Lecture 02 - Psychological thinking starts to get organized: the Greek prophets of doubt

Socrates & Plato

When and where did psychology start to get a little more concrete? What were they called if not psychologists?

Greece, 500 BCE

• in early Greece, certain cultural, political and social factors made fertile grounds for Psychology

  • before is was often magical and no organized research

“philosophers” (philosophia = the love of wisdom)

What was the environment like in Greece 500 BCE? What was it called?

knowledge was prized by the public

• no public eduction yet but many willing to pay wise people (philosophers) for instruction

  • philosophy = a new profession

by the era of Socrates, many regular people were interested in education, democracy, logic and speaking, literature and science

The Greek miracle

Who was Socrates? What was he famous for?

470-399 BCE
founder of western philosophy

had no writings

came from modest origins

became a celebrity despite dour appearance and reputation for being very serious

not focused on money → charged little

famous for fundamental truths

How did Socrates die?

Socrates was sentenced to death

• due to corrupting the youth of Athens to think for themselves and don’t be so obedient to the gods and authorities

• believed that they should have some free choice and self-determination in life

What was Socrates’ classic teaching approach?

Socratic dialogues/questioning

What were Socrates’ beliefs?

1, everyone has an inborn rationalism

• everyone is born with reason, logic, mental skills and innate ideas

• a skilled teacher brings these out of you

2. believed that you are able to discover the universal truths by looking within, as they are innate

3. initiated the classic nature vs. nurture

• he was team nature

4. famous phrase: Know Thyself

What did Socrates mean by “being aware of your biases”?

you must know what you are inclined to think or what others think

you need to question why you think this or see this

• this is what allows one to go deeper to the real truths

just because Socrates focused on individualistic introspection didn’t mean he was a relativist who thought that whatever ideas you have are correct

What was Socrates’ notion of the psyche/soul and metaphysics/ethics?

made it more concrete: the human soul is what lets us reason + has a moral condition

• can be healthy or diseased for those who are not wise, self-aware, and focus on external things like money and fame

the soul leaves the body after death but it is not just a neutral life force

knowing yourself is important for reasons beyond happiness but it is imperative for ethical behaviour and happiness

How did Socrates develop ethical behaviour?

Socrates focused on self-development

Socrates argued that ethical behaviour is in your own self-interest: an unexamined life is not worth living

What was the connection between Greek skepticism and the development of psychology?

“you can’t just except what people tell you or what you see in the world”

• you MUST question things and take them deeper

• this eventually lead to philosophy and experimentation (understanding how info is processed by us)

we have ‘filters’ to what we see, hear, smell, think and through understanding these filters we might better understand the ‘real world’

We need to understand ourselves and not rely on things that seem obvious

What were 4 ideas proposed by Socrates that foreshadowed later developments in psychology?

1. idea of self-knowledge which contributed to Freud, CBT, different types of therapy

2. influenced certain psychologists e.g. Carl Jung that specific ideas are in-born

3. Socrates’ trial/death foreshadowed how many philosophers and scientists (getting in trouble for their own thinking)

• tension between religious authorities and psychologists/philosophers

4. many approaches to therapy used (e.g. free association, motivational interviewing, use gentle Socratic questioning)

Who was Plato? What was he famous for? Which people inspired him?

424-347 BCE

son of a wealthy family

considered joining the Sophists

had Socrates as a mentor

together funded The Academy

believer in Socrates: idea that there are some fundamental truths

• believed that while people’s lived reality was important it is often misleading

• real truth only comes from contact with the eternal

also influenced by Pythagoras

What was The Academy?

an intellectual gathering place for people to discuss, debate and learn

What are the three elements of Platonic idealism?

1. appearance - Plato’s term for an individual’s actual conscious experience of something

2. idealism - the notion that more fundamental and ideal forms, or essences, underlie our sensory experiences

3. Allegory of the cave - an example used by Plato to illustrate the difference between appearances and ideal forms

What is the Allegory of the Cave?

• A philosophical thought experiment about the difference between illusion and true reality

1. The cave: represents the physical world of our everyday senses

2. The shadows: represent the illusions, false beliefs, superficial opinions that people mistake for the truth

3. Leaving the cave: the painful, difficult journey of education and philosophy; person learns the true reality of the world

4. Returning to the cave: describes the duty of the enlightened person

• Plato argued that those who discover the truth have a responsibility to go back and help govern society justly, even if the ignorant people mock or reject them

What was an issue with Platonic idealism?

who determines the correctness of the “objective” judge?

what if two people differ in their opinions of true reality?

• does it just come down to who makes the best argument?

What did Plato believe about the soul?

Plato had a distrust of sensory experiences

*this lead early and current psychologists to focus a lot of the senses and how activity in the world (light, sound) is processed by the NS

divided the soul into three parts (called the Tripartite Soul)

What is the Tripartite soul?

believed that the soul is immortal and we have all three parts

• people may have more of one part

  • e.g. soldiers have a lot of spirited/emotional part

1. Rational | Logical

• seeks truth and is swayed by facts/arguments

2. Spirited | Emotional

• how feelings fuel actions

3. Appetitive | Physical Desires

• drives you to eat, have sex, and protect yourself

placed the parts of the soul in the body (anatomical hierarchy)

• argued that this is why we have mixed desires (rational soul can override appetitive part)