Historical perspectives study guide

Zeitgeist

Dominant perspective or ideology of a certain time period

interactionist dualism

Rational decisions can lead to physical actions

Events in the physical world are perceived by the mind

Mind and body interact through a single pathway

Special role of the pineal gland in the human nervous system

Psychophysical parallelism

the theory that mental and bodily events are perfectly coordinated, without any causal interaction between them

Reductionism

the idea that complicated behaviors and phenomena can be better explained by “reducing” them into small, simple pieces.

Epistemology

the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, origin, and limitations of knowledge

Introspection

the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings.

Kinesthesis

the perception of body movements and detecting changes in body position and movements

Psychophysics

quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce

Teleological explanation

the position that certain phenomena are best understood and explained in terms of their purposes rather than their causes.

Paradox of the basins

Locke's observation that warm water will feel either hot or cold depending on whether a hand is first placed in hot water or cold water. Because water cannot be hot and cold at the same time, temperature must be a secondary, not a primary, quality.

Principle of association

the idea that a large part of learning is by putting things together that happen to be experienced together in the same space and time

Pineal gland

René Descartes thought that the ____________ is the part of the body with which the soul is most immediately associated.

Monads

Invisible units that make up the universe

Hedonism

“Good” and “evil” are nothing more than the experiences of pleasure and pain

Nativism

is the view that certain skills or abilities are "native" or hard-wired into the brain at birth.

Place theory of hearing

suggests that the cochlea has specialized regions that respond differently to determine different frequencies

Double aspect monism

the view that the mental and the physical are two aspects of, or perspectives on, the same substance.

Categorical imperative

commands or moral laws all persons must follow, regardless of their desires or extenuating circumstances

Psychic determinism

a type of determinism that theorizes that all mental processes are not spontaneous but are determined by the unconscious or preexisting mental complexes

Hobbes’ Leviathan

Argues that When societies first began to develop, the members needed to feel secure and safe. The idea that people make an informal agreement with each other to make sure the rights and property of individuals is safe guarded

Unconscious inference

according to Helmholtz, the idea that perceptual adaptation and other perceptual phenomena might result from a process in which there is an unconscious adoption of certain logical rules

Tabula rasa

John Locke described the mind with this. Meaning blank slate

Physical realism

Physical objects stimulate the sense organs and cause the mind to form ab accurate representation of physical reality

Apperception

one level above perception. The conscious awareness of something

Descartes

Creator of the theory of a clockwork universe

Interactionist dualism

What view did Descartes believe when it came to the mind/body problem

Physical objects are not distinct from our perceptions of them

Berkeley disagreed with Locke’s theory of representative realism because he believed that

The resemblance between physical objects and our perceptions of them cannot be verified

Hume rejected Locke’s realist theory of perception because he believed that

Leibniz

Came up with the idea of monads

Psychophysical parallelism

What did Leibniz believe in regards to the mind-body problem?

Berkeley

Denied existence of matter. Did not believe in abstract ideas

Mental monism

What did Berkeley believe in regards to the mind-body problem?

Hume

Practiced radical skepticism

Spinoza

Believed that the mental and physical were different views on the same thing (dual aspect monism)

Kant

Came up with the ideas of a priori and a posteriori as well as analytic and synthetic to view cause and effect

Locke

Believed that there were no innate ideas.

Hobbes

Material monist who believed mechanistic principles guided the universe

Molyneux

Brought up an idea to ponder. If a blind man were to suddenly gain vision, would he be able to tell what things are just by looking at them?

Gassendi

Material monist who believed in observation based science and induction and deduction

Bacon

Promoted science and the inductive method. Avoided subjectivity by repeated, systematic observations

Rationalism

The belief that knowledge can only be attained by mental activity

Empiricism

The philosophical belief that all knowledge is derived from experience of the outside world

Inductive method

A universal statement is made from individual observations. This mode of reasoning cannot guarantee the truth of the conclusion

Deductive reasoning

If the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true, following the rules of logic

the newly sighted person would fail to point to the cube and call it a cube.

Locke’s view of Molyneux’s question

The newly sighted person would be able to point to the cube and call It a cube

Descartes’ view of molyneux’s question

Distance is a correlation of the ideas of sight and touch

What did Berkeley think of distance perception

Which way the pineal gland leans makes us see the distance of objects

What was Descartes’ view on distance perception

Primary qualities

Perceived attributes resemble the physical objects that cause them

Secondary qualities

Perceived attributes do not correspond to any physical properties

Vitalism

Living things share a vital force that cannot be explained by the physical sciences

Mechanism

The same laws apply to both living and non living things

There is no link between cause and effect. We perceive cause and effect because of habitual association and a feeling of necessity

Hume’s view on causality

He thought that thoughts of cause and effect weren’t caused solely from repeated observations but also from innate thoughts we have

What was Kant’s view of cause and effect?

A priori statements

A way of gaining knowledge without appealing to any particular experiences

A posteriori statements

A method of acquiring knowledge by appealing to some particular experiences

Analytic judgment

The truth of a statement is determined by an analyses of the subject

Synthetic judgment

The truth of the statement cannot be known by analysis of the subject alone

Yes the blind man would be able to because Leibniz believed in innate ideas

What was Leibniz’s view of Molyneux’s problem

Believed warmth to be secondary quality and that is why

What did Locke think of the paradox of the basins?

Rejected Locke’s ideas of primary and secondary qualities and believed objects are a combination of perceived qualities

What was Berkeley’s view on the paradox of the basins?

Helmholtz

believed that there was something different from living things vs non living things and you can’t apply fields like physics to biology. Did studies of nerve conduction

Optical illusions, experiments with distorted lenses, motion pictures, rail tracks seeming to converge in the distance

What are 4 things that led Helmholtz to come up with his theory of unconscious inference

Donders

Presented a series of stimuli and asked subjects to respond to only one, specified beforehand. The extra time provided a measure of the mental act of discrimination

Subjects pressed a button in response to tactile stimulus

What did Helmholtz do to measure the speed of nerve conduction?

Fourier analysis

Margematical decomposition of any complex waveform into simple sinusoidal components

Fourier synesthesis

Any complex waveform can be reconstructed (synthesized) from sine waves

Simple reaction time

involves a driver making one response to a single stimulus

Choice reaction time

involves a person distinguishing among two or more stimuli and possibly having one or more responses to make