aristotle history of psychology

Aristotle's De Anima

• By natural philosophy he means learning about the physical world and observing nature such as human or animals, he believed it is critical to understanding reality 

• The soul is learned by observing what people do

Aristotle's view on psychological processes 

• He separated memory, a passive process and recollection which is active, and provided us with an associationist view of memory 

• He argued that thoughts are rooted in perceptions, thinking is rooted in perception but thinking may be flaw

Aristotle

• Was an empiricist who approach the problem of casualty in 4 ways (material, efficient, formal, final) 

• He argued for hylomorphism 

All material objects are made of matter (hyle) and form (morphe)

Aristotle's theories of biology, cognition

founded empirical biology and connected it to cognition through hylomorphism, viewing the soul as the active, functional form of a living physical body

arisotlots movitation in his views on motivation and ethics

Nicomachean ethics and Eudemian ethics 

• He recognized the importance of pleasure and pain in human motivation 

Yet he advocated a “golden mean” of action between the extremes 

What four factors did Aristotle say affected human ability to achieve good?

• individual differences, habit, social supports, freedom of choice 

Nicomachean ethics

Conceptualized human character, emotion, and rationality as an integrated system directed toward eudaimonia (human flourishing).

Eudemian ethics 

investigates what makes human life worth living and defines happiness as the active exercise of moral and intellectual virtue

Ethical development

• Aristotle believed that good is achieved through being good, in other words possession of virtue is achieved by practice of virtuous behavior such as:

• Justice, temperance, courage, reason, practical wisdom

aristotle believed that the heart

was the organ involved in memory and that the brain cooled down the blood

what is the goal of ethical development?

human flourishing or eudaimonia

after Aristotle (death ~ 322 BCE)

psychology thought changed after aristotle

• Thought transitioned from a pursuit of knowledge to a pursuit of gratification

and a good life.

Aristotle’s four causes were questioned by the new celestial mechanics

Material, efficient, formal, final

• In Aquinas’ synthesis, God was the final cause of

everything

• Equations described the movement of objects