as central to mental activity.

• People actively and voluntarily decide what their minds focus on.

What was Titchener's structural psychology?

Structural psychology aimed to break consciousness into elemental components, adopting an atomic view of mental life.

• Identified elements like pressure, pain, heat, dryness, and more.

• Described how these combined to form ideas, inspired by Locke.

How many elemental qualities of consciousness did Titchener identify?

Titchener cataloged approximately 44,000 elemental qualities of consciousness, most being visual and auditory, while psychophysics focused on touch.

What methods did Titchener use in structural psychology?

Titchener used introspection, like Wundt, but:

• He insisted on consistency, disallowing unpredictable variations.

• Relied on mental imagery but faced issues when some thoughts lacked images.

How did early psychologists study mental life experimentally?

• Early psychologists like Wundt and Titchener used methods from psychophysics and introspection to explore mental life.

• By 1900, psychologists such as Wundt, Titchener, Ebbinghaus, and James had established laboratories and written influential textbooks.

What were Erasmus Darwin's contributions to evolutionary theory?

• Member of the Botanical Society and grandfather of Charles Darwin.

• Inspired by Anaximander's theory of evolution.

• Proposed:

  • “All warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament…continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and delivering down those improvements by generation.”

What were Lamarck's two forces driving animal development?

• Complexifying force: Animals strive for better organization.

• Adapting force: Animals change based on circumstances, passing on useful characteristics to offspring.

What did Darwin learn from Malthus' essay on population?

• Populations grow until they outstrip resources, leading to a struggle for survival.

• Inspired Darwin's idea that only the most adapted organisms survive to reproduce.

How has Darwin influenced psychology?

• Provided empirical evidence for evolution, allowing studies of human and animal behavior to flourish.

• Influenced ethology, comparative psychology, and evolutionary psychology.

• Studied topics like emotion, sexual selection, and language evolution.

What topics are studied in ethology?

• Social groups

• Instinct and aggression

• Learning and habituation

• Mating and sexual selection

What are Tinbergen's Four Questions in ethology?

• Function (adaptation): How does the behavior increase fitness?

• Evolution (phylogeny): How did the behavior evolve?

• Causation (mechanism): What triggers the behavior?

• Development (ontogeny): How does the behavior change over a lifetime?

What were Lorenz’s and von Frisch’s contributions to ethology?

• Lorenz: Studied imprinting, aggression, and species degeneration.

• von Frisch: Discovered the waggle dance in bees and studied their senses, social interactions, and pheromones.

What did Darwin suggest about facial expressions?

• Facial expressions are universal and innate.

• Found in blind/deaf individuals and shared with great apes and other mammals.

What were Francis Galton’s contributions to psychology?

• Coined nature vs nurture.

• Studied heredity and eugenics.

• Discovered statistical concepts like correlation and conducted twin studies.

• Concluded that traits like intelligence are largely inherited.

What was William James’ approach to psychology?

• Focused on the function of consciousness, not its content.

• Emphasized free will, instinct vs choice, and a holistic approach.

• Introduced pragmatism and explored emotions.

What are some Freudian concepts supported or critiqued by modern psychology?

• Hysteric symptoms like anxiety and muscle spasms.

• Seduction theory and dream analysis.

• Some cognitive scientists find support for Freud’s model of the unconscious and dreaming.

Hartley (1800s)

Early neurophysiological theory of the mind

Materialist – there is no separate mental matter, and psychological processes emerge neurologically from the body.

Nerves vibrate to transmit information, giving rise to action

Alexander Bain

Linked associationism philosophy and our actions / behaviours

Psychophysical parallelism

Alexander Bain psychophysical parallelism

mind and body occur together without causal relationship.

Alexander Bain hedonism

pleasurable associations more likely to be repeated.