History of psychology

key dates/ moments

BC-19th century: pre-scientific psychology

1. greek philosophy (Plato/Aristotle) 4th century BC

2. rationalism vs empiricism - Descartes (1600s) vs Loche/Hume (1600-1700)

3. Kant (1700-1800s) integrating rationalism and empiricism

Plato main ideas

• we possess innate knowledge and ideas that our souls got from a heavenly non material world

• strange case of uneducated slave boy who could recognise geometric principles, therefore showing he “unlocked” this potential

• innate knowledge comes from our souls which pre-exist in an ideal world where they have acquired these notions

• the trauma from birth then makes them forget this so they just have to re-remember

Aristotle main ideas

• student of plato

• knowledge is acquired through experience of the world around us

• tabula rasa metaphor - mind and soul is an uninspired wax tablet

the circle 

Plato: innate idea of a perfect circle allows us to recognise imperfect examples in the material world around us as circular 

Aristotle: Imperfect circular forms in the material world around us allow us to develop an abstract idea of a perfect circle

Rationalism

• Descartes, 1600s

• Descartes was philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

• believed there was a dualism. res extensa (matter) and res cogitans (mind/soul)

• body can be explained scientifically but humans have immaterial soul and mind which can only be studied through introspection

• they interact through pineal gland

the argument of poverty stimuli

• the information given is too simple to explain complex ideas we have

• Descartes conducted splendid pioneering anatomical studies of body like eye dissections

• images projected on retina are small but we still see clearly, therefore we must have innate ideas

• reason is the way to true knowledge and allows us to overcome deficits and errors of our senses (rationalism)

Other contributions of Descartes

1. reflex: some behaviours occur without mental control

2. animals work following mechanical laws with no conscious experiences

3. mind can only be known through introspection and reflection

British empiricism against descartes

• Locke, Hume, Berkley (1600s to 1700s)

• no innate ideas, ideas come from sensation and reflection

• all complex ideas come from combination and associations of simple ideas

• beliefs like logical principles are a result of accumulated habits developed in response to accumulated sense experiences (Hume)

Kant

• 1700s to 1800s

• integrating rationalism and empiricism, called constructivism

• knowledge is the interaction between innate mental capacity and material world

• no experience is possible without innate forms of knowledge and vice versa

• philosophical but not scientifical

Innate categories of knowledge (Kant)

space, time, cause, effect

Dietrich Tiedemann

• 1797

• observations mental faculties in the child

• good attempt but did not receive much attention as it was not considered to be a scientific problem

Scientific revolution

• 1500s to 1800s

• astronomy, physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, biology

• 19th century: mind is a function of brain and should be studies scientifically as a a part of material world

• discoveries> cortical localisation of mental function, speed and electric nature of nerve conduction, sensory and motor divisions, sensory nerve specifications

• example: Paul Biocca and localisation of language in the brain as revealed by aphasia