Post-Aristotelian, Medieval, and Modern Psychology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, figures, and philosophical schools from post-Aristotelian, medieval, and early modern psychology.

Epicurean

A post-Aristotelian philosophical attitude where one finds happiness in friendship.

Skeptic

A post-Aristotelian philosopher who suspends judgment in order to stay clear of any attachment.

Cynic

A post-Aristotelian philosopher who is disdainful of the flourish of civilization that brings misery in its trail.

Stoic

A post-Aristotelian philosopher who is seemingly indifferent to all pleasure and pain because s/he lives according to the rule of reason.

St. Augustine

The first medieval philosopher to show a keen knowledge of human psychology, author of Confessions, and follower of Platonist philosophy.

Innatism

The theory that there are ideas with which human beings are born, carried over from the philosophy of Plato.

Anthropocentric

Human-centered or person-centered, describing the Modern Age in contrast to the theocentric Middle Ages.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Renaissance author of Oration on the Dignity of Man who described the human being as having an indeterminate nature and flexibility like a chameleon.

Rene Descartes

Philosopher known as the Father of Modern Thought who established certitude through his method of universal doubt.

Universal Doubt

Descartes' method of doubting everything possible to overthrow former opinions and uncover the foundation for solid knowledge.

Cogito ergo sum

The foundational certitude formulated by Descartes meaning 'I think, therefore I am.'

Cogito

The 'I think' or 'thinking I' identified by Descartes as pure consciousness, mind, and spiritual soul.

Rationalism

A school of modern thought featuring Spinoza and Leibniz that makes the 'thinking I' or reason the fulcrum of knowledge.

Empiricism

A school of modern philosophy holding that experience is the sole source of all knowledge.

John Locke

Empiricist philosopher who rejected innate ideas and proposed that the mind is initially a white paper or empty cabinet.

Sensation

One of Locke's two sources of ideas, derived from external sensible objects conveyed into the mind by the senses.

Reflection

One of Locke's two sources of ideas, obtained by the mind noticing and considering its own internal operations.

Associationism

The psychological approach describing how the mind repeats, compares, and unites simple ideas to form complex ideas.

George Berkeley

Empiricist bishop who argued that sensible qualities and objects cannot exist without being perceived by a mind.

Esse est percipi

Latin dictum asserted by George Berkeley meaning 'To be is to be perceived.'

David Hume

Empiricist philosopher who stated that ideas are feebler copies of lively impressions and argued that causal reasoning leads to skepticism.

Custom (or Habit)

Identified by David Hume as the great guide of human life that leads us to connect repeated events as cause and effect.

Skepticism

The philosophical position to which empiricism ultimately leads according to Hume, where empirical claims yield probability rather than absolute certainty.